Everything Rhett Lashlee said after SMU beat Houston Christian

SMU head coach Rhett Lashlee met with the media following Saturday’s 59-7 win over Houston Christian. Here’s the rundown on what Lashlee said after the game.

Opening statement: “Obviously, good to be 2 -0 and start a little faster. Thought it was just a really good job all around, especially by our defense. We stopped the run really well in the first half. And the three turnovers, obviously scoring on one always helps. And then thought after that first drive, the offense got going, especially in that first quarter. And we did a nice job of kind of taking control of the game early and then finding a way to finish.”

On Brashard Smith’s first two performances this season: “Well, I’m gonna tell you the truth, which means I need to, right? I don’t need to lie to you. So we were familiar with him, I mean, going all the way back to when we first got to Miami, he was at Palmetto High School. He was a big-time recruit at the time he was going to Florida, so we started recruiting him. He ended up staying home and going to Miami. And at the time we recruited him to be a slot. He predominantly played slot in high school, which was really good. He ended up having to play quarterback in high school senior year cuz their quarterback got hurt, but he was a slot receiver. So he came in to do that, and our first year we had two older guys. You know, at the time Mike Harley and then Xavier Shepa, who’s their senior now.

“So he wasn’t gonna play as a freshman, but we saw how explosive and talented he was. So we got him in some games and got him some touches and some at running back in all different ways. And so you could kind of see the natural running ability he had then. He’s just good with the ball in his hands. You know, and then, of course, over the last two years, they played him a lot at slot. But even last year, a couple of times, not only in kick return, he had some nice runs. And the honest part I was gonna get to is I was watching the Kansas City Chiefs play middle of the year last year, and Isaiah Pacheco was running. And I said, that’s Rashard Smith, he’s ten pounds heavier than Rashard. But, and at that point, I’m like, could Rashard do it? Well, I was looking, Rashard’s only ten pounds lighter than him. So I’m like, well, yeah, he can do it. Because he just runs with that downhill mentality for a smaller back. Can definitely get on the edge, he can really catch the football. And then stylistically, the offense is he fits. And so when he decided to transfer and wanted to come here, and we didn’t really have a need at slot, kind of like we did in Miami. We just said, man, he’s just too explosive of a talent to see if he can play running back. And so far he can.”

On adding Brashard Smith to a full running back room: “At the time, we weren’t, even when he, the first maybe two to three weeks, he was in the pool, we weren’t gonna take him. We were just like, we don’t, to your point, we don’t have a need. And they said, well, he’s an All-American kick returner, not a bad thing. We knew him, he wanted to come. And that’s when it kind of formulated in my head, well, let’s see if he can play running back. He could do either or, to your point, we had depth at both, but you never know how injuries go. But we made the commitment to him and told him, hey, when you’re coming here, we’re gonna start you running back in spring and see how that goes. And he’s done a nice job picking it up.”

On rotating SMU’s quarterbacks: “Yeah, I mean, obviously the way the game went and they play a lot of cover two and keep everything in front of them. And then after we had a couple of good drives kind of attacking that, they went to more of like a drop eight cover three. And so again, they’re just keeping everything in front, five, six-man boxes kind of making you run the football.

“So we didn’t get a lot of just, I mean, I think Preston threw nine, Kevin threw 14. But yeah, we intended, we came to the game with the same approach. Preston’s gonna start, Kevin’s gonna take the third and fourth series, we’re gonna go back to Preston. And then by the time I think we got back to Preston, five or six drive, it was 28 or 35 to nothing. And so at that point, we just were gonna let them both keep playing until we felt we could turn over to Keldric. Kind of wanted to get to Keldrick quicker. But we didn’t want to just mail it in. We wanted to practice starting in the second half because that’s gonna happen in every game the rest of the way. So we wanted to get both Preston and Kevin a drive in the second half. And so we did. But overall, I think they did a nice job executing offense, doing what we needed to do, valuing the football and I’ll see the film and see what else kind of stands out.”

On the turnovers the defense forced: “Yeah, it was huge. We scored, and I believe Ahmad’s interception was next, and so then we score, and then we score, then Tank scores. So, it was good. I mean, not only to get the ball back a lot quicker because they’re getting off the field quick, but the turnover, short fields, even scoring, I mean, man, that changes a game very, very quickly, and it takes a lot of pressure off everybody.”

On the team’s consistent urgency and focus: “Yeah, I thought we played fine. I thought we played well in the second half. You know, we were able to go out. Our defense got to stop. We were able to go score. We got to stop and score, and then that kind of put it over with. But, you know, the first quarter was great. It was a great start. Had a lot to do with that. At the second quarter, I do think we hit a lull. We got a couple penalties that hurt us. We let them score, and then we had to punt somewhere in there. So, and I did think we started, when it got to 35, nothing. We started to really relax there for a minute. But they pulled out of it, and we just told them at halftime, yeah, we gotta be a finishing team. We gotta be able to start fast in the second half as well. We gotta be disciplined. I think we had two penalties in the second half that weren’t good, but we improved a little bit there. So, they did a nice job of finishing and not kind of letting the guard down.”

