SMU showed up to ACC Kickoff with a chip on its shoulder, and Rhett Lashlee wasn't shy about explaining why. The Mustangs went 8-3 in the regular season a year ago, ran off a 6-1 mark in ACC play, then watched Duke leapfrog them into the conference title game on tiebreakers after SMU collapsed late at Cal. Lashlee hasn't forgotten it, and he made sure everyone in the room heard about it.
SMU's Rhett Lashlee congratulates Duke on winning last year's ACC title: "When you win the ACC, they should have been in the playoffs instead of a team from the Sun Belt. Hopefully that doesn't happen again"
That's the backdrop for the pitch: SMU isn't just trying to get back to Charlotte, it's trying to prove last year wasn't a fluke. Lashlee leaned on the receipts — most wins in the ACC over the last 3 years, most wins and road wins of any program in the state of Texas, and an unbeaten streak at home in league play. His numbers, not just his mouth, are doing the talking now.
SMU's Rhett Lashlee: "We have the most wins in the ACC the last 3 years. We've got the most wins & most road wins in the state of Texas. We've yet to lose an ACC home game. We're 14-2 in the league, which is 2 games better than anybody else. So we've had a good start."
But the real headline out of Frisco is the Heisman push for Kevin Jennings. SMU has reportedly branded the campaign "K7NG OF DALLAS," and it's not just a hashtag — the school is putting Jennings' name on a new recovery center at the football complex, according to reporting on the launch. Jennings enters his senior year 19-7 as a starter with 7,709 career passing yards and 55 touchdowns, numbers that put him within range of SMU's all-time passing marks. Among returning ACC quarterbacks, nobody else touches those career totals in yards, total offense, or winning percentage.
Lashlee and SMU's staff are publicly making the case for Jennings as a national Heisman name.
Jennings, for his part, is playing the part of the confident senior without overdoing it. "Confidence takes you a long way. I like to go out there and play free," he said at the podium — the kind of quote a program wants its Heisman guy putting out into the world right as the campaign kicks off.
Jennings summed up his mindset heading into a season where he's suddenly the face of the Heisman push.
None of it works if the offensive line doesn't hold up, and lineman PJ Williams made it clear he's taking that personally. "I treat him like I'd treat my sister... I'm like his personal protector. I want to protect him at all costs," Williams said — the kind of buy-in a Heisman campaign actually needs on the field, not just in the marketing.
SMU OL PJ Williams' about protecting QB Kevin Jennings: "I treat him like I'd treat my sister. If someone's messing w/Kevin I got his back regardless. Anyone touch Kevin or Kevin's on the ground, I'm like, 'Kevin, who touched you? Where'd it come from?' So, I'm like his personal protector. I want to protect him at all costs”
History is working against SMU here — no Mustang has won the Heisman since Doak Walker in 1948, and the program is still chasing its first ACC title since jumping from the AAC. But the Mustangs open the season on Labor Day night against Florida State at Doak Campbell Stadium, a primetime stage tailor-made for the kind of opening statement a Heisman campaign needs. If Jennings delivers and SMU avoids another late-season stumble, Lashlee's version of events — that his team belongs ahead of the Dukes and Sun Belt darlings of the world — gets a lot harder to argue with.