Everything Rhett Lashlee said ahead of SMU vs. Cal

Rhett Lashlee spoke to the media ahead of SMU‘s final regular season game against Cal. Here is what Coach Lashlee said:

Opening statement:

“Really excited to finish out the regular season get to be at home one more time before stadium for our seniors against a Really good opponent. I think it’d be a hard press to find a better six and five team in America. I think you can conservatively say they very easily should be nine and two. They’ve had five one-score games, and in two or three of them, they had a very makeable kick away from winning those. People saw what they did with Miami being up 35 to 10, I think, in the third quarter. So I’ve got a lot of respect for Justin [Wilcox] He’s done it the right way for a long time. Peter [Sirmon], the DC, I’ve gone against him before, and their OC is from North Texas. So there’s some familiarity on both sides. Offensively, the quarterback Fernando Mendoza was teammates with Elijah Roberts from Columbus High School. I think they won the state championship together. I remember going by and seeing him. He’s a he’s a gritty player. He willed them to win last week in a really special way. They have some good running backs. They got a couple of really good wideouts. They’ve been really steady on offense. And then defensively, this is probably the most complete defense we’ve played in our league. I mean, there’s a reason I think their defense and our defense are kind of one and two in a lot of the categories. They’re similar in that there’s not a lot of superstars. They’re just a really good team defense. I know the corner Williams is really talented. They have a lot of talent on the back end. They’re physical up front. They stop the run. They’re big. They’re physical. They got really good linebacker play. They’re D-line. Said they’re big. They can anchor and stop the run. They just do a really good job. So, we have a real challenge ahead of us. And that’s the way it’s supposed to be at the end of the year.”

On finishing the season the right way:

“It is very important. We are playing for a lot of things. And yes, we get to the [ACC] Championship regardless. That’s nice to have decided, but you’ve got the College Football Playoff, so every game matters. That’s what’s so cool about it now. The regular season is important. We’d like to send our seniors out the right way at home. We’d like to go undefeated in the conference and win the regular season outright. And to your point, just at the end of the day, it’s about finishing. We got here three years ago. We wanted our program to be about finishing. I think we’re 10 -1 November now. And so regardless of what happens Saturday, it’s gonna be three straight November’s with a winning record in November. That’s a big deal. We sure would like to finish well in everything we do, particularly on Saturday, to finish off the regular season. Continue our momentum into the following week. Hopefully, continue to show the committee and others that we feel like we’re worthy of continuing to play this year. And so for a lot of those reasons, it’s important. But yeah, you hit it right in the head. We want to finish. And I think it’s important to a lot of our senior that we do that.”

On finding players with the finishing mindset and building that mindset with other players:

“Who can’t? I think both. I mean, it’s everything from, you get what you emphasize to some degree. So we’ve emphasize [finishing] since we got here. We’re now going on three years. We do try to recruit guys that are winners. They’re used to finishing, expecting that kind of thing. They have the character and the quality to make up, along with the ability. And then sometimes you bring guys in that you got to teach them how to finish. And that’s the coaching part, too. You hope you’ve established it in the DNA of your program and that you’ve got enough older guys who know how to do that. For instance, last year we did it, we won the championship. So we’ve accomplished that a little bit. And so now you hope it just kind of becomes a little bit of the expectation, a little bit of the DNA of the program for the new ones coming in, whether they are freshmen, And they just know, hey, that’s what we do here. Like, if you’re gonna play at SMU, we have a finishing mentality in everything we do. And finishing isn’t just about winning. You can finish a game and lose, but finishing is a great quality that we all need in life. And so we just, it’s a little bit of all of the above.”

