Everything Rhett Lashlee said ahead of SMU vs. Virginia

After surviving a tight game against BC, SMU can clinch a spot in the ACC Championship with a win over Virginia. Here is what Rhett Lashlee said about the upcoming game and more:

Opening statement:

“All right, excited to get back to work today. Last road game of the year. We got an opportunity to go undefeated on the road this season, which would be an incredible feat any season. So I’ve got a lot of respect for Tony Elliott. He’s a good friend in the business. He does everything the right way. Their defense is really solid. I mean, I think Sankers is as good of a safety as you’re gonna see in our league and they’re long, they’re athletic and they run and play hard. And I think that’s always the number one characteristic of a good defense is they play extremely hard, and they run to the football, and they don’t stop. And then on offense, I mean, Colandrea has been really good this year. So he’s a guy that worries you because he can throw it, he can run it, he can extend plays. And I think they got some wideouts that are really good on the outside. So excited about the opportunity and we got our hands full.”

On what stood out when rewatching the BC game:

“Not really, like I said. I think we played pretty good. I mean, I know defensively, our guys are a little disappointed. And in the first half, we stopped the run. We gave up the two long-yard plays, the 3rd and 20, and the 2nd and goal from the 19 calls. If we make those plays, it may feel different. And then, in the second half, they were able to control the ball and lean on us a little bit. Offensively, we didn’t put the game away when we were up ten, and we had a chance to. But like I said, I think after the game, I do think we played our best in the tightest moments. The defense getting the interception before the half, and the offense going and scoring. When they took the lead, they only had it for like two minutes and we went right down and scored. So it was kind of one of those games we were kind of in control the whole game. We just never put the game away. And again, I think it’s a good football team. I mean, we’re on the road, almost beat Missouri, had them down, beat Michigan State, had beaten Louisville by three scores in the second half. Like, that’s a good football team. So we beat a good football team. And again, that’s just kind of how you expect a lot of conference games to go. So, looking back at it. Sure, there are some things we could have done differently here or there. But I thought our guys played hard, thought they played together. And I thought, like I said, when the game was, “on the line,” they just acted like they had been there before.”

On understanding what the team has accomplished this season:

“No, you can’t let yourself go there. We have two games left, the job’s not done. We all understand what’s in front of us and what opportunities we have. But if you sit around and think about that for too long, you won’t stay present. So, we have put ourselves in this position. It’s what we wanted to do. We talked about before the season; we wanted to prove we belong and try to put yourself in position in November to be playing for something, and we are. So that parts accomplished. Now we gotta go finish. We gotta go finish the deal. We get an opportunity that Saturday, so trying to stay focused on that.”

On the depth across the offensive line:

“Yeah, I think we’ve settled on good consistency. We’ve stayed pretty healthy. I think Garin, as always, he’s done it every year. He just does a great job of settling those guys in and getting better as the year goes on. And having depth, we talked about it in our first year here; we talked about it last year, and even this year at times. J .O.’s had to go out, and either Ben Sparks or Nate Anderson has had to pop in for Logan Paul or whatever. Those guys have done well. And then, yeah, I’m really proud of Andrew Chamblee. I mean, he played a little bit early in the season and hadn’t played as much lately. Savion had kinda been playing well, and we put him in, and he played the whole second half, and we really didn’t skip a beat [with him]. So really proud of him, and I think that’s the depth that’s key. But we knew going into the season it’ll be key down the stretch as well.”

On preparing for home games vs. away games:

“Not really. I mean, you take into account if the environment one where the noise is gonna be an issue with your snap count and those kinds of things. But, for the most part, we just prepare the same way. We prepare for the opponent we’re playing and to play our style of football, what we think we have to do to win. We don’t talk about it too much. Early on when I was here, for the first couple of years and even at times earlier this year, we just talked about how we love going on the road. We wanna have a mentality that relishes the opportunity to go into a stadium where -our fans have traveled pretty well this year- but for the most part, everyone’s against you. It’s a hostile environment. Think about Louisville in the second half when they came back and tied it and it got loud on third down and all that. If you’re a competitor, you have to rise to those moments and love them. And like that has to be something that you live for instead of something you shrink in. And so I don’t know if that’s helped that we just kind of take the mentality of like, “hey, we love going on the road.” Like that’s fun like we get to get on a plane. American Airlines takes great care of us. We fly there, right, and hang out in the hotel like we do like right before a home game. So the routine isn’t really any different other than we’re not playing here. But don’t get it wrong, our guys like playing at home. But we haven’t made too big a deal about it other than we enjoy it and relish it and they have bought into it.”

