Everything Rhett Lashlee said after SMU football's Spring Showcase

The SMU football team wrapped up its spring on Friday night with a Spring Showcase in front family, former players, recruits and select season ticket holders at the Pettus Practice Field.

SMU head coach Rhett Lashlee spoke about the spring and the state of the Mustangs roster entering the next phase of the offseason.

Lashlee: “Well, spring is over. We came out of it pretty healthy, I believe. Jonathan Jefferson got hurt our first week, which not great, and he’s going to be out for an extended amount of time. But other than that, we got out of spring without a lot of other injuries. Hopefully we’ll get everybody else back this summer and get about another 15-20 guys in here, a lot of these freshmen that aren’t here yet till June, and get going. Spring’s unique this time of year, with the portal and all that stuff. I thought our team and our players handled it great. We had a a number of guys that we knew, and weren’t caught off guard by, that decided to go into the portal and we’re supporting them. They’ve all given a lot to SMU, we’re grateful for them. They’ve been a big part, some of them, of us winning 22 games in the last two years, and they want to play. And we want to help guys go where they can have a chance to start and play more if that’s what their dream is. But we’re excited about the guys that are here and get into the summer and start really building the team for for the fall.”

Q: What is the extent of the Jefferson injury?

Lashlee: “It’s an injury that I think he’ll probably have to have surgery on in the next week or so, and it’s probably at least a six month recovery. So when it happens this late, and that takes you into October, November. And so I think at this point, unless something happens maybe that we’re not expecting, he probably will redshirt medically next year and try to come back and play his final year. It would have been his final year and we were counting on him, so it’s a big loss for us, but others will have to step up. Fortunately, he should make a good recovery and medically, I would think he’s a he’s going to be able to apply and get his that year back to play the following year. So I just don’t know if he’ll be healthy enough in time to play enough of the season to make it worth it.”

Q: What are the expected additions through the transfer portal?

Lashlee: “Not a ton. I mean, I think that, to your point, we’re waiting to see what the settlement looks like. We’re waiting to see what roster limits look like. So you’re kind of in, having to be in, a holding pattern on that. At same time, even if you had good conversations with some of the guys who decided to go into the portal, and you understand why they’re doing it, some you weren’t sure if they would or not. That’s why some of them happened this week. And so you weren’t, maybe, necessarily planning to replace certain spots and so that changes a little bit. But I wouldn’t think a ton more. I think the biggest thing is we got about three hours and 34 minutes to get to the deadline to then know, ‘OK, these are the guys that are for sure staying on our roster.’ And then once we get past that, we’ll know exactly how many slots are left available.

“I don’t think it’s going to be more than three or four, maybe five. I have to go, I don’t carry the one as good as I used to, I’ve got that Arkansas math. But we got to go see how many of the 85 are available after we get through the portal deadline. So we’ll try to find the right fits to help our team. But I think the majority of the team is here, with the exception of, I think we had eight freshmen come in January, and did a great job. I mean, I was really impressed with the eight freshmen. And then the rest of that class, which is a really good class, will be here in about a month. I think that, plus the injured guys, the RJ Marylands, the Matthew Hibners, I think Zion Nelson will be full go this summer, which I know no one here has really been able to see a lot of him, but he’s doing a great job. And there’s others that I’m drawing a blank on, I think most of those guys will be able to have a good summer for us. So not too many I don’t think, as long as we get past midnight.”

Q: In the changing landscape of college football, how do you evaluate the spring?

Lashlee: “You said the changing landscape, what does spring look like next year? I don’t know. Are we doing it the same we’ve always done it? Are we not having it at all? Are we playing other schools? Like 365 days right now in college football is a long time, so I’m not worried about that right now. But, yeah, spring is different. You know what I feel like we wanted to get done, we wanted to fundamentally get better. We got a lot of different guys reps. These last two practices we divided the team in half so we didn’t have, like our offensive line, if you have your Top 10 of, they were split up, same thing at wide out and DB. And so what it did is it had a lot of different guys working together. And sometimes that means it looks ugly, and sometimes it looks good, but a lot of guys were getting reps to develop and get better. And then just the team continuity and the culture. And again, I mean, I’m kind of in awe of our team and our players to be able to go through spring ball and a transfer portal in this day and age, and to be professional like they were, I think we got something out of it. Again, we wish the ones the best that are going to be looking for a new home, and I think a lot of them are going to have success wherever they go, and the ones that are here we’re excited to come back at the end of May, and really, for the next eight to 10 weeks in the summer, really put our team together.”

