Rhett Lashlee announces Kevin Jennings will be starting QB moving forward
On Tuesday, SMU head coach Rhett Lashlee announced Kevin Jennings will be the team’s starting quarterback moving forward. In the first three weeks of the season, Jennings split snaps with QB1 Preston Stone.
“We’ve got a clear direction now on consistency. Kevin Jennings is going to be our starting quarterback,” Lashlee said. “It was not an easy decision, in terms of the fact that Preston’s a winner. He loves this place. He’s given a lot to this program.
“It is not all about Preston. It’s just this gives our team the best chance moving forward right now and that’s what we’re gonna do. But, like I said, he’s a winner. It’s not the last you’ll hear of Preston Stone but that’s what we’re gonna do with Kevin moving forward and we got a lot of confidence in our football team to clean up the things we need to clean up.”
Through three games this season, Jennings has tallied 342 passing yards and a touchdown while completing 56.9% of his passes and throwing one interception. In comparison, Stone has recorded 336 passing and three touchdowns while throwing one interception and completing 58.1% of his passes.
Although the pair boast extremely similar statistics in the passing game, Jennings has an advantage in the ground game. He’s averaging 6.4 yards per carry and has one rushing score. Meanwhile, Stone only averages 2.6 yards per rushing attempt and is yet to find the end zone.
After starting in SMU’s 18-15 loss to BYU, Stone was benched for Jennings, who was the only quarterback able to lead the Mustangs on scoring drives. After the game, Lashlee weighed in on the clear difference in results between his two QBs.
Watch College Football Games Live -Try for Free Fubo! Click HERE NOW
Save $30 on your first month of Fubo by CLICKING HERE NOW! For a limited time, you can get your first month of Fubo for as low as $49.99. Stream ESPN, ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC and 200+ top channels of live TV and sports without cable. (Participating plans only. Taxes and fees may apply.)
“We went into the game with the plan of predominantly playing Preston,” Lashlee said. “Told Kevin we planned to put him in the third series, it wasn’t a guarantee. If we would have gone down and scored the first two drives we weren’t going to do that.
“But we weren’t going to go back and forth, it’s not fair to either one of them. The first two drives were really poor, really poor offensively. So we went to Kevin, which again is part of the original plan, and he gave us a spark.”
With three games already under their belt due to playing in Week 0, SMU will have a bye this weekend and a chance to adjust its offense to Lashlee’s decision. SMU’s next game will be against TCU on Sept. 21 at 5 p.m. ET.