On how teams are preparing for SMU DE Elijah Roberts: “Yeah, well, I mean, I haven’t seen this film yet from a defensive standpoint, so I don’t know what all did or didn’t happen as much tonight. You know, I mean, it’s kinda sometimes those deals where you got like a locked down corner, and you’re like, well, man, he doesn’t have any interceptions. Yeah, cuz nobody throws at him. Sometimes that way like, hey, the guy had a big year last year. They’re gonna slide their protection to him. They’re gonna put the back that way. They’re gonna run away from him, those things. But I don’t know if that’s the case yet. I thought last week, look, their plan was to run the ball, run the ball, run the ball, shrink the clock. They did, until the last ride, it was never really a game where you could really get after the passer. Tonight, we did get after the passer a couple of times, which was good. So I’m not worried about it. Like I said, he’s gonna get his when the time’s right. And if not, he’s opening it up for other guys.”

On the importance of Jahfari Harvey and Isaiah Smith: “It’s big, we feel like we got a lot of depth there on the D -line and we’re gonna need them all. And the competition level is about to really raise its level on us. So it was good for those guys to kind of get that good feeling going tonight.”

On moving into the Garry Weber EndZone Complex and the atmosphere in the stadium: “Yeah, it’s like you move into your house two weeks before you’re supposed to, you know, and so you’re excited and it’s awesome and it’s been great. We’ve been operating out of here since Monday. The kids have loved it but there’s still a lot going on, you know, so you’re kind of sharing the space and there’s no issues with that. We’ve loved every minute of this. This facility is incredible. We knew it was a game-changer.

“We knew it was going to be everything we thought it would be and more for our players. It’s just it’s exceeded all expectations. And then the crowd, I mean, I think it was a really good crowd for first home game, you know, for this setting and we’re excited about the games to come. We got three straight home games against three big -time opponents and at least from what I’m told they’re all pretty close to being sold out. So we’re gonna be excited. I thought our students were awesome. I mean the students were there when we came out to start the game and we appreciate that. Like I get it, man. If I was in college I’d want to hang out on the Boulevard a long time too. Awesome for them to be on the team right now. They were loud. They were awesome and we’re really appreciative of that.”

On the importance of displaying a dominant performance (after last week): “Look, you’re looking around the country. There’s not as many games last week. You’re looking tonight, and I’ve only seen a few scores. But it’s hard to win in college football, right? Especially early in the season. People are trying to figure out who they are. So a lot got made last week. I think Nevada’s gonna have a good football team this year. It’s only normal that a lot more gets made of our poor play early, not our great finish. If we’d have come out tonight and been real sluggish and not taking care of business, then yeah, I think there might have been cause for concern. We really weren’t alarmed internally, and it was good for our guys to confirm that with how they came out just very business like and started fast and took control of the game early.”

On Derrick McFall and other freshman getting playing time: “It’s awesome. I mean, when you have a game like this. You get the opportunity to play, especially with the new rule that freshmen can play four games and still red shirt. It’s awesome for all those guys. A lot of guys got to play their first college snap tonight, which was really cool. But then guys, you specifically asked about Derek McFaul. I mean, look, the running back room can get thin and small in a hurry. And so there’s no question there’s a chance we’re gonna need him this year. And so every rep and every snap he gets is valuable experience. He’s gotten the, I’ve now played college football, first snaps out of his system. And so now he can start to really improve.”

On the progression of Kevin Jennings: “Yeah, I think the biggest thing, he’s definitely confident, which he should be, right? The more and more you play, I think the biggest thing is valuing the football. He’s an electric player who can make plays and is aggressive, which we want him to be. I mean, you don’t ever wanna take a quarterback or a playmaker and take away their natural abilities to make plays. At the same time, we’ve got to value the football. And I think in two games so far, he’s shown his willingness when it’s there to take it and when it’s not, to take off and run, throw it away even, whatever that may be, live to play another down. So I think that scenario’s really improved.”

On injury updates for Andrew Chamblee and Jaylan Knighton: “Yeah, Jaylan wasn’t 100%, could have gone, but we just chose to hold him, we dressed him, but we chose to hold him if we could and we were able to. It was good to get Chamblee in there, we got him in there pretty early. I mean, there’s nothing wrong with Justin, but I think around 28 or 35, we got him in there and I haven’t seen everything from him. But I know Coach Justice felt like he was moving good enough. And so on one hand, we could have not played him, but he was healthy enough to play. So let’s get him out there, get some rust off and whatnot, cuz we’re gonna need him in the weeks to come, so that was good.”

On SMU’s offensive line: “You know, and I don’t think we had a sack tonight. I don’t see it on here. But I think we’ve done a nice job in pass pro. I mean, when you run for 369 yards, it really doesn’t matter. I mean, that’s hard to do. So I thought it was really good for their first outing together. We feel really good that that’s the five. They stay healthy that’s the five with Chamblee rotating at tackle, with Nate and Ben rotating in at guard. We think that five can get better and better. And so I feel good that that’s where we’ll stay as long as we’re able to.”