Q: How important was the spring for the freshmen who enrolled early?

Lashlee: “Oh, a lot. I mean, it doesn’t mean the guys that are coming in in a month aren’t going to have a chance to help us. I think we’ve got a couple offensive linemen, they’re going to help us. I think we got a corner, couple safeties that can help us. I think we’ve got a few linebackers, D linemen we’ve got couple more wideouts coming in and so running back. But, yeah, I mean, the last month for Jalen Cooper has been huge. Daylon Singleton was doing some good things too. Missed the last week and a half with just a mild concussion. He’s been cleared and he’ll be fine. But I mean, those reps give those guys a chance to make an impact in the fall. Same thing, you look at our secondary, I think Tyren Polley, I think Javion (Holiday), even Jalen Shivers up front, some of those guys getting those reps is going to give them a chance to help us this fall, where if they’re coming in in June and not really getting those kind of reps till August, I don’t know. I don’t know if they help or if it’s later in the season. So it definitely helps for those that could do it.”

Q: How do you evaluate the current quarterback room?

Lashlee: “Look, it’s no different in this situation that always gets the most attention. Keldric Luster is a winner. He came here out of high school as a winner. He came here in Day 1 and was a great teammate in the winter and performed well and was a guy that we had a lot of confidence last year going down that stretch. I know we had Kevin and Preston, but like if something happened and we had to play Keldric, we felt good about it. He’s a Division I quarterback, Division I starting quarterback. I think a big part of him loves SMU and wanted to be here, but he’s going into his third year and at quarterback’s tough. It’s not like wide out and other positions, where you can rotate guys, and so it gives him a chance to start somewhere. I know there’s already teams interested in him. So, we hate to see him go, but man, we’re for him, and yeah, it makes our quarterback room thinner.

Obviously Kevin (Jennings) got through it healthy, and we’re excited about just the continued development of him. I’m excited for him to have a summer with a lot of the guys healthy and around him and continue to lead. Our team believes in him a lot. I think Ty Hawkins, for a freshman, was really solid. I mean, he was steady from the first day to the last. He didn’t get too high, didn’t get too low. He didn’t have any days where it looked like he hit a wall, mentally he handled it, physically he handled it. So it’s just more opportunity for him sooner than later, and then we’ll see where Tyler Van Dyke‘s knee is. His rehab is doing well, but that’s the three guys we have right now. And then Charlie Fiser. You know, NFL teams carry two and a third. So, yeah, we could get thin pretty quick. That’s that’s probably how it affects us. But I look at it differently. I mean, we could be dishonest with a kid and try to get past the portal and then have a fourth quarterback. Or we can be honest and try to help him, and if he wants to play, support him, and that’s kind of what we chose to do.”

Q: Are you comfortable with the quarterback room as it currently stands?

Lashlee: “I would as long as they all stay healthy. Yeah. I mean, here’s what I’m comfortable with, I’m really comfortable with Kevin. I think that probably goes without saying. I’m really comfortable with Ty as a freshman. Don’t get me wrong, he’s a freshman, but, Kevin Jennings came in as a freshman and, at times, got thrown into the action and had poise. I see some of that same poise in Ty, both intangibly but also physically. I know Coach (D’Eriq) King‘s excited to get the summer and fall camp with him, but he showed us that he could be ready to be called upon if he has to be as a freshman. That doesn’t mean he’s going to be ready to roll. He’s still a freshman. And then I want to believe that either at the beginning of the year or at some point in the year, Tyler Van Dyke would be healthy, and I totally believe in him. So I think the three we have will all be capable of going in and helping us win games. But three’s one less than four. And I got a lot of faith in Charlie too, but we’ve gotten to our third guy before, so that’s a concern for anybody.