On the decision to name Kevin Jennings the starting QB:

“Yeah, it’s a great question. It’s kind of two parts. BYU is a bit of a standalone game, but also it was culminating to the point where we needed to do something at some point, one way or the other. I never envisioned doing it the way it happened in a game. Envisioned, hey, we play a game or two games or maybe three, four at the most, and at some point, we just say this is the direction it’s gonna go. And so, I think leading up to that game we knew that we needed to decide here pretty quick for our team, we wanted to let it play out and happen to where it was almost not our decision. I mean, yes, I had to make the decision, but it kind of made it for us. So that was the plan and the goal, and it’s tricky. In the BYU game, we had been playing them both in the first few games. So they were both gonna play, but there was no intention to make such a quick change in that game. But when you just looked at the first four drives, and again, I’ve said it before, even that day, it wasn’t his fault, it wasn’t Preston’s fault, it wasn’t all his fault, it was the team’s fault. But we were going backward when he was in, and we were going forward when Kevin was in. And so in that moment, we gave Kevin a drive, we moved the football. We went back with it, we moved the football, and it was just like, look, we got three quarters to try to win this game. Let’s try to win this game, and that was the real reason at the moment. But also knowing that when you do that, you’ve somewhat ripped the band-aid to some degree. Even after the game, even though we didn’t find a way to win, I think we felt like that was the best decision for us. And so we went ahead and made it permanent.”

On the Mack Brown firing:

“And just your thoughts kind of on – Yeah, I mean, I don’t know what led to that happening on the Tuesday of the last week of the regular season. That’s not my business, but I can’t speak for Mack. I mean, Mac and I aren’t like close friends, but I’ve been blessed to get to know him a little bit, whether it be through ACC meetings, Texas high school coaches stuff, or Pebble Beach coaches classic. He and Sally have been great to us. They’re always very kind and welcoming and you can kind of pick his brain and get some advice from him. He’s done it the right way for a long time at North Carolina and out twice and in Texas. I know a lot of coaches like me look up to how he did things. Integrity, he won, he cares about his players, he did it the right way. So that was a little bit of a shock to me. I’ll miss him being around in our league. I think he’s great for our league, but he’s also done it for a long time. So I know just the most recent conversation I’d had at the end of the summer with him was just like, there have been more changes in the last two or three years of college football than he had seen in the previous 40 years of his career, it’s just changing a lot. So yeah, big loss for our league.”

On trying to retain the current staff:

“I think our coaches here know that we want them here, that they’re cared about. Some of those conversations happen. You don’t want to wait till someone gets an offer to let them know you want them. But at the same time, I think our coaches want to be here. And we want them to leave only if it makes their career better and their life better and it’s a better opportunity for them to advance to achieve their goals. A great example is Johnny Brewer last year. For Johnny, it was a great opportunity for him to go be the office coordinator at Duke and what they’re doing. I didn’t want to lose Johnny, but I’m not going to be selfish. That’s a great opportunity. At one point in time in my career, that was me trying to take the next step. So because we’re winning, we have really good coaches, a lot of younger middle-aged coaches, people are going to come after them, and that’s fine. That’s flattering to them. It’s a confirmation of who they are and how good they are and how they’ve helped us build this program. At the same time, we’re going to try to keep them. And so, yes, having the extension out of the way allows us to try to focus on that and have one less thing to deal with. At the same time, they’ll all say the same thing I would have said. That’s great. I’m focused on this game. And so we’re trying to balance those two things. We’re going to be proactive. We’re going to try to keep our staff together as long as it’s the best thing for them.”

On the pros and cons of the signing period moving up:

“Well, no, once we get through December, but I think it’s helpful. I mean, every little bit helps. We’re not gonna have to be out traveling for two to two and a half, three weeks in December, recruiting the guys that have been committed to us for six months to a year to sign a piece of paper, that’ll be done. So, that part’s done. So now you can focus on retaining your own roster, bringing in transfers, and at the same time getting ready for postseason play, whatever that looks like for us. So it’s one less thing that’s gonna be in that moment. So I think moving it up helped. I still think, look, by all means, I think the whole recruiting process is way too sped up. Everything happens to where a lot of times guys develop their senior year and have some good opportunities, but not as many as they used to. Which is tough in football, because it’s such a developmental, maturation sport, unlike others. That’s why the way the calendar is now, we should have a June signing period. Because they all take all their official visits, they’re all done by the end of June. You’ve committed everywhere, like 95 % of them. So, go ahead and sign. Do I think that’s best in general? No, if I was designing it from scratch, we wouldn’t have a June signing period. But the way the calendar is now, that in January, we’re gonna go out and contact them, and I’m gonna go in homes in January of 2026 kids, and then we’re gonna go through the spring, and they’re gonna take unofficial visits, and then they’re gonna take all their OVs April, May, June, and all commit everywhere. Yeah, sign. Let’s not, let’s let them go have their senior year. Not a whole lot’s changed from June to now, other than guys who decide they want to flip late, and that’s not good for anybody in the long run. So, I gotta get off on a tangent there. But, yes, you take us, for example, we’re gonna have to play a championship game. We hope we’re in a playoff, but if not we’re definitely going to be a bowl game. We’re gonna be trying to keep our guys here from December 9th to 28th in the window. We’re gonna be trying to have guys come on campus to fill some spots for us in the transfer world. Not having to have a December 20th high school signing day is a big plus.”

