How SMU’s first season in the ACC became a massive success
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Dave Wilson, ESPN Staff Writer
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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Dan Wetzel
Tennessee coach Josh Heupel was on the team bus Saturday morning as it pulled in front of Neyland Stadium for the annual spring game. It was the end of a tumultuous, and potentially career-defining, week.
The Volunteers had just split with their star quarterback, Nico Iamaleava, after an attempted renegotiation of Iamaleava’s compensation for the 2025 season fell through.
Heupel and Iamaleava had always had a strong relationship, but when the QB didn’t report to practice Friday, there was little choice. “We’re moving on as a program without him,” Heupel would say later.
After all, how can you run a college team when your leader is holding out?
“There’s nobody bigger than the ‘Power T,'” Heupel said.
A great line. And a true one that would ring out as a rallying cry to NIL-weary coaches across the country: “If they want to play holdout, they might as well play get out,” Miami coach Mario Cristobal echoed.
Still, this is the SEC. This is major college football with all the expectations and pressure. This is a coaching profession where careers can turn on a single game, let alone season. “Do it the right way” tends to work only if you win.
As Heupel was about to step off the bus to face a crowd of Volunteers fans, his team was, at least on paper, less of a contender than two days prior. The reaction could have gone in any direction.
He was greeted with roaring cheers.
Iamaleava’s legacy as a quarterback remains unknown, a work in progress for the 20-year-old with three years of collegiate eligibility remaining.
In terms of his impact on the early days of the NIL era in college football though, he is a seminal figure, somehow representing both ends of the pendulum swing of player empowerment.
In the spring of 2022, Iamaleava, then just a high school junior, agreed to a four-year deal worth approximately $8 million with Tennessee’s NIL collective, Spyre Sports Group. It included a $350,000 up-front payment, per reporting by the Athletic, with money paid out during his senior season at Warren High School in California.
It was a bold, and strategically smart, play by Tennessee. While other schools were wading cautiously into NIL and the NCAA was feverishly trying to set up so-called “guardrails,” the Vols smartly saw where things were headed. When the NCAA eventually challenged the deal, the state’s attorney general stepped in and won an injunction.
Now, however, the player who was once cheered and who was paid millions before becoming the full-time starter is the poster child for NIL backlash. Rather than play out the final season of his deal — which would pay him about $2.2 million — Iamaleava reportedly wanted some $4 million that was commensurate with what other quarterbacks who transferred this year were getting.
Asking for more was Iamaleava’s right, but with rights comes risk. As with any negotiation, you can push too far.
Iamaleava is a promising and tough player, but 11 of his 19 touchdown passes last season came against lesser competition. He has great potential, but something didn’t sit right in Knoxville with how the process has played out.
This felt obnoxious.
“It’s unfortunate, just the situation and where we’re at with Nico,” Heupel said. “I want to thank him for everything that he’s done since he’s gotten here … a great appreciation for that side of it.”
That said, if being the starter and cornerstone at Tennessee — with its rich history, its massive fan base, its QB-developing head coach, its SEC spotlight and years of familiarity — isn’t enough without a few more bucks, then so be it.
It can’t all be about money, even these days.
“This program’s been around for a long time,” Heupel said. “A lot of great coaches, a lot of great players that came before, laid the cornerstone pieces, the legacy, the tradition that is Tennessee football. It’s going to be around a long time after I’m done and after they’re gone.”
Whatever games Tennessee might lose without Iamaleava, it gained in dignity by drawing a line in the sand. That’s what the fans were rightfully cheering; a boomerang that saw the school claw back some power.
Just as Iamaleava had the right under current rules to walk away if his demands weren’t meant, so too could the Volunteers. If it’s all business, then let it be all about business.
Iamaleava will be fine, mind you. He has already made more money than most Americans ever will, and he can’t legally drink yet. And this isn’t the first of these kinds of disputes, just the first that was so public and messy.
Iamaleava might or might not get $4 million next season. Negotiations were poorly managed, costing the player leverage and reputation. The market for a guy with questionable commitment, especially during the late transfer cycle, could be limited, what with big-time schools mostly set at QB.
