For about a week and a half, SMU fans were quietly panicking over a locker room door. Kevin Jennings, the redshirt senior who's supposed to be the guy under center when the Mustangs kick off their season at Florida State, jammed the index finger on his throwing hand during fall camp. Head coach Rhett Lashlee tried to squash the alarm early, calling it "a really bad jam" with "no long-term effects," but any QB1 with a banged-up hand in August is going to get attention regardless of how the coaching staff frames it.
Turns out the staff wasn't just doing damage control. On3's Brett McMurphy reported Jennings went through 7-on-7 drills on Wednesday and threw 4 straight touchdowns, with a source telling On3 he "looked great" and hasn't shown any lingering effects from the injury.
SMU QB Kevin Jennings continues progressing from a jammed index finger on his throwing hand. On Wednesday, he went thru 7 on 7 drills, throwing 4 straight TDs. “He looked great,” source told @On3. Jennings has not shown any lingering effects from the injury & should be ready for opener at FSU on Sept. 7
That's about as clean a recovery report as a program can ask for 3 weeks before kickoff. Jennings jammed the finger in a locker room door on a Friday during camp, according to ESPN, and was expected to be limited for roughly 1 to 2 weeks — a timeline that now lines up perfectly with him throwing full-speed touchdowns again.
The stakes here go beyond just avoiding a scare. SMU opens the 2026 season on the road at Florida State on Monday, September 7, a nationally televised ACC opener for both programs and SMU's first-ever trip to Doak Campbell Stadium. It's also the second all-time meeting between the two, with SMU having taken the first one 42-16 back in 2024. Jennings being right on time and pain-free heading into that matchup matters — this isn't a game the Mustangs want to be breaking in a backup for.
So for now, the injury that had SMU fans nervously refreshing camp reports looks like a nonstory. Four straight touchdown throws in team drills is about the loudest way possible to say the finger's fine — and with the FSU opener circled for Sept. 7, that's exactly the update this program needed.