On the pitch for Brashard Smith to play RB at SMU:

“Yeah, once they’re in the portal, you can have open communication. It’s just like if you’re recruiting out of high school or whatever. I think with Brashard, and I’ve said it to some people, it’s a little different, once he went to the portal because we had so many guys here that he played with in Miami. And because we know him, we were a little more communicative with him once he was in the portal to say that we think you’re great, but we don’t have a spot at receiver. We had Jake Bailey and Roderick Daniels coming back. We had all our outside receivers coming back. So we went for a few weeks, almost saying, we didn’t have a spot, and he kept saying, I want to come. And Coach Cooper and some of our other coaches like Coach King, Coach Likens, Coach Justice, who had been at Miami, kept saying, you remember Brashard is really good, right? And then it just became a moment where we go, well, we need to get better running the football… He’s really good with the ball in his hands. He’s an elite kickoff returner. We watched Isaiah Pacheco play for the Chiefs a little bit, and they had some similar style, in our opinion, and he’s only ten pounds lighter than Pacheco, and we just said, hey, would you be willing to come here and play running back? If so, we got a spot. And he said yes. So we kind of said, hey, we’re gonna go through the spring, and you’re gonna play only running back. If that doesn’t work or it’s not fit, then we can reevaluate it. To do what’s best for both sides, but we’ll see how that works. And he did a good job.”

On keeping eyes in the transfer portal:

“You have one or more staffers who are watching the portal 24 seven. We have an entire recruiting department that’s watching the portal 24 seven, and we have a staff chat, when someone goes on the portal, that name gets in the chat. Everybody knows ‘Billy Embody went in the portal.’ We can quickly say, ‘Well, he’s not for us. Let’s move on.”

On celebrating the UVA win differently:

“I mean, I think a little bit, just because of the obvious reason. I mean, you’ve clinched a spot in your championship game, but the locker room wasn’t any different. Post-game on the field, walking to the locker room wasn’t any different. Guys were fired up. They’re fired up every time we win, we celebrate wins around here because they’re hard to come by. And so when we got to the locker room, it was very similar. I actually probably talk less than normal. Passed it off to Coach Griz because he had recently come from Virginia. He led Ahmad Walker, who played his college football before coming here just down the road at Liberty, Break the rock and we celebrated and we got on a plane and we came home. And so we celebrated like crazy, but we really didn’t celebrate any different than when we beat Boston College a week before, but our guys knew. I mean, yeah, it’s like I said, I think post-gam,. Winning in Stanford was a big deal because we clinched the bowl eligibility. Winning in Virginia was a big deal because we clinched the spot in the Championship game, but they’re kind of just like checkpoints along the road of where we want to end up. And so it’s part of the process. We’re gonna celebrate it, but we’ve moved on, you know.”