He will still get plenty though. Would he have developed better long term under Heupel playing for the Vols? Well, Iamaleava didn’t think it was worth finding out.
Again, his career, his choice. It’s all fair game.
As for Tennessee, it might not even take a step back this season. Having a QB focused on his next deal rarely works in the first place. This might even be a boost for team chemistry.
Long term, it’s still Tennessee. It’s still Rocky Top. Heupel still has the No. 1 quarterback recruit in the Class of 2026 — Faizon Brandon of North Carolina — committed.
Most importantly, the Vols served a very public reminder that spending cash doesn’t assure anything. Money matters, but it has to be on the right guys — just as it is in the NFL or NBA. Think of how some of those big-budget Texas A&M recruiting classes worked out.
Ohio State is believed to have had the largest NIL budget last season. If it had gone to players who cared only about their deals and not each other, the Buckeyes would have collapsed after the loss to Michigan. Instead they got stronger.
What Iamaleava, once the poster child for players getting their value when he was still a recruit, has become is proof that a team can have values, too.
A program has to stand for something.
Tennessee showed it does, and that is why Heupel, at the end of a difficult week, found Tennessee fans standing for something as well.
To cheer.
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Bradford Doolittle
CHICAGO — At 27, Luis Robert Jr. is already a relic of sorts, the last remaining player from the White Sox’s all-too-brief era of contention.
On the south side of Chicago, that era seems like a very long time ago. That’s how a pair of 100-loss seasons, including last year’s record-setting 121-loss campaign, can warp a baseball fan’s perception of time. In fact, it was only 3½ years ago when, on Oct. 12, 2021, Chicago was eliminated by the Houston Astros from the American League Division Series.
Seventeen players appeared in that game for the White Sox. Robert had a hit that day but had to leave early with leg tightness — one of a string of maladies that have bedeviled his career. He is the only one of those 17 still in Chicago.
The irony: If Robert was playing up to his potential, he wouldn’t be around, either. And if he regains his mojo, he’s as good as gone.
Robert has the chance to be the most sought-after position player in 2025’s in-season trade market. Pull up any speculative list of trade candidates and Robert is near the top. Executives around the league ask about him eagerly. Despite a lack of positive recent results — including a disastrous 2024 and a rough start to this season — it’s not hard to understand why.
“A player like Luis Robert always gets a lot of attention,” White Sox GM Chris Getz said when the season began. “We’re really happy where he’s at, and how he approached spring training and how he’s performing. We expect him to perform at a very high level.”
Robert’s tools are impossible to miss. His bat speed (93rd percentile in 2025, per Statcast) is elite. His career slugging percentage when putting the ball in play is .661, slotting him in the 89th percentile among all hitters. It’s the same figure as New York Mets superstar Juan Soto. Robert’s sprint speed (29.0 feet per second) is in the 94th percentile. When healthy, he’s a perennial contender to add a second Gold Glove to the one he won as a rookie.
Still, the allure of Robert is as much about his contract as it is about his baseline talent. Smack in his prime and less than two years removed from a 5.3 bWAR season, Robert will earn just $15 million in 2025 and then has two team-friendly club options, both at $20 million with a $2 million buyout.
No potentially available hitter has this combination: a recent record of elite production, a right-now prime age, top-of-the-charts underlying talent and a club-friendly contract with multiyear potential but plenty of off-ramps. That such a player toils for a team projected to finish in the basement has for a while now made this a matter of if, not when, he is moved.
“I didn’t think I’d be here,” Robert said through an interpreter. “But I’m glad that I’m here. This is the organization that made my dream come true. It’s the only organization that I know.”
The White Sox could certainly have dealt Robert by now, based on that contract/talent combination alone. But the luxury of the contract from Chicago’s standpoint is that it buys the team time to seek maximum return. First, Robert has to show he’s healthy — so far, so good in 2025 — then he needs to demonstrate the kind of production that would make an impact for a team in win-now mode.
