For Marshall to win today against Conference USA West Division leader Southern Methodist, the gap in special teams must be closed.

And there's a gap, at least if you consider Marshall's performance last week against Southern Mississippi, and contrast that to what SMU has done at times this season.

"Gap" might not adequately describe it. How about abyss?

The Herd's kicking game, save for two Craig Ratanamorn field goals, was awful last week in a 27-20 loss to Southern Miss. With shanked punts, porous kickoff coverage and penalties that awarded the Golden Eagles unexpected first downs, there's little dispute about that.

And there's little dispute about how the kicking game has helped SMU climb from the West Division outhouse to the penthouse. And we're not necessarily talking about Emmanuel Sanders on punt returns (though he has a 79-yard runback for a touchdown) or Bryan McCann's kickoff returns (though he goes 24 yards a clip).

No, the spotlight there centers on a single freshman, who is athletically special in other ways. He is Margus Hunt, a 6-foot-9, 267-pound shot and discus thrower from Estonia who has blocked seven kicks.

No joke. He enrolled at SMU in the fall of 2007, working with world-renowned coach Dave Wollman and hoping the school would reinstate track and field. Men's track has borne the brunt of Title IX-related cutbacks in men's programs, and as it turns out, SMU hasn't brought the sport back.

But word of Hunt's athletic prowess - he has some weight-room numbers that would make offensive linemen envious - spread quickly around SMU's beautiful, compact campus. As Hunt pondered whether to transfer or return to Estonia, the football staff made a recruiting pitch.

The plans for Hunt as a defensive end are serious, with coach June Jones seeing him as an NFL prospect. And he does have 11/2 sacks in his limited time on defense.

But he is better known for blocking four field goals and three extra points. He rejected two against East Carolina, with one returned 65 yards for a touchdown.

And two other SMU wins have turned on blocked kicks not involving Hunt.

"A 13-point swing against East Carolina, a 13-point swing against Rice, and just last week you had UTEP going to the end zone as opposed to lining up for a kick," Snyder said. "Those are three examples that come to my head where a simple field goal block has turned the game around."

Hunt, by the way, is a serious world contender in the discus and shot, winning junior world championships in both in 2006 at Beijing.

The Herd expected to get Ryan Tillman back at left guard, to bring the offensive line fully intact once again. The big question is, though, for whom will they block?

Darius Marshall is a game-time decision, as he tries to recover from a sprained ankle last week against Southern Mississippi. Behind him, it appears that Terrell Edwards-Maye has climbed back to No. 2 in the Herd's running back order.

For Marshall to win today against Conference USA West Division leader Southern Methodist, the gap in special teams must be closed.

And there's a gap, at least if you consider Marshall's performance last week against Southern Mississippi, and contrast that to what SMU has done at times this season.

"Gap" might not adequately describe it. How about abyss?

The Herd's kicking game, save for two Craig Ratanamorn field goals, was awful last week in a 27-20 loss to Southern Miss. With shanked punts, porous kickoff coverage and penalties that awarded the Golden Eagles unexpected first downs, there's little dispute about that.

And there's little dispute about how the kicking game has helped SMU climb from the West Division outhouse to the penthouse. And we're not necessarily talking about Emmanuel Sanders on punt returns (though he has a 79-yard runback for a touchdown) or Bryan McCann's kickoff returns (though he goes 24 yards a clip).

No, the spotlight there centers on a single freshman, who is athletically special in other ways. He is Margus Hunt, a 6-foot-9, 267-pound shot and discus thrower from Estonia who has blocked seven kicks.

No joke. He enrolled at SMU in the fall of 2007, working with world-renowned coach Dave Wollman and hoping the school would reinstate track and field. Men's track has borne the brunt of Title IX-related cutbacks in men's programs, and as it turns out, SMU hasn't brought the sport back.

