SMU Back in National Spotlight and Has Control of College Football Playoff Destiny

The Mustangs spent decades in the wilderness before landing in the ACC this season to post an 8–1 overall record and go 5–0 in conference play.

SMU defensive end Isaiah Smith, left, and safety Brandon Crossley celebrates during the first half against Pitt. / Jerome Miron-Imagn Images

When it comes to the passage of time at the end of a college football game, the clock is always relative to the situation.

It can tick off rapidly during close situations as the pressure mounts, with each minute seemingly flying by in half that interval. It can go slowly, often in blowouts where the final zeros cannot come fast enough no matter what side of the scoreboard you were tied to.

Among the throngs of SMU Mustangs supporters still milling about Gerald J. Ford Stadium in the waning moments of a 48–25 bludgeoning of the Pittsburgh Panthers, the clock rather unhurriedly reached its final conclusion. The ultimate outcome on a humid Saturday night in Dallas had been all but certain after the home side took a four-touchdown lead into halftime, but those precious few moments of second-stringers taking snaps down the stretch offered a respite from focusing on plays and allowing for the opportunity to savor what it all really meant in the grand scheme.

“How about this?” said SMU president R. Gerald Turner, in equal parts amazement and disbelief, while grabbing his football coach, Rhett Lashlee, and athletic director, Rick Hart, in an embrace just outside the locker room. “How about this?”

That rhetorical question is one that many around the metroplex, and the college football world at large in growing numbers, are now asking out loud, too. By topping the previously undefeated Panthers, the Ponies will roll into their second off week of the season at 8–1 overall and 5–0 in conference play. Thanks to the Clemson Tigers losing in Death Valley to the Louisville Cardinals, SMU controls its own destiny to reach the ACC championship game in Charlotte the first weekend of December.

“We have three games left, and if we don’t take care of our business, it doesn’t matter,” said Lashlee, adding a dash of coach speak to temper the ballooning expectations that have exceeded the wildest dreams of many around campus. “Our team and our staff has done a really good job of working on chasing the standard that this team has set for ourselves each week. They did it tonight at a high level.”

It is not surprising Lashlee would say that, as it was as complete of a victory as one could have.

Sophomore Kevin Jennings looked nothing like a quarterback who was questionable due to injury coming in, throwing for 306 yards and two touchdowns before getting pulled so both backups would see action. He showcased a laser of an arm in fitting the ball into a tight window to tailback Brashard Smith for a score with 1:53 left in the second quarter (confirming the rout was on) and the signal-caller dropped a beautifully thrown rainbow into the arms of wideout Key’Shawn Smith for 43 yards four plays into the fourth quarter to set up another touchdown. The offense finished with seven yards per play and ripped off chunk play after chunk play.

Jennings throws the ball against the Panthers. / Jerome Miron-Imagn Images

“We were just going fast like we normally were,” said Brashard Smith. “They just couldn’t keep up.”

Nope, not even a little bit. Despite averaging 40.9 points per game coming in, the second-highest mark in school history, Pitt couldn’t do much of anything to keep pace with a team that simply looked faster and more physical in every aspect. Seventy-five of starting quarterback Eli Holstein’s 248 yards came on drives late in the fourth quarter, and he needed 48 attempts to reach that benchmark. An interception in the end zone off a deflection wasn’t his fault, but the second opening of SMU’s "Club Turnover"—complete with its celebratory props—at least helped mask the offensive line’s ability to create much space as the team rushed for just 3.2 yards per carry.

Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi was resigned to playing out the string by that point. His temper flared far more upon seeing Mustangs kicker Collin Rogers nail a 50-yarder with seconds left before halftime, taunting the Panthers’ claims they were full of sharks on defense by mocking a fin on top of his helmet and looking over at the visiting sideline in the same act.

Dislike the act all he wanted, Saturday’s result showcased which of the two newly installed peer programs in the ACC really had the more dangerous threats on either side of the ball.

“We really believe we’re a tough team on offense. But our defensive guys, starting last year, really changed the culture of SMU football from a defensive standpoint with what they’ve done,” Lashlee said. “We have a group that believes in physicality.”

It’s a mantra Lashlee has backed up with actions, not just in building SMU to a 17–2 mark in its last 19 games, but in pursuing what it takes to succeed in a power conference. Keep in mind, the Mustangs were only officially accepted into the league last September, so it’s not like leaders at the school had a lengthy runway to sell to recruits—especially in comparison to the Texas Longhorns going to the SEC or the multiyear journey the USC Trojans went on to the Big Ten.

Having been a coordinator at Miami, he knew what it took to succeed in a truly coastal conference and to survive the rigors of games that were tough week in and week out. It’s why Lashlee and his staff devoted the bulk of their attention in the transfer portal this past offseason to finding offensive linemen and capable front seven defenders that had no issues with the step up in competition. 

“Our program belongs at this level. Our program is capable of competing at a high level—which we all believe,” a normally measured Lashlee said with some fire in his eyes. “We’re not done, and we’ve not accomplished anything yet, but we put ourselves in position that, in the middle of November, we’re competing for a conference championship in the ACC in our first year in the league.”

No team transitioning from a Group of 5 league into a power conference has ever started better than 2–0, making the Mustangs’ 5–0 mark that much more of an outlier. 

It’s an even more mind-bending start considering where SMU had come from, 28 years after the Southwest Conference broke up and left the Mustangs behind. The program spent decades in the wilderness, still living with the mark of the NCAA’s infamous death penalty as it clawed its way from a landing spot in Conference USA to the American Athletic Conference to, now, the promised land of a league that stretches from sea to shining sea. 

SMU wide receiver Roderick Daniels Jr. returns a punt against Pitt. / Jerome Miron-Imagn Images

Never mind that the Mustangs had to round up nine figures worth of booster pledges to make up for the revenue shortfalls they won’t have compared to their brethren like Pitt, this is one of those runs where you start reaching into the history books and coming up empty at seeing vague resemblances to anything else.

“New members, usually if you break .500, you’re doing well. To be here, to have a chance to be in the championship game, it’s just incredible,” said a smiling Turner, who will retire next year. “It took a long time [to get here]. It was a long journey, but it’s so rewarding.” 

Come Tuesday night when the College Football Playoff selection committee releases its first rankings, SMU figures to have a landing spot in the top 25. It will have a legitimate chance at making the field at the end, too. The Panthers were the only ranked team left on the schedule, and home games against the Boston College Eagles and California Golden Bears, sandwiched around a trip to the Virginia Cavaliers, are all imminently winnable. Even that lone loss on the résumé doesn’t look shabby at all, given that the BYU Cougars are one of just five undefeated teams left and look like the class of the Big 12.

Either way, a path to the playoff is there for SMU. The road to Charlotte is fully laid out. No wonder Saturday’s homecoming just felt a little different.

It was fitting that former legends of the Pony Express era, including Eric Dickerson and Craig James, were on hand to witness what unfolded. They shook hands and took pictures with just about anybody who wanted them while walking around the field pregame and saw the rest of the 1982 team—the one that beat Pitt in the nearby Cotton Bowl to dampen Dan Marino’s final game in the school’s beautiful script logo—honored as well.

The connection between opponents on Saturday was an obvious reason to bring everyone back into the fold and celebrate a time where the program was just about to reach its denouement of success. Back then, not long before the NCAA rolled into town and shut the good times down, few could have predicted how long it would take for SMU to return to the thick of the national picture in college football.

Well, the Mustangs are here now. The SMU renaissance has arrived faster and better than anybody could have predicted.

How about that?