Getty QB Shane Buechele of the Southern Methodist Mustangs
The SMU Mustangs will kick off their 2020 season against the Texas State Bobcats at Bobcat Stadium in San Marcos, Texas.
The game starts at 4:30 p.m. ET and will be televised on ESPN. But if you don’t have cable, here’s how to watch a live stream of the game online:
Heavy may earn an affiliate commission if you sign up via a link on this page
FuboTV
You can watch a live stream of ESPN and 100-plus other TV channels on FuboTV, which you can test out with a seven-day free trial right here:
Once signed up for FuboTV, you can watch SMU vs Texas State live on the FuboTV app, which is available on your Roku, Roku TV, Amazon Fire TV or Firestick, Apple TV, Chromecast, Xbox One, Samsung Smart TV, Android TV, iPhone, Android phone, iPad or Android tablet.
You can also watch the game on your computer via the FuboTV website.
If you can’t watch live, FuboTV also comes with 500 hours of cloud DVR space, as well as a 72-hour look-back feature, which allows you to watch the race on-demand within three days of its conclusion, even if you don’t record it.
Vidgo
You can watch a live stream of ESPN and 65+ other TV channels on Vidgo, which you can try with a free seven-day trial:
Once signed up for Vidgo, you can watch SMU vs Texas State live on the Vidgo app, which is available on your Roku, Roku TV, Amazon Fire TV or Firestick, Apple TV, Chromecast, Android TV, iPhone, Android phone, iPad or Android tablet.
You can also watch the game on your computer via the Vidgo website.
Sling TV
You can watch a live stream of ESPN and 30-plus other TV channels via Sling TV’s “Sling Orange” bundle. It comes with a free 3-day trial, but if you bypass that, you can get it for $20 for the first month (normally $30), and get Showtime, Starz and Epix included for free:
Once signed up for Sling TV, you can watch SMU vs Texas State live on the Sling TV app, which is available on your Roku, Roku TV, Amazon Fire TV or Firestick, Apple TV, Chromecast, Xbox One, Samsung Smart TV, LG Smart TV, Android TV, airTV Mini, Oculus, Portal, iPhone, Android phone, iPad or Android tablet.
You can also watch the game on your computer via the Sling TV website.
If you can’t watch live, Sling TV comes included with 10 hours of cloud DVR.
Hulu With Live TV
You can watch a live stream of ESPN and 65+ other TV channels via Hulu With Live TV, which comes with a seven-day free trial:
Once signed up for Hulu With Live TV, you can watch SMU vs Texas State live on the Hulu app, which is available on your Roku, Roku TV, Amazon Fire TV or Firestick, Apple TV, Chromecast, Xbox One, Xbox 360, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Samsung Smart TV, LG Smart TV, Android TV, iPhone, Android phone, iPad or Android tablet.
You can also watch the game on your computer via the Hulu website.
If you can’t watch live, Hulu with Live TV also comes with 50 hours of Cloud DVR storage (with the ability to upgrade to “Enhanced Cloud DVR,” which gives you 200 hours of DVR space and the ability to fast forward through commercials).
SMU vs Texas State Preview
Southern Methodist head coach Sonny Dykes has his team ready to go after one of the more unique offseasons in recent memory, and he revealed a bit about how SMU has stayed healthy thus far amidst the coronavirus pandemic.
“We wanted to keep the guys that would play in the games kind of away from everybody else,” Dykes said. “Just limit the number of contacts that they could have. So that’s gotten us to this point now where it’s game week, we’ve got a chance to go play.”
On offense, SMU will be led by senior quarterback Shane Buechele, who threw for 3,929 yards, 34 touchdowns and 10 interceptions after transferring over from Texas last year. His performance earned the young signal-caller All-AAC honors, and he leads a team looking to improve upon their 10-3 mark last season.
Defensively, SMU led the nation in sacks with 51, a school record, and they were also third in tackles for loss last year. They’ll also be getting linebacker Richard Moore back after he missed the bulk of last season with an injury, so look for this defense to be formidable once again.
As for Texas State, head coach Jake Spavital enters his second season with the Bobcats after finishing 3-9 last year. His team will have its hands full in the opener, as Texas State’s defense allowed 32.6 points a game last year, which will not serve against Buechele and company. Still, Spavital thinks his team has a chance if they can get their running game firing on all cylinders.
“I believe you’ve got to run the football to win championships and at least be a very balanced offense,” Spavital said last month. “I think our running backs are very good, so that’s something that we’ve got to make sure that we’re hatting everything up and we’re in the right positions offensive line-wise so these running backs can have success.”
Sophomore quarterback Brady McBride, who transferred over from Memphis at the end of last season, will start under center for the Bobcats. McBride saw limited action as a freshman last year (he went 8-14 for 88 yards, no touchdowns and an interception), so he’ll be getting his first major start against a pretty tough defense.
When these two teams last met in 2019, SMU beat Texas State in Dallas, 47-17. The Mustangs enter this one as three-touchdown favorites.