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SMU COACH RHETT Lashlee might have a sleepless first week on the job to thank for this historic Mustangs season.

Lashlee was hired on Nov. 30, 2021, just about two weeks before signing day. He was trying to re-recruit the kids who were committed to the previous coach, Sonny Dykes, who departed for TCU. He was trying to re-recruit his own roster. And he was looking to potentially add finishing touches on the class after arriving from Miami, where he’d been for two years as offensive coordinator.

So on that first Friday night, he went to watch South Oak Cliff play Lovejoy at The Star, the Dallas Cowboys’ practice facility in Frisco that also doubles as a high school venue. He was there to see a few underclassmen from both teams that SMU was already recruiting. But there was someone else who caught his eye: South Oak Cliff quarterback Kevin Jennings. Jennings impressed Lashlee with his composure, his demeanor and his arm. At 6 feet, 175, he wasn’t the biggest guy, but he played big.

Against Lovejoy, Jennings was 18 of 25 for 250 yards and a touchdown, running four times for 29 yards and two other scores. SOC beat Lovejoy 42-21. The week before, in a massive upset, Jennings had led South Oak Cliff to a win over Aledo, a Texas powerhouse that has won 11 state titles in the past 15 years (and has not lost a playoff game since).

But Jennings had only one college scholarship offer, from Bobby Petrino at Missouri State, and was committed there. Jennings heard all the excuses: South Oak Cliff was loaded with talent, and he was a game manager, a point guard. He was too small. He should play a different position. But Jennings was determined to play quarterback, which he’d played since he was 7.

“I was with Casey Woods, our offensive coordinator,” Lashlee said. “I didn’t know what was up from down. I’d been the head coach for maybe a week. I finally had a minute to just go mindlessly watch a game and do what’s normal. And we’re standing there and about midway through the second quarter, I looked at Casey and go, ‘What am I missing about this quarterback?’ So that was the moment.”

Lashlee called and offered the next week. Jennings took a visit that weekend and committed. Afterward, he led South Oak Cliff to the first state championship for a Dallas Independent School District program since 1958.

“He was just as calm and level-headed the whole game. He would come to the sidelines, take his helmet off, and you could just tell he commanded the respect of his guys,” Lashlee said. “He spoke, they listened. He’d make a big play, act like he’s supposed to do it. A bad play would happen, he’d move on to the next. You could just sense he’s a leader and a winner.”

Since taking over for Preston Stone after an 18-15 loss in the Mustangs’ third game — SMU’s only loss — the Mustangs have gone 9-0 since, scoring 30 or more points in eight of those games en route to going undefeated in Year 1 in the ACC, unprecedented for a team moving up from the Group of 5 level.

All SMU wanted was a chance to play for something. All Jennings wanted was a chance to play for someone. Now, Jennings, who started last year’s AAC championship game while Stone was injured and led SMU to its first conference title in 40 years, has a chance to lead them to an ACC title with a win over Clemson on Saturday (8 ET, ABC).

No team has ever started 2-0 in a power conference after moving up from a lower level. The Mustangs were picked seventh in the league’s preseason poll, then went 9-0 in the league during an 11-1 season and now sit at No. 8, the highest-ranked team in the ACC.

A win on Saturday would give SMU, which has won 11 games in consecutive seasons for the first time in school history, its first 12-win season since 1935. It’s all quite a ride for Jennings, who went to high school 12 miles from the Hilltop.

“It means a lot just to come out every week to play in front of my family, to be able to stay here and not be too far from home,” Jennings said. “It means a lot. I have the community on my back.”


LASHLEE WASN’T JUST agonizing over players while he was living in the Doubletree hotel in Dallas trying to lay the groundwork for his first head-coaching job.

He’d work until midnight, then, mind racing, he’d wake up at 3 or 4 a.m. and start trying to figure out who he wanted on his staff. One of those nights, he grabbed his phone and started looking at defensive statistics. And one name high up in the rankings jumped out at him: Liberty.

Lashlee had worked with Scott Symons, the Flames’ defensive coordinator, at Arkansas State for about nine months when Symons was a graduate assistant early in his career. The more he thought about it, the more excited he got. Symons is from Hurst, in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. And he was doing all this while working for Hugh Freeze.

