Everything Rhett Lashlee said after SMU beat Pitt

SMU head coach Rhett Lashlee met with the media after the 45-28 win over Pitt in Ford Stadium. Here’s the rundown on what Lashlee told reporters.

Opening statement: “A great win for our team, great team win. Probably played our most complete game of the year, start to finish, both offense, defense, special teams. It was just a really good team win. We started fast, so that was good for the offense to go down score, and thought just good to settle us in. Our defense, I thought, I mean to give up three points in a half to an offense that I think is really talented was really special. And then, for us offensively, I think just to have the balance running and throwing was big. Really proud of Kevin, how he played and bounced back, just like we kind of thought he would, but still have to go do it. And so, like I said, really good team win against a really good football team. I mean, there was a reason they were undefeated and Pat Narduzzi’s, I was just thinking this earlier today, he’s been there a decade. You’re a decade somewhere, you know what you’re doing. He’s built a great culture there and a great team, and we don’t take for granted that we were able to beat a good team.”

On what impressed him about his SMU team the most offensively: “I don’t know, that’s a good question. I mean, I felt really strongly our guys were ready to play, and last night and even this morning, and then after warm ups, I knew they were ready to play. I think, probably, the toughness. I think there was a lot of toughness that our offense showed tonight. I think our O-line, I mean, every one of those guys play on the O-line is playing pretty banged up. From JO to Logan Parr to Savion Byrd, excuse me, to PJ to Jakai, and then I know Ben gets in there and Chamblee, but they’re playing hurt. And that’s what you do if you’re a lineman, you know, you’re tough. We talked about this game being about toughness. We pride ourselves on being a tough and disciplined and united team, and we’re playing a team that prides itself on being tough. Here we are in our ninth game. Last week was physical. We had some guys banged up, and so I think for the O-line to do that. Both Brashard and LJ have been in and out bang up. We’re getting thinner at wide out, Jake wasn’t able to play, RJ is out, Mello’s been out. Key’Shawn was really tough tonight. Thought Moochie and Jordan made plays. Roderick Daniels, what can you say about that guy? He’s just a great football player. And then for Kevin, I thought Kevin showed a lot of toughness. On the spot, best thing I can say what impressed me most was their toughness.”

On Kevin Jennings responding: “I mean, Kevin responded like we all thought he would, because we know him. You know, when a game like that happens, yes, every time I saw anyone, all the way till this game today, I got asked about six turnovers and that’s fair, and that means he’s getting asked about it. I get it, until you go out and prove that what we thought was true, that you’d had seven stars, six great ones and one rough one. Well, 6-to-1 is a pretty good ratio. Every quarterback has a tough start. This is what we thought, but he’s got to go out and do it and that’s hard. But I thought D’Eriq King did a great job leading him through the week. It’s great to have a guy that’s a former player, been in that situation before. I mean, I thought he just got him ready to go, and our offensive staff did a good job getting our offense ready to go, I thought. And then he just, he cut it loose and played. He didn’t play timid. That’s what you were worried about as a coach, he going to go out there and try not to make mistakes and he didn’t. The throw he made to Moochie on the third-and-long, back shoulder. He made a couple other great throws, the touchdown throw to Brashard, the throw late to Key’Shawn. I mean, even the one that got called back, he was playing free and playing aggressive, and that’s what we wanted him to do.”

On how SMU’s been able to keep this rolling: “You want, like the coach speak answer or the real one. I mean, it’s kind of all the same, like we still had, no matter whether someone else lost or not, we had to just keep doing and we still do. We’ve got three games left and we go out and don’t take care of our business, and it doesn’t matter. But there, to your point, there was no guarantees. There was four undefeated conference teams coming into this day, now there’s two. So I don’t know, our team and our staff has done a really good job of literally being present and just working on chasing the standard that this team has set for ourselves each week. They did it tonight at a high level. The last time this happened, we went on the road and beat Louisville. It was a big win for our program. We had two weeks to sit, be told how great we were before we had to go to Stanford. It’s gonna be no different. Now we’re gonna have two weeks, we’ll see where we’re ranked whenever we know at the end of the day, to your point, we control our own destiny. And in two weeks, a team that’s pretty good, that beat us last year is coming in here. I think it means that SMU, our program belongs at this level and our program is capable of competing at a high level at this level. Which we all believe, but it’s no different than everything else I just said about Kevin, we had to go do it. We’re not done. We’ve not accomplished anything yet, but we put ourselves in position that in the middle of November, we’re competing for a conference championship in the ACC in our first year in the league. So I think our players and our staff deserve a ton of credit for that.”

On SMU changing the defensive culture: “Well, two things. One, Scott Symons, Maurice Crum, Ricky Hunley, Calvin Thibodeaux, Sam Dunnam and everybody else on that defensive staff. They’re special. They’re really good, and I’m so thankful they’re on my side. And, you know, in Year 1, kind of came in with what we had, went out and improved on that for Year 2 and last year had a championship defense. And then to take it to the level it’s this year, have the No. 1 rush defense in the ACC now 10 games into the season, think speaks volume of their ability to recruit, develop relationships, motivate, put people in position, teach them all those things. And the second thing is, I mean, just as equally as important, give the credit to our players. At SMU, we’ve been known as an offensive school, and a lot of times that doesn’t come with toughness. Now we really believe that we’re a tough team on offense, but our defensive guys, starting last year, changed the culture of SMU football from a defensive standpoint, with what they did last year and what they’ve done so far this year. It all started with physicality. We have a group that believes in physicality, swarming to the ball, and a lot of that has to do with stopping the run. Our players and our defensive staff deserve all that credit and they went out and they put the work in, because that’s how life works. You don’t just get anything but hoping for it. They went out, got the right young men in here to be on our team, coached them up the right way, put them in position to be successful and then they went out and did the hard part and did it.”