“But I think in this day and age with the transfer portal, roster limits, the revenue sharing, I think you’re going to see certain aspects of our game go to more like a pro game in terms of depth. We don’t have a 53-man roster, but guys are leaving quicker if they’re not the starter or a high rep backup and they’re not getting certain revenue share opportunities, they’re going to leave quicker, which means it’s going to be harder to consistently have great depth. I don’t think it’s going to be an issue that only we have. It’s a long winded way to say I would love to have four healthy quarterbacks, but I do believe in those three guys and we’re going to have to make it work.”

Q: What can you say about current transfer portal additions?

Lashlee: “The ones I can speak to have signed. TJ (Harden) signed, and he was a UCLA’s leading rusher last year. I think Derrick McFall and Chris Johnson, CJ had a really good spring. Those guys are explosive, they’re versatile, they’re great in space, they can run it, they can catch it, similar to things Brashard (Smith) was doing. So those guys are really good weapons for us. You think how Brashard and Roderick Daniels were used, there’s some similarities, and they’re their own people, but we needed a bigger, more physical back with LJ (Johnson) deciding (to transfer). LJ is another great example going to Rice. I think he’ll rush for 1,000 yards at Rice but we lost a big back there.

“So TJ gives us a big back, but he has some speed and he has some some some wiggle. He’s not just a physical downhill runner, he can get in space, he can catch the ball. So I think he gives us a bigger back to help in that rotation, but he’s got experience. Those three guys we’ll lean on and then, of course, Dramekco (Green) gets here, he’ll be the young freshman. Again, it goes back to the same thing in the quarterback room, we may only have four scholarship running backs. I mean, used to having five, but there’s four quality running backs.”

Q: Did you try to talk any of the players who entered the transfer portal into staying?

Lashlee: “No, not in this case and it doesn’t mean that we wanted them all to leave. There were some guys that, if they said, ‘Man, I want to stay,’ we would have gladly welcomed them to stay. But of the guys that chose to leave and why they chose to leave, they chose to leave because they want to play. Either they’re on their last year, and maybe some cases not just play, like LJ would have played, but ‘I want to start. I want to be the guy.’ OK. And they can maybe guarantee that elsewhere. And then there’s other guys that have a chance to maybe go start and play sooner elsewhere. And so we were honest with them and where they were in our depth chart, and said, ‘Hey, you can stay and this is what it looks like and if they choose to leave, either way, we’re going to support you.’ We weren’t trying to do anything but be honest and we weren’t trying to talk people in or out of things, we were just trying to support them. And once they made the decision, because we want people that want to be here, so if they want to be here, great. Even if they want to be here but they feel like it’s in their best interest to leave, then we’re going to support them. I think that’s just the day and age it is. Again, I think you’ll see a lot of those guys go be really successful wherever they go.”

Q: What have you seen from the secondary so far?

Lashlee: “I think we’ve got a chance to have a better secondary. We’re going to miss a Jonathan McGill and that kind of experience, and CJ (Sanders), two older guys. But, I mean, you turn to Ahmaad Moses and Isaiah Nwokobia, that’s two, in my opinion, All-ACC, All-American in Isaiah’s case, I think Ahmad too, caliber safeties, all right. Now we’ve got another four or five guys that are good football players, who’s going to step up? Kyron Chambers and Jaden Milliner-Jones, he missed spring, he should be back healthy soon. Like, OK, what are those guys do? And then, like I said, we’ve got freshmen like Tyren Polly able to get in there. Jaylen Moses, coming off a redshirt year, got a lot of reps. We’re excited to see who steps up for that third or fourth spot.