“He’s the DC for an offensive-minded coach who likes to play with some tempo and play fast,” Lashlee said. “And they’re still playing championship defense, which people act like you can’t do, but I know you can.”

Lashlee spoke with Freeze, who gave a glowing review, then flew out to meet Symons, who met him about an hour away from campus.

“In about five minutes, he pops out a big dip [of tobacco]. And I thought, I’m going to Texas. I need a DC who’s tough. This might be the guy,” Lashlee said, laughing.

In Year 1, SMU gave up 33.9 points per game, 119th in the country. But Lashlee liked what he saw schematically. He knew they needed to upgrade the talent, then let players develop in the system.

He was right. Last year, the SMU defense improved to 11th in points per game (17.8) in the AAC. Despite moving up to the ACC this year, still held opponents to 19.8 points per game, 19th best nationally and first in the conference.

Notably, the Mustangs allowed just 2.8 yards per carry, third-best in the country. They’re 16th nationally in completion percentage allowed (56.1) and 18th in quarterback pressures, despite blitzing just 23.3% of plays (83rd).

SMU added 18 Power 4 transfers this offseason, including eight on the defensive line. The Mustangs landed transfers from Michigan, Ohio State, Oregon, Georgia, Texas, Texas A&M, Utah, two from Oklahoma and three each from Miami and Arkansas.

“Scott and what they’ve done defensively is a big part of it,” Lashlee said. “We hadn’t had a top 40 defense in 40 years until last year. And now we’re going to go back to back years. Changing the defense while also keeping a good offense has been big.”


SYMONS ISN’T THE only personal connection Lashlee mined when trying to shape his program. After serving as Manny Diaz’s offensive coordinator at Miami, he knew the talent Miami had on its roster, and what it was going to take to compete in the ACC. He had seen it up close.

Lashlee didn’t bring any players with him in his first year — he thought that’d be a bad look. But after Mario Cristobal took over for Diaz, some players started looking for new starts. And they’ve been huge for SMU.

Former Hurricanes Elijah Roberts, Jahfari Harvey and Jared Harrison-Hunte have combined for 15.5 sacks on the defensive line and Keyshawn Smith has 30 catches and five TDs at receiver.

“Guys like Elijah, who didn’t have a lot of game tape, we knew him because we had been there with him and he had been on scout team and we couldn’t block him,” Lashlee said. “There wasn’t even enough film for our defensive staff to validate it, but they just trusted us. So a couple guys came in the first year and they had a great experience. They see our guys are happy, they love it here, they like Dallas. And so they would just start saying, when guys were going the portal, ‘Man, this is a good situation.'”

But none might have been a bigger find than Brashard Smith. The Mustangs’ only preseason all-conference pick (as a kick returner), Lashlee almost discouraged him from coming to Dallas from Miami, where he had mostly played receiver, a position the Mustangs felt good about.

“We didn’t want to bring him here to not play,” Lashlee said. “We also don’t want to bring him in here and do wrong by the guys that are returning. So we kind of told him no, honestly. We just said we really don’t have a spot.”

But Kyle Cooper, SMU’s running backs coach who had been with Lashlee at Miami, kept hearing from Smith. He wanted to come, and other coaches, like QBs coach D’Eriq King, who had played quarterback at Miami when Smith was a receiver, kept reminding Lashlee how good he was. He didn’t disagree, but wasn’t sure what to do with him.

“It just so happened we’re watching the [Kansas City] Chiefs play and Isaiah Pacheco was playing great. I remember texting Coop during the game and being like, ‘Hey, how much does Brashard weigh?’ He hit me back and it was like 10 pounds less than Pacheco.”

He might just be a player at running back, Lashlee thought, and Cooper agreed. They called Smith and said if you want to come play play a new position and be a kick returner, they were in. Smith was too.

“After spring, our defense was like, ‘Hey, that guy’s different,’ Lashlee said.

Then former five-star running back recruit and Alabama transfer Camar Wheaton injured his knee on the second day of fall camp, and is out for the season. Then last year’s leading rusher, Miami transfer Jaylan Knighton, was lost for the season with a knee injury in September.

