Sonny Dykes hopes to get his first season at SMU started with a win at North Texas Saturday night. Standing in his way is UNT’s fun-sized package of yards and touchdowns: quarterback Mason Fine.

Fine broke out as a sophomore last season, completing 63.4 percent of his passes for 4,052 yards and 31 touchdowns, leading the Mean Green to a 9-win season and a Conference USA West title. That yardage total was good for sixth in the FBS.

“He does a tremendous job of getting the ball out on time,” Dykes said of Fine. “If you watch him, he's never late with the ball, he knows exactly where he's going with it, he's really accurate. Particularly his mid-range accuracy, he's really good. All the things that good quarterbacks do, he does them well."

UNT will likely try to beat SMU through the air, so stopping Fine will be critical for defensive coordinator Kevin Kane and SMU’s revamped defense.

UNT relies heavily on its passing attack; Fine dropped back 550 times last season, more than all but three FBS quarterbacks. Moreover, UNT’s impressive running back Jeffrey Wilson graduated, so the team may lean on Fine’s arm even more this season with a cloudier run game.

As Dykes mentioned, the most impressive part of Fine’s game is his accuracy, especially on short and medium-range throws.

Stopping these kinds of passes was not a strength for the Mustangs in recent years, to put it kindly. Good quarterbacks picked apart SMU’s shoddy pass defense and when receivers did get the ball, they often slipped tackles and broke into the open field.

Now, SMU might just have the weapons to cope with this kind of attack. Trevor Denbow and Richard Moore, the team’s new additions at linebacker, will be able to cover the middle of the field better than past SMU linebackers, and former Illinois safety Pat Nelson can play in the box and can take away some of those medium-range throws.

A bigger concern for SMU is whether they can get pressure on Fine. Top pass rusher Justin Lawler graduated, and SMU is left with no sure things on its defensive line. Give Fine time, and he can sit back and pick apart a defense. Fortunately, for the Mustangs, UNT’s offensive line surrendered 39 sacks last season. If it does hold up and get the best of SMU’s defensive line early, expect Kevin Kane to call some blitzes. Kyran Mitchell showed last season that he is effective at blitzing, and if Kane can draw some plays up that catch UNT off guard, he can throw a wrench in the Mean Green’s passing attack.

Another impressive trait of Fine’s is his ability to perform late in games. UNT won five games by a one-score margin, with Fine gutting out game-winning drives in three of those contests.

“He provides the leadership and the toughness for the team,” Dykes said. “You go look at the last-second games that they won last year, he made a ton of plays down the stretch that helped them win the ballgame. That's what great players do. They have a tendency to make the play at the time to give them a chance to win and that's what he's done over and over again.”

SMU and UNT are two pretty well matched teams, so the game figures to be tight. If he’s put in position to, Fine could work his close-game magic again.

The knock on Fine is that he does give the ball away. He threw 15 interceptions last year, including two to SMU, so forcing turnovers will be key for the Mustangs.

Jordan Wyatt is a proven ballhawk, and Robert Hayes, who could start at cornerback, has played aggressively in camp. Even in the likely event that UNT moves the ball against SMU, the defense should be able to be able to come up with a pick or two.

It’s hard to call a week one game a must-win, but with two major challenges looming in TCU and Michigan, it’s fair to say that this game qualifies for SMU. The staff has done a lot of work on the defense, bringing in talent like Denbow and Nelson and instilling a tougher mindset. Here is the chance to show it off.