“At corner, you return Deuce (Harmon) and Smoke (Jaelyn Davis-Robinson), who got a lot of reps last year. Speedy (Nettles) got a lot better this spring. You’ve got Javion (Holiday) on in there. Marcellus (Barnes Jr.) was here, was limited in spring, but you could see his movement skills. He should be fully cleared pretty soon, and then you’ve got a freshman like Zay Gentry coming in. So I think we’ve gotten longer, I think we’ve gotten faster. I think in some ways, with the returns, we’ve got more experience at corner and we got more depth. And so hopefully that allows us to take the next step as an entire group back there. Yeah, I think the obvious people we got to replace is that third safety where McGill and CJ were pretty reliable guys.”

Q: What returning players stood out this spring?

Lashlee: “Man, there’s a lot of people to talk through. I think, when you go to defense, the people that stood out quickly, just from leadership as we take the next step, some of the obvious ones, Isaiah Nwokobia, Ahmaad Moses. I think Alexander Kilgore, who’s played a lot in his first two years, is kind of ready to take that leadership role at linebacker, and obviously production as well. I think he was everything we thought he’d be as a leader of that unit with Kobe (Wilson) and Ahmad (Walker) leaving. I think you look on the D-line, we lost some really good D-linemen, but some leaders too. And I think Cam Robertson has been excellent. I think Isaiah Smith, those are the veteran guys. One’s been here three years now, going on his third year, one going on his fourth. They’re not just good players, but they’re also worrying about other people now, so those guys got to step up for us. I think Kevin Allen had a great spring at D-tackle. He’s a guy that came out of high school and it just took maybe a year or two and now he’s got a chance to really get in the rotation and help us.

“And then go to offense, I was pleased with the obvious ones being PJ (Williams) and being Logan (Parr) stepping up. But I think Josh Bates and Addison Nichols stepped right in and really add a lot to our unit on the inside. I really do. I think Andrew Chamblee may have had the best spring of anybody. When you take the winter, like he changed his body. If you saw him out there, he looks bigger. You know what I mean, that was his issue last year. He was long, but just the strength. He’s bigger. He’s stronger. You give him a summer, he’s got a chance to really be a good player for us. So upfront, those guys. And then I already mentioned Derrick McFall. I think Derrick McFall, for a true sophomore, you saw flashes of him as a freshman. We’re excited about him. And then we need Romello Brinson and Jordan Hudson to step up and be the leaders and have the kind of season I know they know they’re capable of. And so all those guys, to me, did some really nice things. I’m sure I left some out.”

Q: With the current state of the wide receiver room, is there a chance of using three tight ends regularly?

Lashlee: “That’s a challenge this spring, you all ask about development, RJ Maryland didn’t go through spring, for the most part Matthew Hibner didn’t go through spring. That’s two of our better players that are going to play a lot, so you don’t necessarily see what the offense is going to become without them. But yeah, I think you’ll see if those guys are healthy, they’ll be on the field a lot. Adam Moore will play a lot. I do think Tripp Riordan took some steps in the right direction to be able to give us some depth there as well. It’ll depend, yeah, we’re going to get our best players out there, and our tight end room has a chance, if healthy, to be really good, be really productive. I think RJ and Matt are two, they’re seniors to be, they’re two NFL players, so we’d be crazy not to use them more. And we were starting to do that when RJ got hurt last year. We also need some of those young guys to step up. I think, again, Jaylen Cooper and Daylon here, the guys coming in and then Link Rhodes, the junior college kid. We went out and got him intentionally, hoping he can come in and just plug and play and make a big impact. I do think you might see us use more 12 personnel than we would have in the past, and that’s fine.”

Q: Could Moore play in the slot?

Lashlee: “I think Adam has a lot of versatility. He could play in the backfield, he could split out. He’s still got, in just the details and the finer things of playing out in space to do, but the athleticism and size and ball skills are there. I think those three guys, to your point, are at tight end about as athletic as you can get anywhere.”

Q: What did you think of the offensive line this spring?

