Rhett Lashlee describes SMU players' emotions of making College Football Playoff

After losing the ACC Championship Game, it was a tense wait for the SMU Mustangs and head coach Rhett Lashlee to see if they were going to make it to the College Football Playoff. In the end, the Mustangs made it but not without plenty of debate.

With some time to collect himself, Lashlee has now shared what the players at SMU were going through and where they’re at emotionally now that they’ve made it to the College Football Playoff.

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“They’re fired up,” Rhett Lashlee said. “I think they know who we are. Like I said, we’ve proven it. The consistency of performance for our team is there, and I think they know in the first quarter, we had two turnovers, we had two issues with field position on our punt team that put our defense in a real behind and when you get down 21 to 7, it’s tough after that we won the game pretty I mean we controlled the game, but we were constantly trying to come back and against the team like Clemson you can’t do that.”

In the new Playoff format, the top-five ranked conference champions earn automatic bids. So, beating Clemson would have avoided debates about whether or not SMU deserved to make the field. Instead, there were arguments that a school like Alabama should have jumped them in the rankings.

“So, I think they feel good about who we are, but they also feel like man, you know,” Lashlee said. “We’ve been so good so consistent all year one bad quarter though in a championship-type caliber game a playoff type caliber game is the difference. So, I think they’re excited they get another opportunity.”

In the end, SMU ended up with the 11 seed in the College Football Playoff. With that, they’ll begin the Playoff with a road game against Penn State in Beaver Stadium.

“I think they’re excited to play an incredible program like Penn State and a College Football Playoff. You know, we know that Happy Valley is one of the best arenas in college football to play. I mean, a hundred thousand, White Out,” Lashlee said.

“It’s gonna be incredibly tough, but if you’re a competitor you want that opportunity and, like I said, just like we got the opportunity to share the field last night with a great team. We’re gonna get the chance to do that again here in about 13 days. So, they’re excited that they get another chance to go out and show the country what SMU is all about, kind of like they did in that fourth quarter.”

SMU and Penn State are currently scheduled to kickoff at 12:00 p.m. EST on December 21st.