Moses still not medically cleared for SMU's opener at Florida State
Ahmaad Moses is questionable on the ACC availability report with Monday's opener days away, and Rhett Lashlee says the safety a court already ruled eligible still needs a doctor's sign-off, not a judge's.
Moses is eligible, but he isn't cleared to play yet
Ahmaad Moses' return went from legal footnote to fact this summer, but not all the way to a lock. A Dallas federal court granted Moses and dozens of other players a temporary restraining order as part of the fallout from the Wisne v. NCAA ruling, which hands a fifth season to athletes who graduated high school in 2022 — a court in Dallas County signed off on August 27, days after the ACC had passed a resolution barring anyone who signed a pro contract from returning to college ball. Moses never signed one. He went undrafted last spring after a combine MRI turned up a herniated disk, had spinal fusion surgery instead of chasing an NFL roster spot, and spent the offseason rehabbing on the bet this would break his way.
As of Thursday, the holdup wasn't the courts, it was a doctor's signature. "We are very hopeful. It's not 100% yet. He's still got to get medically cleared. That could happen today or tomorrow, but it has not officially happened yet," Lashlee said, per Dallas Sports Journal, adding of the legal side, "it's the courts that said he can play." Moses is listed as questionable on the ACC's availability report, but Lashlee wasn't hedging on the outcome: "I don't think we have any reason to believe it won't" get resolved in time. If it does, SMU gets back a safety who led the team with 104 tackles and added 5 interceptions last season on his way to a First Team All-ACC nod — not camp depth, the anchor of the secondary, walking into a Florida State offense breaking in a brand new starting quarterback.
Norvell says stopping Jennings is his whole gameplan, and his job may ride on it
The jammed finger Kevin Jennings picked up in early August never turned into the story it threatened to be. Rhett Lashlee told ESPN's Pete Thamel by August 18 that Jennings had resumed throwing with "no pain," Brett McMurphy had him working through 7-on-7 two days later and throwing four straight touchdowns, and a source told On3 simply, "He looked great." Covers' aggregated injury table still lists Jennings as Questionable with a finger designation — the one hedge left after three straight weeks of upbeat camp reports — but nobody around the program is talking about him missing Tallahassee.
Florida State coach Mike Norvell spent this week explaining why that health update matters to him specifically. "He's just such an explosive player. He can move, he can obviously get the ball out quick," Norvell said. "They're going to play fast. It's one of the fastest-playing offenses in the country. We've got to try to keep him contained, and just not let him be comfortable sitting back there picking you apart." He called the whole thing "a championship-caliber game," per Tomahawk Nation, which is a generous way to describe a Week 1 game that CBS Sports' John Talty has flagged as one of three that could decide whether Norvell keeps his job — Talty gave him the maximum 5.0 hot-seat rating heading into Monday, the hottest number on the board.
SMU finished last season with a bowl win over Arizona and a No. 2 ACC ballot
SMU closed out last season by beating Arizona 24-19 on January 3, the finish to a stretch that also included wins over Miami (26-20), Boston College (45-13) and Louisville (38-6), with the lone loss coming at California, 35-38, in late November. At ACC media days in July, Lashlee made the case for where that leaves the program: "We've got the most wins in the ACC the last three years... we're 14-2 in the league, which is two games better than anybody else," he said, adding that last year's team went 8-6 against the SEC.
The league's preseason media poll backed him up. SMU landed at No. 2 in the ACC with 6 first-place votes, trailing only Miami's 165, and ahead of Clemson, Georgia Tech and defending champion Florida State's own ballot, per Brett McMurphy and Pete Nakos. It's a projection, not a result — the record is still 0-0 — but it's the clearest sign yet of how the league sees this roster walking into a Monday night that both sides are treating as more than a season opener.
SMU is a slight favorite in prime time at Doak Campbell
It's Monday night at Florida State to open the season, with SMU landing on the road for a rare Labor Day kickoff at Doak Campbell Stadium in Tallahassee. The line opened at SMU -2.5, with the total set at 53.5 — a middling number for a game both coaches are describing in playoff-atmosphere terms rather than a Week 1 feeling-out process.
Florida State enters 1-0 after a 34-17 win over New Mexico State to open the season, a result that did little to quiet the Norvell noise given the opponent. SMU has none of that pressure attached to it yet, just a healthy quarterback, a safety waiting on a doctor, and a chance to make an opposing coach's hot seat several degrees hotter before the month is out.