Rhett Lashlee addresses critics saying SMU did not deserve to be in College Football Playoff
Rhett Lashlee didn’t shy away from the elephant in the room.
The SMU head football coach understood the outside narrative that was coming after his 11th-seeded Mustangs were demolished by No. 6-seed Penn State, 38-10, in the first game of Saturday’s first-round College Football Playoff tripleheader.
SMU’s lopsided 28-point loss in Happy Valley was the widest margin of victory among all four Playoff games won by double-digits.
“Look, it is what it is. We didn’t play well enough to say anything against what’s going to be written. It’s going to be written: should we have been in, or did we belong?” Lashlee said, addressing it early in his postgame press conference Saturday. “And that’s fine. Everyone here is welcomed to write that. You were here, we didn’t play very good today. But this team is a quality team. We had a good team, we deserved to be here. We earned the right to be here. Disappointed we didn’t play to the level that validates that.”
Rhett Lashlee praises SMU’s ‘special’ season despite Playoff loss
The Mustangs (11-3) were a controversial pick to even make the College Football Playoff‘s first-ever 12-team field after dropping just two spots between the penultimate CFP Top 25 rankings and Selection Day following a 34-31 loss to then-No. 17 Clemson in the ACC Championship game Dec. 7 in Charlotte. SMU’s inclusion into the CFP field ultlimately pushed No. 11 out of the Playoff mix after the Tigers and Arizona State earned automatic bids as the ACC and Big 12 champions, respectively.
And as the host Nittany Lions rolled up a 28-0 lead by halftime Saturday, those criticisms re-emerged on social media as college football fans — including Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin and Alabama GM Courtney Morgan — openly questioned the Playoff committee’s decision-making.
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But for Lashlee, all he was concerned with was his disappointed team.
“But it’s hard right now, because that’s a really crushed locker room. A lot of seniors that know they’re not going to play anymore. This team is not together anymore,” Lashlee continued. “The further they get from this moment, they’ll realize what they did this year and what a special year it was. Only one team is going to hold up the trophy at the end and it’s not going to be us. But what they did was special.”
Lane Kiffin blasts CFP committee amid Penn State-SMU game
Lane Kiffin was at it again Saturday afternoon, going after the College Football Playoff committee. After putting them on blast with Indiana’s non-competitive loss to Notre Dame, the Ole Miss coach took another shot in the middle of SMU’s game against Penn State.
At the time, Penn State led SMU 28-0 at halftime. An ugly offensive performance from the Mustangs just snowballed as the game continued.
Kiffin went straight to Twitter, once again arguing that SEC teams like Ole Miss, Alabama, South Carolina, etc., were more deserving.
“Way to keep us on the edge of our seats Committee …. Riveting,” Kiffin wrote on Twitter.
Nick Kosko contributed to this report.