All Smith has done since then is rush for 1,157 yards and 14 TDs while averaging 6 yards per carry. His 1,667 all-purpose yards (seventh-most in the FBS), are fourth-most in school history in a single season behind Eric Dickerson (1,677 in 1982), Jerry LeVias (1,772 in 1968), and Arthur Whittington (1,843 in 1976).

“For him to come in, never played running back before, it’s crazy,” Jennings said. “But you see how dynamic he is, he played receiver his whole life. He can do everything.”


LASHLEE ADMITS NOW he hoped to downplay expectations before the season.

“I was doing my best Lou Holtz trying to get everybody to calm down,” Lashlee said about the old Notre Dame coach’s penchant for praising other teams while worrying about his own. “No one’s ever had a winning conference record making the jump from Group of Five to Power Five. I did feel like we had a team that would compete, but nobody knows what that looks like.”

But a little luck, a fun offense and a lot of dynamic pieces around an unflappable quarterback have made for a storybook season for SMU.

Michael Jennings, Kevin’s dad, always hoped this moment would come. He knew talent. His younger brother, Corey Coleman, was a star receiver at Baylor and a first-round pick of the Kansas City Chiefs. When Kevin was still being overlooked, he begged Coleman, who played for the New York Giants at the time, to put a word in with Eli Manning for a Manning Passing Academy invite for his son. Coleman came through, and he took Kevin to Louisiana for the camp.

Michael said he watched as Peyton Manning put Kevin on the spot, telling him if he stood and threw the ball into the bucket, he’d give him $5.

“Kevin backs up and threw it in the bucket,” Michael said. “Of all the kids out there, he made it. He’s so hard on himself that there’s no pressure because he already puts pressure on himself. He’s never been nervous.

“And Peyton still owes him $5.”

Jennings has risen to big moments before. Now 10-1 as the starter (with only a bowl loss to Boston College last year) he’ll be back on a big stage Saturday, looking to make more history for SMU. He credits his time spent behind Tanner Mordecai and Stone, a highly recruited Dallas native who threw for 3,197 yards with 28 touchdowns to six interceptions last year, with helping him be ready for this moment.

“I think I waited behind some great quarterbacks,” Jennings said. “Tanner Mordecai, he’s a dog. He was one of the best quarterbacks I’ve ever seen. And Preston, he’s a great quarterback. Just learning from those guys, being able to pick up things those guys do and translating it to my game helped me out a lot.”

Lashlee, who played for Gus Malzahn in high school and coached under him at Auburn when they played in big games, has been there too. But this time, he’s doing it somewhere that hasn’t been there before.

“I’ve been blessed to coach in two national championship games and do a lot of really cool things,” Lashlee, who is 29-10 at SMU, said. “And to me what would be really special is getting a school like SMU back on the stage where Eric Dickerson and others had us, [like] playing in a College Football Playoff or winning an ACC championship. Let’s do something we haven’t done in a long time.”

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L.A.’s Betts day-to-day after stubbing toe in mishap

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L.A.'s Betts day-to-day after stubbing toe in mishap

LOS ANGELES — Mookie Betts stubbed a toe on his left foot during an off-the-field incident and was out of the Los Angeles Dodgers‘ lineup Friday night for the opener of a highly anticipated weekend series against the New York Yankees.

Betts was scheduled to undergo X-rays at Dodger Stadium before first pitch. Until then, the team will hope for the best.

“It’s day-to-day right now,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “So, that’s where we’re at.”

The incident — affecting Betts’ second toe — was believed to occur late Wednesday night, after the Dodgers returned from a six-game road trip through New York and Cleveland. Roberts didn’t find out until Betts called him Friday morning. He was vague on the details.

“I really don’t know,” Roberts said when asked how the injury occurred. “I think it was at home. It’s probably a dresser, nightstand, something like that. It’s just kind of an accident. I think that Mookie will be able to give more context, but that’s kind of from the training staff what I heard. So hopefully, it’s benign, it’s negative. Not sure, but I feel confident saying it’s day-to-day … but putting on a shoe today was difficult for him.”

Betts’ injury isn’t the Dodgers’ most serious at the moment. Late-inning reliever Evan Phillips, who was rehabbing a forearm injury, didn’t feel right playing catch earlier this week and will undergo Tommy John surgery next week, knocking him out for all of 2025 and most of 2026.

