Rhett Lashlee explains why Preston Stone did not play vs. Penn State

SMU came into the College Football Playoff with an even more interesting dynamic at quarterback with Preston Stone having entered the NCAA Transfer Portal. That then had to come into consideration late in the game for the Mustangs.

Rhett Lashlee discussed if they had thought about putting Stone into the game at all in place for Kevin Jennings following the 38-10 loss at Penn State on Saturday. He said that they did late in wanting to keep Jennings, who will remain at Southern Methodist, healthy. Still, they all agreed to not do so in order to preserve Stone as well.

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“After Kevin threw the last touchdown? Felt like that was a good way to finish, as good a way to finish the day as we could the way it went,” Lashlee said postgame. “We talked to Preston. It was his option and, look, I get it. Just like, at that point, we didn’t want Kevin to go back in and get hurt. You know, we don’t want him to go into the offseason hurt. Preston’s about to have an opportunity to go play somewhere else and, in fairness to him, it would be a shame to roll him out there for a drive or two that doesn’t have an impact on the game and him get hurt.

“It was a great conversation with he and us,” said Lashlee.

Jennings was already ending the worst game of his season this fall. He finished 20-36 (55.6%) for 195 yards, a touchdown on his final drive of the fall, and three interceptions. A pair of those were pick-sixes that put them in a 14-0 deficit that they’d never come back from. He also took three sacks while under pressure for much of the morning.

However, considering his plans to transfer elsewhere, Stone wasn’t their option at QB2. You can then further understand that considering the news of his signing with Northwestern coming right after the game.

With that, Keldric Luster, a redshirt freshman, took the final snaps on the last drive of the game for SMU.

“We just decided to let Keldric go with it,” said Lashlee. “Keldric’s going to be part of this team next year. It was good to get him out there.”

Stone could have made one final appearance for SMU in the CFP. Instead, though, both sides decided against it in what they thought was best for each of them.

“It was all positive things as far as that goes but it’s just no reason to put him at risk for his future either.”