On the crazy night across the SEC:

“Yeah, we’ll find out tonight, I mean, obviously, the AP poll and the coaches poll showed some positive changes. We’ll see what the committee thinks. Look, that’s what makes it exciting for our fan for fans of college football now is that there are 12 teams again and every week that the regular season matters. You know, 20-plus games matter every week instead of three. And so we’re no different. Like we’d already won, which is great to play early and fly home. And yeah, you’re watching games going, ‘It would be better for the Mustangs if that team won, and It’d be better for Mustangs if that team won.’ In the first two weeks of the playoff, the team we said it’d be better for the Mustangs if they won wasn’t winning, and we’ve been in that position where, so far, our resume hadn’t been good enough. So we needed some help, you know, and our guys have done a good job controlling what they can. Hopefully, we’re continuing to make our resume better to where the committee says no, no, they belong in the 12-team playoff. There is still work to be done there. But yeah, you notice the scores. The AP poll and the coaches poll will tell you they went our favor. Let’s see what the committee thinks. But yeah, the more teams with three losses, the better it probably looks for teams with one loss or maybe two or even better teams that are playing in their championship game. That has to mean something. You know, if you’re able to go undefeated in your league or even seven and one, and you’re playing in a championship game and another team has the same league record or overall record, and they did make their championship game. That has to mean something, I hope.”

On one of Kevin’s many miraculous plays:

“Which one? Because there were a couple of them. The one where he went left and then went back right and threw it to Roderick? Yes, that one. That’s just Saturday with Kevin. I mean, that whole running around stuff, we usually probably just think ‘hold onto the ball.’ Now the real one that was a big no, no, no, yes moment was the one we scrambled and hit Key’Shawn. Because when he let the ball go, it didn’t look like it was going to end well for us and it did. So it was an incredible throw. But he does a good job of having really good field awareness, not only downfield to find guys, but no one works around him when he is moving around. So that was a good job by him on the particular play because they dropped eight, wasn’t great when they had three guys in a route, so nobody was open. He went to the left, nobody was there, and he just showed his athleticism. He knows, by that time, he knows the speed of the game and who we’re playing, he knew he could get back to the other side. Our guys have done a really good job the last few weeks. Our staff’s done a good job of coaching the scramble drill more because as we’ve gotten to know Kevin, that’s gonna happen. And I think you’ve seen a lot of big plays lately, and again, Junior got open and hit him.”

On the conversations being held during contract extensions:

“Yeah, I think there’s great alignment. Honestly, it wasn’t a complicated process. I don’t know the exact date. It was either after the Duke or the Pitt game, one of those that, you know, Rick and I first started just kind of having some conversations. And candidly, I just told him, I want to be here. I’m going to focus on us trying to keep winning. And so the way it works, they communicate with your agents, and you just kind of let that happen. So it’s not a distraction the more it has to be. But I wanted to be here. It’s great to know that we were wanted here. And so when you kind of both have the same objective, it’s usually pretty smooth. But I think from Rick to Dr. Turner to David and the rest of the board, we were all in alignment there. And I’m not one of those to be like, okay, ‘I want to stay. So this is what it’s going to take.’ That was never, that’s not me. Like, I want this, and I want, no. Like, I want to stay, you want me to stay, let’s work that out. And then on the back end, in good faith, hey, here’s three or four things I think we need to do to continue our ascent. Let’s work on that I trust them and to me, that’s what’s important it’s not well ‘I want to be here but there are some you know ulterior motives or demands.’ No, man, nobody wants to do business with someone like that. I don’t. Same way in a portal. I want to be here but hold on now. Do you want to be here or do you want to be here if? No, I want to be here so let’s get that done and don’t worry about it, and then let’s try to figure out together how we can make it even better and the best we can be and that’s just kind of how I’ve approached it and that’s how we did it. so there wasn’t a whole lot of hey I need this, this, and this. It was, I want to be here we want you here let’s make it work and we did it pretty smooth and real quick there wasn’t a whole lot of stress involved.”