On what Brashard Smith is doing: “I mean, it looks like he’s done it for a long time, doesn’t it? You know, back-to-back weeks with 20 carries, again, goes back to toughness. You know, both him and LJ, at times tonight, would get hit and they have those lingering things. Now we’ve got two more weeks and hopefully that freshens them up. But, man, he was tough tonight, and he’s really good too.”

On College Football Playoff rankings: “Well, great question. When you and Chris both, we’re not talking about championships right now, so I appreciate that. But Tuesday, the rankings that matter come out. Don’t get me wrong, we’ve been humbled to be ranked in the AP Poll and in the Coaches Poll. That’s a big deal for our program anytime, definitely in Year 1. But now Tuesday night, you find out what the group who ranks, whose rankings matter now the rest of the way, think about you. And so, again, we’re going to find out where we are Tuesday and we know we have a lot to play for these last three games, but we’re only going to worry about Boston College. We’re going to celebrate this win, maybe since we don’t play next week, through Monday and then we’re going to start worrying about Boston College because if we get ahead of ourselves, none of it will matter.”

On SMU DB AJ Davis’ injury and team’s response: “Yeah. I mean, when that happens, all the other stuff doesn’t matter anymore, right? Fortunately, stuff that we knew, our medical team did a great job. He was conscious, he was moving early on, so that was a positive that we knew down there on the turf that maybe everyone else didn’t know. Our medical staff did a great job of keeping him calm and everything. But anytime it involves your head or your neck and you’re still saying you feel pain, they’re going to be extra cautious. And so that’s what they did, even Pat Narduzzi was fantastic, came over to check on him. I mean, everybody in the stadium stops and just is worried about AJ. The good news I can tell you, he was back on the sidelines at the end of the game. I’ve not talked to our medical team since the game, but in the fourth quarter, they told me he was back, all the scans and everything they did at the hospital were all came back negative in a good way. And that, you know, again, I don’t know the exact diagnosis of what happened, but I know he’s going to be OK and he was standing on the sidelines in a neck brace. It sounds like he’s going to be OK. So a scary situation is going to turn out okay.

“And that was to your question too. I mean, our guys are pretty shook up. They care about him. It helped that we were able to say, ‘Look guys, we think he’s OK.’ Our medical staff saying, ‘Hey, we think he’s OK, ‘ but it’s still hard. I thought our defensive staff, we were on defense at the time, did a really nice job of calling them down. And they did a good job of saying, ‘OK, we know AJ is being taken care of. Let’s go play.’ It’s hard to do as a player too, because, I mean, he just got hurt playing the sport you’re playing. And they did. They got the stop and then we go down to get a field goal. So the kids handled it as good as you can ask.”

On playing in front of SMU crowd: “Yeah, I think it means a lot. I think being home was a big deal, probably more than I knew. Like, really, part of me is like, ‘I don’t know are we going to be flat because we’re home, we’re over excited, or whatever.’ They were just the right amount of excited. I mean, we haven’t been here since September 28.Technically, I guess, it was back-to-back sell outs, but really, the last three times we’ve been here, TCU, Florida State and now Pitt, we’ve come out of that tunnel for a big game and a big moment for SMU, and the place is full. It feels full and it sounds full and it’s a real atmosphere that could be an advantage for us and our defense and our team and we feed off that. That’s what a home field advantage does for you. And so I probably didn’t put enough stock on the fact that we hadn’t had it for a month. They were really excited about it and yeah, I think it was our most complete game, just because I don’t think we had any lulls really. You know, even in Louisville, the third quarter we had a lull. The only lull we had tonight was when we put our backups in and those guys competed their tail off. But I just thought it was really complete and I think being at home had a lot to do with it.”

On the 1983 Cotton Bowl team being honored: “Yeah, it’s nostalgic, in a good way, for a lot of them to be back. As a head coach, you don’t get to do all that fun stuff like homecoming and all the letterman back recognizing the Cotton Bowl team, you’ve got to go do your job, try to put a put the team out there ready to play. But it was really cool to do it because that was a big game back when we beat Pitt 7-3, Dan Marino and the Pony Express and Eric Dickerson. We always, usually have a current player or a current staff member, coach spend some time with our team. We have a little deal an the hotel on Friday nights called ‘brotherhood’ that we just go 15-20 minutes. And last night it was Eric Dickerson who made a special appearance and he spoke to our team. So stuff like that was really cool. And to see those guys in the locker room after the game fired up. To see Bryson walking out for the coin toss with his trophy and then in the student, like all that stuff’s a big deal, but what makes SMU special. So, good to deliver in that moment.”

On Nick Saban’s comments about Kevin Jennings: “So I didn’t see it, but then I was told about it and then I guess our media team saw it and cut it out and put it (on social media). Ithink he’s the greatest coach to ever do, it looks like he knows what he’s talking about to me, the way Kevin played tonight. I think we’re just fine if nobody talking about us. We know how good Kevin is. We don’t need anybody to tell us and neither does Kevin. It’s nice to be recognized, our team, I think our defense, you know, I think our defense doesn’t get talked about enough. But I also don’t care, because I’m proud of them and I’m proud of our staff. So pretty cool though, for Nick Saban to say about you, if you’re Kevin, you know, ‘Hey, I think this is maybe the most underrated player in the country,’ and then for (Jennings) to go out and make (Saban) look good.”

For the rest of Lashlee’s comments, watch the full press conference below.