“He’s just extremely talented,” first-year White Sox manager Will Venable said. “The one thing that I learned about him, and watching him practice every day, is he practices extremely hard. He’s extremely focused. He certainly has the physical ability, but he’s the type of player he is because he works really hard.”
Certainly, the skills are elite, but the production has been inconsistent and, for now, headed in the wrong direction.
When Robert broke in with Chicago a few years ago, he was a consensus top-five prospect. ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel ranked Robert fifth before the 2020 season, but in his analysis of the ranking, McDaniel noted one of the key reasons Robert is still on the White Sox five years later: “The concern is that Robert’s pitch selection is weak enough — described as a 35 on the 20-80 scale — that it could undermine his offensive tools.”
Since the beginning of last season, there have been 202 hitters with at least 450 plate appearances. According to the FanGraphs metric wRC+, only 15 have fared worse than Roberts’ 80. Only 10 have posted a worse ratio of walks to strikeouts (0.22). Only nine have a lower on-base percentage (.275).
Despite starting the season healthy, his superficial numbers during the early going are even worse than last year. As the team around him plunged to historic depths, Robert slashed to career lows across the board (.224/.278/.379 over 100 games). This year, that line is a disturbing .163/.250/.245.
There is real evidence that Robert is trying to reform. The most obvious evidence is a walk rate (10.3%) nearly double his career average. The sample is small, but there are under-the-hood indicators that suggest it could be meaningful. For example, Robert’s early chase rate (34.2%, per Statcast) is a career low and closer to the MLB standard (28.5).
For aggressive swingers well into their careers, trying to master plate discipline is a tall task. Few established players of that ilk have had a longer road to travel than Robert. During the wild-card era, there have been 1,135 players who have compiled at least 1,500 plate appearances. Only 17 have a lower walk-to-strikeout ratio than Robert’s career figure (0.21).
On that list are 133 hitters with a career mark of 0.3 W/SO or lower, who together account for 645 different seasons of at least 300 plate appearances. Only 26 times did one of those seasons result in at least a league-average ratio, or about 4%. Only one of those hitters had two such seasons, another 24 did it once and 108 never did it.
Still, 4% isn’t zero. To that end, Robert spent time during the winter working out with baseball’s current leader in W/SO — Soto.
“It’s no secret that one of the reasons why he’s one of the best players in the game is that he’s quite disciplined,” Robert said. “And that’s one of the things I want to improve.”
That’s easier said than done, and for his part, Soto said the workouts were mostly just that — workouts, though they were conducted with Robert’s hitting coach on hand. As with everyone else, it’s the sheer talent that exudes from Robert that caught Soto’s eye.
“Tremendous baseball player and tremendous athlete,” Soto told ESPN’s Jorge Castillo in Spanish. “He showed me a lot of his abilities that I didn’t know he had. That guy has tremendous strength, tremendous power. And he really surprised me a lot in everything we did.”
In this year’s Cactus League, Robert produced a .300/.386/.500 slash line, with four homers.
“If I’m able to carry on the work that I did during spring training, I’m going to have a good season,” Robert said. “Especially in that aspect of my vision of the whole plate. I know I can do it.”
Getz — who will have to determine if and when to pull the trigger on a Robert deal — lauded Robert’s efforts during the spring.
“Luis Robert is in an excellent spot,” Getz said. “The amount of three-ball counts that he had in spring training was by far the most he has had as a professional player. So that just speaks to his determination and focus to put together quality at-bats.”
It’s a bittersweet situation. The remaining vestige of the last good White Sox team remains the club’s most talented player. He’s in his age-27 season, often the apex of a hitter’s career. Yet if he reaches that apex, it’s only going to smooth his way out of town.
For the White Sox, all they can do is make sure Robert can stay focused on the field, while tuning out the trade chatter that isn’t going away.
“We’re going to support Luis,” Getz said. “I know that oftentimes he gets asked questions whether he’s going to be traded, but I’ve been really impressed with how he’s been able to remain focused on his craft. He’s very motivated to show the baseball world what he’s capable of doing.”
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