On redshirted players playing in the postseason:

“Good question: so, like, Adam Moore can now play. Two games ago, he only had one game. He couldn’t play last week unless we just had to have him. But he can play now, he can play tomorrow or Saturday. He can play the chance game, he can play the postseason, and he saves this year. That’s great. Derrick McFall, we have him available now. We’ve been waiting because he played a couple of games early in the year when we were getting banged up. Could have probably used him Saturday, honestly, because Brashard was banged up and LJ was getting tired. But we didn’t. And because of that, now he’s ready to roll. And so that gives us some added depth now running back. Romelo was banged up a lot early in the year, so we’re one game away from hopefully getting him back. If we’re able to get through this one, then he will be available in the championship game and further. There are probably a couple of guys on defense, we did that with Mike Sanjo because he was hurt early in the year. So yeah, you get to the point where after we get through Saturday’s game pretty much everybody is available., which is nice. We’ve stayed pretty healthy on defense, but we’ve continued to have skilled guys drop on offense. And we’ve just kind of kept it together. And so, a little bit of added depth there helps.”

Jordan Hudson update:

“He’s in protocol. And so, we’re hopeful he will get out of it in time to play. But it’s unknown right now.”

On the balance the offense has, running and passing the ball:

“Yeah, I think that’s been our biggest key. We’re not the best running team in the country. And we’re not the best passing team in the country, but we’re one of the more balanced teams in the country. And I think, last couple weeks, you’ve seen, okay, well, we gotta stop number one. And that’s smart. That’s what we try to do. But I think our outside receivers and Kevin have really stepped up the last few weeks. Look what Jordan, Moochie, and Key’Shawn have done in the last two or three games, I think probably Pitt, BC, and Virginia. That’s been big, you know, with RJ being out, Matt Hibner been stepping up, too, and Roderick Daniels has just been a stud. But that’s probably where I think we’ve adapted and adjusted the most, is if you’re going to do this and give us the one-on-ones, we can win consistently. And if you want to go back to doing the other thing, well, we can run it, and that’s the balance that we need. That’s what good offenses can do, is we’re going to have to continue to do against really good defenses because, you know, good defenses do a couple of things. You know, one, they don’t let you be that explosive. Two, they can’t stop the run. And three, they take away what you do best. So I’ve always thought good defenses do. Good DCs take away what you do best, and they make you beat them with something else. And so I expect us to have to do some things Saturday that maybe is not exactly the preferred method for us, but we’re going to have to adapt and find other ways to win, move the ball, against a good defense. So, having that balance helps us do that.”

On predicting what would happen at the beginning of the season:

“You know, that’s a great question. I’m not gonna lie to you and tell you I just knew we would be 10 and 1, and have clinched a championship game spot with a game to go. I did believe we had what it takes to compete at this level. You know, could we stay healthy, could a couple of the close games? You know, you look at Duke and Louisville, could those go our way versus how it’s gone the other way for Cal? That’s the only real difference, except they should be nine and two or better. So some of those things you just never know every year, no matter how good or bad your team is, there’s a little bit of that. I was, I don’t wanna say concerned, but what I didn’t know is, okay, how well are we gonna hold up in the trenches, running the ball and stopping the run, and how well are we gonna hold up in terms of our depth? I was telling y’all the truth, that’s what our goal was. That is what we knew we had to do, and we did the best we could. I felt like if that did happen, we could get to November and at least be in contention. I didn’t know what that would look like. Because I knew the league well, but also, I didn’t think that we would beat Florida State the way we did, and then they would be last in our league. You know what I mean? So there’s a lot of things that you can’t predict. But I knew we had a chance. And just because I knew the makeup of the guys, what we’ve done the year before. When we started in fall camp, we had walkthroughs a lot in fall camp, and then you still do it on Mondays and Thursdays during the season. And the offense wears something blue, and the defense wears red shirts, just in case we ever do stuff together. And usually, I don’t know, either Coach Griz or Frank, they just put something on the shirt. But I told them before fall camp; I said I wanna put ‘defending champs’ on the shirt. And so our walkthrough shirts have said defending champs since August. Because that’s what we were. We aren’t in that league anymore, like we’re defending champs. We had not done it in 40 years. So, you went a championship, and part of that is you get to come back the next year as the Defending champ. I just wanted our guys to kind of have that mindset of no, like we’ve done this. We’ve done this before actually we just did it we are defending champs now We may not be defending the ACC, but we’re defending champs, so let’s act like it. Let’s believe it. Let’s know that’s who we are and then you know maybe we’ll figure out a way to play like it.”