But word of Hunt's athletic prowess - he has some weight-room numbers that would make offensive linemen envious - spread quickly around SMU's beautiful, compact campus. As Hunt pondered whether to transfer or return to Estonia, the football staff made a recruiting pitch.

The plans for Hunt as a defensive end are serious, with coach June Jones seeing him as an NFL prospect. And he does have 11/2 sacks in his limited time on defense.

But he is better known for blocking four field goals and three extra points. He rejected two against East Carolina, with one returned 65 yards for a touchdown.

And two other SMU wins have turned on blocked kicks not involving Hunt.

"A 13-point swing against East Carolina, a 13-point swing against Rice, and just last week you had UTEP going to the end zone as opposed to lining up for a kick," Snyder said. "Those are three examples that come to my head where a simple field goal block has turned the game around."

Hunt, by the way, is a serious world contender in the discus and shot, winning junior world championships in both in 2006 at Beijing.

The Herd expected to get Ryan Tillman back at left guard, to bring the offensive line fully intact once again. The big question is, though, for whom will they block?

Darius Marshall is a game-time decision, as he tries to recover from a sprained ankle last week against Southern Mississippi. Behind him, it appears that Terrell Edwards-Maye has climbed back to No. 2 in the Herd's running back order.

Edwards-Maye only had three carries for 12 yards in Marshall's relief, but that included a 9-yarder right off the bat and a 1-yard scoring run. He had been nearly exiled since rushing for 28 yards on 15 carries in the opener against Southern Illinois, getting three carries since.

"Terrell was with me last week with the 'twos,' going against our defense," Snyder said. "He got a shot in the game, went in and produced."

Martin Ward has 34 carries for 125 yards this season, but hasn't done much since rushing for 34 yards on seven totes against Bowling Green.

As the scheduling rotation dicates, the Herd is facing the second of three West Division teams for the first time since 2006. MU has split with SMU, as it has with next week's foe, Texas-El Paso. The Herd is now 3-0 against Tulane.

The SMU series has produced two odd but memorable games. In 2005, the Mustangs led 10-0 deep into the fourth quarter, but Bernard Morris tied the game on a 4-yard run with 1:30 left and won it on a 15-yard scramble in overtime. Morris went 34-of-60 passing for 314 yards.

In 2006 at Dallas, Justin Willis recovered from a suspension to throw for four touchdowns in a 31-21 victory. The Herd fumbled a kickoff return, denying it a chance to rally from a 24-21 deficit, in a contest perhaps most memorable for Snyder's post-game tirade.

SMU is not known as a defensive factory, and probably never will be as long as offensive wizard June Jones remains in charge. But the Mustangs have made a lot of improvement on that side of the ball, in a division where points can come awfully cheap.

In recent years, the Mustangs' defense was good for a lot of cheap points, indeed. Last year, it was 38.2, which was down, if you can use the word, from 39.8 in 2007.

The Mustangs were at the bottom of every defensive category except for pass yardage, and that's pretty much because they were run on to the tune of 225 yards per game. But don't worry, SMU was last in pass efficiency defense rating, allowing foes to complete 64 percent of their passes with 33 touchdowns and just eight interceptions.

SMU now leads that pass defense category, with Marshall second. That is not a misprint.

The Mustangs have faced the fourth-highest amount of pass attempts (358), but has allowed the fourth-fewest passing yards (238.9). More impressively, they lead the league in interceptions with 16, a number that tops touchdowns against (15), and the completion percentage is down to a league-best 55 percent.

Linebacker Rock Dennis leads the team with four interceptions, with cornerback McCann, an Oklahoma 100-meter track champion, at three. The pass break-up numbers are perhaps more impressive - 44 in all, with now-injured cornerback Sterling Moore leading with 10. Moore injured his knee last week in the Mustangs' 35-31 win over Texas-El Paso.

Junior Bennie Thomas is penciled in to start opposite McCann.

Reach Doug Smock at 304-348-5130 or dougsm...@wvgazette.com.