Lashlee: “So the way we did spring is we went eight practices out of the gate, and then we took like a week where we only practiced a light Friday, almost like a reload week. And then we finished these last two weeks where we went really twice a week. We divided them into teams, compete and have some fun. Those first eight weeks, I thought I saw the signs of an O-line that has a chance to even take the next step. And I think we’ve been good on the O-line the last two years, but I think our depth, I think we have enough returning experience with guys like PJ and Logan and Savion (Byrd) and Nate (Anderson) and Andrew (Chamblee). That’s some really quality players with experience, but then you bring in Josh (Bates) and Addison (Nichols) with experience, but add a lot to the inside. And then I do, we expect Dramodd Odoms and Abel (Hoopii) to come in and compete to be in the rotation of the two deep for freshmen. And look, if they’re not, that doesn’t mean they’re not going to be great, but we’re going to give them every chance to be. I am optimistic our O-line, if we can stay healthy, has a chance to be really good this year.”

Q: What is your ideal way to end spring practices?

Lashlee: “That’s a great question that I haven’t thought about, so I probably won’t get the best answer. Yeah, I mean, with the college football setup the way it is right now, I know there’s a lot on the table once the settlement gets settled one way or the other, do we continue with spring ball? Do we move to more of an NFL OTA model in late May and June? Think there’s a lot of, maybe, support for both. If the model changes, then you can answer. That’s the hard part about college football right now, until we know the hard rules, it’s kind of hard to tell you what we think is best. Because as soon as we tell you, then the rules change and well, that wouldn’t be good anymore, let’s do this. When should the portal be? Well, I don’t know what are the rules going to be next year? All of that, I think, takes into account. Look, you want to do a spring, if you have spring football, you want to do either a spring game or a spring showcase or spring event for your fans. That’s why you do it. You do it for your fans to come and see your team and get a sneak peek. You do it for your players to be in front of your fans, and that’s really the reason you do it. After that, you don’t want to get players hurt.

“Whether you go in March or you go in April, we’ve already talked about it, a kid can get hurt and needs a six month surgery, he’s going to at least miss half the season. So that’s a challenge, but it’s also football. If the portal stuff is altered a lot, the people out there wanting to play spring showcases. I think that’s a great idea, just I do think the one thing that is, are we going to get guys hurt? And now that you’re paying guys, you’re doing this, you’re doing that. I don’t know. I don’t know. I think we need to get the rules, and I’m hedging a little bit on the answer. I think we need to get the rules of the game, and then I think we need to rethink it. I think what we’ve done so many times is, when the rules shift a little then we try to shift everything with the rules and it doesn’t make it fit anymore.

“So give us the rules and then let’s start with a blank slate and say, ‘What do we need college football 2025-26 to look like now?’ Not what did it look like in 1995 or 2010 and let’s try to keep some of those old (things). If they don’t fit anymore, let’s change. You know what I mean? We didn’t used to have a Signing Day in December, we used to have it in February. We didn’t used to have OVs in June, now we do. Well, a lot of this other stuff has stayed the same around those and all that is big changes, I just think we need to start over and say what’s best for college football and get a new plan, and then I’ll answer what spring ball should be.”

Q: What are the biggest question marks for the team following spring?

Lashlee: “I think we’ve got a chance and I think we’ve got a long way to go, because it’s it’s hard to have the level of success we want to have. But I do think we have a team that has a chance. I think the biggest thing we have to figure out is where are we going to replace the production on the D-line, particularly the interior D-line. I think we have enough for turning players and incoming guys on the edges to still be really good. Where do we have, not only the production, but the depth at D-tackle. And I think linebacker. When you lose two linebackers of caliber we did, we like the guys that are back, it’s just a lot. That’s a lot of games, that’s a lot of tackles, that’s a lot of experience. So I think that’s the area on defense that we need, right up the middle. And we believe in the linebackers on our roster and we believe in the D linemen, getting them all healthy and all that, and some of the pieces coming in.

“I think that’s a big question mark, is can we still play at the same level we did last year? Which was important to our defense and our team. And then I think offensively if, potential is a scary word because all it means is you haven’t done it yet, but if everybody’s healthy, it’s can our wide receivers and our passing game perform to the potential that I think we have. I think it’s there, but consistently can we do it? Can we be counted on and be reliable enough to to execute at the level that I think Kevin and that group are capable of? If we can do those things, those one thing on each side of the ball, I think we’ve got chance to have a good football team.”