On the tempo of the offense changing within a game:

“It’s hard; it’s an in-between deal. I mean, the game was never out of reach. So even though we were controlling the game, we needed to go score. And a couple of times, we just failed to finish that. That could have maybe put a little breathing room there for us. But yeah, especially when you get a lead or if potentially the defense has been on the field a lot, the fact that BC wasn’t tempo. They had a high time of possession on us, but they didn’t have a lot higher play count, they had a higher play count. So it wasn’t an issue, I don’t think the other night. We did get up ten, that’s where it’s tough because you’re like, man, we need to go score, we also need to burn a little clock. We slowed down a little bit, burned some clock, we didn’t convert. So having the ability to do it is key, I think we do like to play fast. We have to do a better job of when we’re not playing fast either cuz we can’t or don’t need to, that we can keep executing. And we’ve done it pretty well this year, but we didn’t do it as good the other night in the fourth quarter when we need to.”

On Kevin Jennings growing confidence extending plays:

“And then a few plays later, a drive later on that third down, I mean, he evades a sack of one of the best pass rushers in our league and throws a dart to Moochie. I mean, obviously that’s the stuff he does really well that frustrates the defense and helps make us a little more dynamic. So I think it’s a great skill set of his. You’ve seen the last two weeks him get back to doing that at a high level while also valuing the ball and still making plays. So I think you think about when he gets one more off-season in the weight room, I think he’s gonna fill out even more. But yeah, he’s tough, he’s hard to bring down, he has a great feel for the pocket and a great awareness for where it is on the field. And I think, I mean, aside from the obvious things like you gotta be able to throw the ball and all that, I think awareness is one of the best and tangible traits a quarterback can have, and he’s got it.”

On KJ still being slept on nationally:

“I mean, Coach Saban talks about him every week, so it’s making it hard for him to be slept on. You know what I mean? So far, I’ve been really proud of him. I think Kevin doesn’t take himself too seriously as a person. Like, he’s just one of the guys. He’s a teammate. He doesn’t act like, ‘I’m the star quarterback.’ No, he’s one of the guys. They love him for it. He just goes out and plays almost for the love of the game. I think that’s what helps him when things are really good, stay fairly even, and when things are rough, hang in there. It’s just a great kind of calmness he has about him. Now, don’t get it wrong, he’s very confident in himself, but in a very humble way, which is the best way. So, I’m not worried about him being slept on and all that. I mean, look, because we rotated the first three games of the year, his stats are going to look different. You know, he’s probably 500 yards passing less than he would have been, and his yards per game is not what it would have been. He doesn’t care about that, I don’t care about that. I think he cares about winning, and he’s obviously helping us do that at a high level… Yeah, I mean, he’s performed as well as anybody else in the country – I think in these last seven games. All that stuff comes. Our job is not done; we have to win, and we have to continue to win. I think he’s played great. I think he’s starting to get recognized. I think the more we win or, the more he plays well throughout this year and even into the next year, those things are gonna happen. And I just don’t get caught up too much on it. There’s just so much going on the people that vote on those things and pick those things. Half of them just look at stat lines. And, like I said, his stat lines are good, but it’s not dominant because, again, he didn’t start the first three games and some other things. So sometimes people can’t watch everything. I think the people that have watched him, they know, whether it’s Louis Riddick or Coach Saban, you see the way they talk about it from an intelligent football standpoint. So I think he knows that the more the team wins, all individual goals flow through the team. I wouldn’t trade him for anybody out there, including those guys they got in the top five for the Heisman. So it tells you what I think.”

On preparing for both Virginia QBs:

“It’s a good question. I mean, they both can extend plays and run and throw. So Calandrea has been the guy all year. I know they made a change at halftime the other day because they were down and had some turnover issues. So I don’t know what they’re gonna do. We have to be ready for whoever they play. I think it would be hard to think that they’re sitting here five and five with two games left, a chance to win, go to a bowl and a guy who’s been really good for him all year is not gonna play. That’s who I would expect to play, but I’m not in their locker room. And so we may see both of them, we may see one of them. But we gotta be prepared for whoever they put out there. But I mean, I would expect Kalandria to be out there on the first snap, my guess.”

On why Kevin was not highly recruited out of High School:

“Good question, I don’t know. South Oak Cliff kind of was bursting onto the scene about that time in terms of Coach Todd getting there, and they started winning. And so it’s like us right now. We’re in the first year in the league, we’re 6 -0 [in conference play], we’re 9 -1, and it doesn’t matter because if we don’t keep winning, nobody cares. It’s like you’re the new guy, but you weren’t really thought of on the front end. So it’s easy to think about what you thought was gonna happen. I think nowadays, too, with quarterback recruiting, everything is so sped up. A lot of guys are getting offered sophomore and junior years and committing then. And Kevin really started playing well junior into senior year. And so sometimes it’s not even anybody’s fault. We’re in the state of Texas; there’s a lot of options. There are guys right now popping up who are committing places that none of us really were high on a year ago, and now they’re really good players. And so it’s just recruiting is not an exact science. So I don’t know, he’s gotten bigger here. He wasn’t the biggest, tallest guy. But I know this: I’d gotten the job for 10 days and went and watched him play, and he just stood out. You couldn’t miss him, just like I think people that are starting to watch him play now in college, if they do watch him, they go, whoa. And so it’s another good lesson though for kids or players out there being recruited that maybe want something. It’s not how many offers you get, it’s about getting the right offer. Fortunately for us and him, it was the right offer.”

