SMU Beat Writer Answers Five Questions About the Mustangs

Coach Rhett Lashlee's impact. The change at quarterback. The attention SMU gets in a pro-sports town.

SMU running back Brashard Smith / Jerome Miron-Imagn Images

Each week we ask a journalist who covers Cal's next opponent five questions about that opponent. With Cal traveling to play No. 9 SMU for its final regular-season game on Saturday, we posed five questions to Lia Assimakopoulos, who covers SMU for the Dallas Morning News.

We provided excerpts of each Assimakopoulos answer, but it may be worthwhile to listen to the entire video for every response.

--- 1. How surprised are you that SMU will be in the ACC championship game after playing in the AAC, a so-called Group of Five conference, last year?

"I think the season they've had has pretty much surprised everyone," Assimakopoulos said.

She noted that no team from a Group of Five conference that has moved up to a Power Conference has ever finished first in its new conference in its first season in the Power Conference.

--- 2. How much credit should Rhett Lashlee get for what SMU has accomplished this year?

Assimakopoulos thinks he deserves a lot of the creidt.

"He has taken his team to back-to-back conference championship games," she said.

"He's definitely a player's coach."

"He signed a ig extention last year, signed another big extention just last week."

---3. I know Dallas, like the Bay Area, is a pro-sports region.  How much attention has SMU received in the Dallas area with the Mustangs’ impressive 2024 season?

"It's definitely on the rise," Assimakopoulos said.

"It's definitely a pro-sports town and a high schoo l sports town. Sometimes [college sports] because people in Texas and Dallas care so much about Friday night lights."

But with the success of Texas, Texas A&M and SMU, college football is getting more atention. SMU's Ford Stadium is selling out for most games this season, "and that's certainly new for SMU."

---4. How much difference did the early-season switch of starting quarterbacks from Preston Stone to Kevin Jennings make?

"I think that's kind of when SMU started to take off when they made that switch," Assimakopoulos said.

---5. What are SMU’s strengths and who are their best players?

Quarterback Kevin Smith and transfer running back and return man Brashard Smith are the stars on offense. Smith is a transfer from Miami who was a wide reciver with the Hurricanes before being switched to running back this season.

On defense the standout id defensive end Elijah Roberts, who "is probably going to be NFL-bound," she said.

"The defense has probably been the most consistent piece for SMU," Assimakopoulos said.

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