With as much ongoing realignment and teams moving into power conferences, somebody was bound to do this.
Introducing SMU’s football team, the first one to join a power-4 or -5 conference and win its first three games.
Things aren’t going as well for the ACC’s other additions — neither California (3-4, 0-4 ACC) or Stanford (2-5, 1-3) is enjoying their new league as much as the Mustangs. SMU opened its ACC membership with a 42-16 win over Florida State, went to Louisville and won 34-27 — dealing a loss to each team that played for last year’s ACC championship in back-to-back weeks — and then drubbed Stanford 40-10 last weekend.
Here are five things to know about SMU ahead of Saturday night’s game at Duke:
1. Coaching staff familiarity
It does get uncanny when considering how many stars aligned on the schedule for Manny Diaz’s first season as Duke’s head coach.
The Blue Devils have already played one school where he worked (Middle Tennessee), a head coach who fired him during a season (Mack Brown at Texas), and his alma mater (Florida State, where he started his coaching career). Remaining on Duke’s schedule is the other place he’s been a head coach (Miami) and another of his former programs (N.C. State, where he got his first on-field role).
And then there’s this one, facing an SMU team that’s coached by his former offensive coordinator.
Rhett Lashlee is in his third season with the Mustangs. The two years before he got his first head coaching job, he ran Diaz’s offense at Miami.
“Rhett Lashlee and his staff, of course we know well and they do a good job and they’ve got themselves competing for an ACC championship,” Diaz said. “But we’re in the mix as well. We talk about controlling our own destiny and that’s a great thing.”
2. QB change
Preston Stone completed 60% of his passes last year, topped 3,000 yards, had 28 touchdowns through the air and only six interceptions, and added nearly 200 yards and four touchdowns on the ground.
He started SMU’s first three games and was replaced early in the third one.
Kevin Jennings is the quarterback now, the 6-foot, 185-pounder from Oak Cliff, Texas, having taken over and emerged as one of the best QBs in the ACC.
“Just watching film on him, he presents a lot of challenges,” safety Jaylen Stinson said. “Might be one of the best quarterbacks we’re going to face this year.”
Jennings’ first start was a 66-42 win over TCU in which his stats — 14 of 19 for 137 yards and two touchdowns through the air, 41 rushing — were tame, given the score.
In three ACC wins, Jennings has proven to be more comfortable … and explosive. The combined numbers of his last three games are: 54-for-77 (70.1%) for 857 yards and six touchdowns, one interception; 29 rushes for 143 yards and one touchdown.
3. Skill stars (minus one)
Jennings isn’t doing all of this on his own, obviously.
The first non-QB you’ve got to know for SMU is Brashard Smith. He’s SMU’s leading rusher, with 628 yards on 91 carries (6.9 yards per rush). The 5-10, 196-pounder’s usage goes beyond that, though; he has 15 catches for 147 yards and has 196 yards on kickoff returns — adding up to an average of 138.4 all-purpose yards per game, fourth in the ACC.
The top two receivers have similar stats and different uses. Jake Bailey has 17 catches for 260 yards and operates almost exclusively out of the slot; Key’Shawn Smith has 16 catches for 242 yards and stays on the perimeter.
SMU did suffer a significant blow earlier this week.
Tight end RJ Maryland suffered a season-ending injury against Stanford last weekend. He is SMU’s leading receiver (24 catches, 359 yards, four touchdowns). He’s also the son of Russell Maryland, the former All-America pick and two-time national champion at Miami who was the No. 1 pick in the 1991 NFL draft.
4. Run-stoppers
Comparison stats can be enlightening; SMU’s offense has gained 70 first downs on passes and its defense has allowed 70 first downs on passes.
SMU has 47 more first downs than its opponent because its offense has rushed for 77 first downs and its defense has given up 31 of them on the ground (penalty differential, 15-14, is the third leg of first-down tracking).
The Mustangs have held four teams (Houston Christian, TCU, FSU and Stanford) to less than 70 yards rushing this season. Even in the other three games where SMU’s opponent has had triple-digit rushing yards, Nevada (3.4), BYU (3.8) and Louisville (3.9) all had averages under 4 yards per carry.
If you’re going to move the ball against SMU, it’s likely going to be through the air. TCU had 415 passing yards in that shootout; Louisville had 329 a few weeks ago.
Where the Mustangs’ pass defense is effective is creating negative plays; SMU is tied for sixth in the country with 12 interceptions and tied for 46th with 16 sacks.
5. To the winner goes … dark horse status?
SMU was picked to finish seventh in the ACC’s preseason poll, and Duke was picked 11th.
The winner of this game will be in decent position — though, short of controlling their destiny — to reach the ACC championship game.
For SMU, it’s simple: The Mustangs are unbeaten in the ACC and play one of the other three unbeaten teams in league play (Pittsburgh) next weekend.
For Duke, it’s more complicated, but still within grasp: The Blue Devils would deal a first ACC loss to SMU and hold the head-to-head tiebreaker, and play another of the ACC’s unbeaten teams (Miami) on the road next weekend.
For both teams, this much is clear: They have a big matchup against each other in Durham this weekend, followed by another big matchup next weekend.
