Nine months ago Casey Woods was drawing up SMU's offense. Now he's on the other sideline, bringing Missouri State to Dallas to face the program he helped turn into an ACC contender.
Bush’s Picks
MOSTSMU
MOSTSMU
OverUnder
Best BetSMU
SMU brings back a Heisman-caliber quarterback and ACC Championship-game pedigree against a Group of Five team playing just its second FBS season. This is about as clean a moneyline lean as the schedule offers the Mustangs all year, and there's no signal here suggesting otherwise.
Missouri State
+Returns 61 players, 30 letterman, 8 starters from bowl team
+Casey Woods brings Power Four scheme knowledge to CUSA
−Still just second season at the FBS level
−Talent and depth gap vs ACC-caliber roster is real
SMU
+Kevin Jennings back with 19 career wins as starter
+CFP appearance, ACC title game trip last season
−Lost both coordinators, now running co-coordinator setup
−Lost top two rushers, leaning on transfer at running back
SMU enters the fall with Kevin Jennings back for a third season as the starter, and the Mustangs aren't shy about the expectations — the program's already running a Heisman campaign for him. Jennings owns 19 career wins as a starter and led SMU to a CFP berth and an ACC title game appearance, so a non-conference date against a Conference USA opponent is exactly the kind of week Rhett Lashlee wants his quarterback rolling through untested.
The subplot here is Woods himself. He spent four seasons as SMU's offensive coordinator before Missouri State handed him his first head-coaching job in December, and he knows this roster, this scheme, and this building better than almost anyone walking into it as a visitor. That inside knowledge only goes so far when the talent gap is what it is, but it's the angle that makes an otherwise lopsided-on-paper game worth a second look.
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MOST Missouri State
SMU SMU
Missouri State is only in year two of life in the FBS, coming off a 7-6 season and a bowl trip under the previous staff, and Woods inherited a group that returns 61 players and eight starters. That continuity matters against a schedule that already sent the Bears to Texas A&M to open the year — this is a program getting reps against Power Four competition it wouldn't have seen a few seasons ago, even if the results are lopsided more often than not.
Missouri State Bears
Sep 19?vs Marshall—
Sep 12?vs Lindenwood—
Sep 5?@ Texas A&M—
SMU Mustangs
Sep 19?@ Louisville—
Sep 12?vs UC Davis—
Sep 7?@ Florida State—
Recent form.
SMU is doing its own rebuilding behind the scenes. Lashlee lost both coordinators this offseason — Scott Symons left the defense for the Dallas Cowboys, and Woods' old OC seat is now split between two co-coordinators — and the run game needed an overhaul after losing its top two rushers, with transfer Kendrick Raphael in to replace nearly 1,000 yards on the ground. None of that changes the favorite in this one, but it's why SMU's margin of victory is the more interesting question than the outcome.