Phillips, 30, was released by the Baltimore Orioles in August 2021 and designated for assignment by the Tampa Bay Rays less than two weeks later. The Dodgers picked him up and turned him into a valuable late-game option. From 2022 to 2024, Phillips posted a 2.21 ERA and 0.92 WHIP, saved 44 games and struck out 206 batters in 179 regular-season innings.

But Phillips dealt with arm issues during last year’s postseason run and was left off the team’s World Series roster. He then went on the IL because of a rotator cuff strain in the middle of March, returned a month later, notched seven scoreless appearances, then went back on the IL on May 7 because of what the team called forearm discomfort. Platelet-rich-plasma injections did not take. Phillips never got better.

“As we started getting into it, it wasn’t really responding,” Dodgers general manager Brandon Gomes said. “We felt like this could be a possibility, so as he got deeper into the process and it wasn’t really getting better, the decision to do it was pretty much evident with our information.”

The loss of Phillips is coupled with the Dodgers having four other high-leverage relievers on the IL — Brusdar Graterol, Blake Treinen, Kirby Yates and Michael Kopech, all of whom are right-handed.

The Dodgers tried to backfill some of that depth by trading for former All-Star closer Alexis Diaz on Thursday. But Diaz, who struggled so badly this season that the Cincinnati Reds optioned him to Triple-A, will initially work out of the Dodgers’ spring training complex in Glendale, Ariz.

The Dodgers also have three starting pitchers — Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow and Roki Sasaki — recovering from shoulder injuries, with Shohei Ohtani not expected to join the rotation until sometime after the All-Star break.

The lineup, at least, had been healthy. Until now.

Betts, 32, got off to a slow start but was still slashing .254/.338/.405 with 8 home runs and 5 stolen bases while slotting between the hot-hitting Ohtani and Freddie Freeman in the No. 2 spot. More notably, Betts had proven to be a capable major league shortstop after working during the offseason at the position.

But the toe injury could set him back, in much the same way a broken left hand robbed him of nearly two months in 2024.

At this point, Roberts said, “I don’t see it being long term.” But the Dodgers can’t say that definitively yet.

“We need to see the doctors and kind of get a better sense of it,” Gomes said. “It happened pretty recently, so it’ll take some time before we have a better understanding.”

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Twins reinstate Buxton after 11-game absence

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Twins reinstate Buxton after 11-game absence

SEATTLE — The Minnesota Twins reinstated center fielder Byron Buxton from the seven-day concussion injured list Friday before beginning a three-game series in Seattle, two weeks after he collided with shortstop Carlos Correa in pursuit of a shallow fly ball.

Buxton missed 11 games after the collision, which also sent Correa into the concussion protocol. Correa needed only the minimum seven-day stay on the injured list and missed five games.

To make room for Buxton, outfielder Carson McCusker was sent back to Triple-A St. Paul. Buxton was batting .261 with an .834 OPS and 18 extra-base hits, including 10 homers, before he was hurt. He also had 33 runs, 27 RBIs and 8 steals in his first 41 games.

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Tigers place pitcher Jobe (elbow) on 15-day IL

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Tigers place pitcher Jobe (elbow) on 15-day IL

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Detroit Tigers placed pitcher Jackson Jobe on the 15-day injured list Friday because of a right elbow injury.

Jobe, a rookie right-hander, mentioned discomfort after leaving his last start, against San Francisco on Wednesday. The injury was described as a Grade 1 right flexor strain, and the move was retroactive to Thursday.

“He reported that he had a little bit of soreness,” Detroit manager AJ Hinch said before the MLB-leading Tigers opened a three-game series in Kansas City. “So we took him immediately to get evaluated. When the test came back and the doctors read it, they discovered this flexor strain.

“I try not to rush to any judgment until we see how his rest goes, and see how his rehab goes. We’ll listen to the doctors and the pitching coaches on that.”

The 22-year-old Jobe is 4-1 with a 4.22 ERA in 10 starts this season. He has 39 strikeouts and 27 walks in 49 innings.

Right-handed pitcher Dylan Smith was selected from Triple-A Toledo and will make his major league debut with the Tigers. To make room for Smith on the 40-man roster, right-hander Alex Cobb has been transferred to the 60-day injured list.

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