Twenty-five years after its last bowl appearance, Southern Methodist made sure that it would be ready for the Sheraton Hawai'i Bowl.

Led by an 18-year-old quarterback and a stout defense, the Mustangs cruised to a 45-10 trouncing of Nevada before a crowd of 20,217 at Aloha Stadium yesterday, leaving little doubt that SMU has returned from the dead.

"A win like this ... what I told our players before the game is that every football player — high school, college or professional — was watching that game," SMU coach June Jones said of the nationally televised (ESPN) game. "That's what happened and you can't buy that kind of market for your program."

After receiving the "death penalty" from the NCAA in 1986, SMU football — a program that had produced the likes of Doak Walker, Don Meredith and Eric Dickerson — disappeared for the next two seasons. The Mustangs' fall from grace continued with one losing season after another, until this year.

SMU (8-5), which saw the best turnaround in the NCAA this year from a 1-11 2008, put the cap on a record season with a decisive victory over the Wolf Pack (8-5). The Mustangs' last bowl prior to last night was the 1984 Aloha Bowl, when they beat Notre Dame, 27-20.

"This just feels great, surreal actually," SMU quarterback Kyle Padron said. "We were the biggest underdog in any bowl game and we used that as motivation tonight."

Padron, a true freshman out of Southlake, Texas, passed for a school record 460 yards with two touchdowns. The 6-foot-4, 201-pounder completed 32 of 41 pass attempts without an interception.

"He showed a lot of composure and he threw a lot of catchable balls," said Jones. "He's shown what he can do in four or five games, but he still did some things that you would like him to do better. But he took care of the football and didn't turn it over."

Padron completed passes to nine different receivers and was named SMU's Most Valuable Player for the bowl by the media.

"(This win) will hopefully put us back on the map and let people know that we have a football team again," Padron said.

The Mustangs dominated offensively and defensively. SMU averaged 8.2 yards per play and its 534 offensive yards was a season-best. The Mustangs averaged nearly as many yards per passing attempt (11.2) as the Wolf Pack did per completion (11.8).

"All year long, we haven't put together a complete game on all three phases and tonight we finally did," said SMU senior linebacker Chase Kennemer, who tied for a game-high with nine tackles. "It just felt like it was our day today. I guess we're due, you know, it's been 25 years."

Nevada, which entered the game ranked first nationally in rushing with 362.3 yards per game, was held to 137 yards on the ground. The Wolf Pack played without two of its unprecedented three 1,000-yard rushers in running backs Vai Taua (academically ineligible) and Luke Lippincott (season-ending surgery).

"I'm disappointed in our offense," Nevada coach Chris Ault said. "We were our of sync on offense and there was no excuse for it. There was nothing defensive that we didn't expect, they just played harder than we did."

The Wolf Pack's 314 yards of total offense was more than 200 less than its average.

"They outplayed us, they outcoached us ... they did an excellent job, we were never in the ball game," Ault said.

The Mustangs wasted little time in scoring. On the second play from scrimmage, Padron threw a 71-yard pass to Cole Beasley, who was stopped inside the Nevada 10. Running back Shawnbrey McNeal easily scored on a 9-yard run to the right on the next play and Matt Szymanski's PAT kick made it 7-0 lead 1 minute, 31 seconds following the opening kickoff.

Nevada's ensuing drive stalled after a failed fourth-down conversion attempt and SMU took over at its 39-yard line.

Padron found wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders on a deep pass for a 58-yard gain on the first play and, following a 2-yard personal foul against Nevada, McNeal scored his second touchdown on a 1-yard run. That made the score 14-0 with 8:22 left in the first quarter.

The Wolf Pack went three-and-out on its next possession after a 3-yard sack by Taylor Thompson on third down forced a punt.

SMU took over at the Wolf Pack 43 and drove to the 4, but the drive stalled and the Mustangs settled for a 22-yard Szymanski field goal to extend their lead to 17-0 after the first quarter.

Nevada was forced to punt on its first possession of the second quarter and SMU took possession at its 24. Padron was 7 of 9 during a 10-play drive that covered 76 yards and was capped by Padron's 17-yard TD pass to Sanders.

On the scoring play, Sanders caught the pass near the left sideline, cut inside of defensive back Isaiah Frey and cut back outside of safety Jonathon Amaya before stretching across the goal line.

"Coming into the game, we felt like Nevada hadn't seen team speed like we have and we wanted to exploit that," said Sanders, who finished with seven receptions for 124 yards.

Following another Wolf Pack three-and-out, the Mustangs added a score before the half.

The drive was extended by a fourth-down pass from Padron to Terrance Wilkerson that went for 9 yards and put the ball at the Wolf Pack 11. A third-down pass from Padron fell incomplete, but Nevada's Mo Harvey was flagged for pass interference against Sanders, giving the Mustangs first-and-goal from the 2.

After an incompletion on first down, Padron lined up under center, faked a handoff to his left and rolled out to the right. Nevada cornerback Khalid Wooten left his man to cover the bootleg, but Padron tossed it past him and to the awaiting Cole Beasley for his second TD pass of the game. Szymanski's extra point gave SMU a 31-0 halftime lead.

"It comes down to the guys around me making big plays," Padron said. "I'm still learning every day and I'll probably learn for the next three years that I'm here."

Zach Line's 3-yard run put SMU ahead 38-0 midway through the third quarter before Nevada finally broke the drought on Ricky Drake's 21-yard field goal with 3:08 left in the third quarter.

SMU added a late score after McNeal's third touchdown — 17-yard run with 3:27 to play.

"It was all about trusting the man upstairs," said McNeal, who spent his first two seasons at Miami. "Coming out on top is a warm feeling."

Nevada's only touchdown came on its ensuing drive when quarterback Colin Kaepernick found Brandon Wimberly for a 10-yard pass.

"The bottom line is we just didn't show up," Kaepernick said. "We didn't play like we are capable of ... we basically stopped ourselves today."