Well, thanks to Peruna, the game abruptly stopped in the third quarter, after SMU scored a TD and the mascot bolted onto the turf to celebrate. Thing is ... Peruna has loose bowels, and left an unhappy trail behind.

Officials tried to ignore it, but SMU's head coach Rhett Lashlee thought better and asked to hit the pause button while the poop was removed.

Now this is where a lack of preparation became a glaring problem.  There was no plan, no equipment, to remove the feces ... something you'd think SMU would have at the ready given its choice of mascots. So the staff had to walk out on the field and pick up horse poop by hand.

It took 15 minutes to make the field properly playable again.

ESPN announcers lost it trying to explain what happened.