On trying to retain the roster while making an impressive run this season:

“Yes, I mean, we’re the only sport that has free agency before the season is over. So it’s kind of crazy. But yeah, I mean, we’re sitting here with two regular season games left trying to compete to earn a chance to go play for our conference championship and stay in the playoff race. And yet, we’re like three weeks away from having to try to recruit the guys to return on our team and fill holes for guys that are gonna be leaving. And that’s a lot, I mean, it’s just a lot all at once. And so it’s really unfair to these kids too, if I’m being honest. Like: put yourself in the juniors on our team’s shoes. They’re sitting here, we’re 9-1, we’re 6 -0, we’re competing for something awesome. This is why they come to college, this is why they come to SMU, to be in this position. They can’t enjoy the moment fully because you know people are hitting them up. Other schools are hitting them up. It’s happened all around the country. Agents are hitting them up and family members are saying you should do this or you should do that and like they’re kids. Let them focus on going to class and playing ball with this team. And so we talked about being present like we’re trying to do that while they got all that going on. That’s not fair to them, in my opinion, we’re adults. We can handle the fact that we got to coach this team, recruit this team, recruit the next team. I get it and it’s like everything else. A lot of the things that have changed are good for the players. You know whether they have the opportunity to earn money or have the freedom to choose where they want to play. That’s all good, but how it happens sometimes wasn’t maybe thought out well enough because, you know, if I’m a junior right now, I’ve got to decide do I stay in school? Do I go pro? Do I stay at this school? Do I go to another school? I got people wearing me out and all the meanwhile. I wish I could just focus on my team and what we’re competing for right now. So, yeah, we’re in full swing on all that stuff.”

Injury update:

“We got out of the game pretty clean. Smoke just had a bruised shin, so he’s back. And Savion, tweaked his knee, it wasn’t severe. He was at practice today. He’s gonna be cleared to play, it’s gonna be how effective can he be? So obviously it was good to see Shamblee play well. So Elijah Roberts was out there at the beginning of practice today. Expect him to be a full participant tomorrow. Who am I missing? Jake. Yeah, we got some unfortunate news late last week. We were pretty optimistic that Jake was gonna miss a few weeks and be able to come back. And I think it was Wednesday of last week, Wednesday or Thursday. I can’t remember which day, kind of got a new exam and just it’s not healing at the rate that we wanted to. So it looks like it does we’re not gonna get Jake back this year. And so it’s really disappointing for him. Jake’s one of our leaders. He’s now in his third year. He’s poured everything into this program. You know, our first year was playing well, got hurt. Last year was our leading receiver. This year was our leading receiver before he got injured. You know, so not having him in there with nothing else just from a leadership standpoint and trust, but production standpoint hurts us, but I know it hurts him and our guys. So we’re disappointed for Jake, but it doesn’t appear. I mean, I don’t ever say never, depending on how long we play, because you could play into January, middle of January now. But it looks like it’s gonna take a lot longer to heal than maybe we’d all hoped… It’s like this kind of joint right here, the SC joint, where, you know, your AC is up here, I believe. Well, I’m not a doctor, I may mess this up. But your SC joints where kind of your collarbone and your sternum right around here meet.”

On teams faking injuries:

“There’s another conference that took a pretty hard line on it. I think that’s what all the conferences are going to have to do. I’m not here to start accusing people of what they did and didn’t do. Because it is hard, officials can’t do anything about it. Because what if the guy really is injured? You know what I mean? You can’t… that’s tough. And, the three injuries the other day just so happened to be after we had an explosive play and we’re going fast. So maybe the guy just got hurt then or maybe it was strategic. I didn’t make that decision. So, Junior said what he thought because that’s what it probably felt like to him. I think it comes back to an integrity deal, man. We’re all ball coaches, we wanna win. It’s hard to make a rule that solves that. I don’t think it’s fair. I’ve heard people say, hey, if a guy goes down for an injury and they stop play, he should not be able to go back in that drive. He should have to sit this. I don’t think that’s fair because the guy may really get his bell rung. We want him to stay down and be safe. And he may be the starting quarterback, and two plays later, he can come back in the game. I’ve never seen anybody fake an injury with a starting quarterback. Like, I’d hate for us to make a knee-jerk reaction to solve a problem that creates another problem, which we do often. I just think it comes down to a league that took a hard line and basically put it on the coaches to have integrity. And if it’s in question, you’re gonna get dinged pretty good. Again, I don’t know if they were really hurt or not the other day. I’m not judging that. I know we don’t do that. And sometimes, it gets weird because a kid may be halfway injured and he’s kind of trying to get off the field, and it’s better if he just goes down, so it’s just it’s just so much gray area. But it is an issue. I think it’s more of an integrity of the game issue than an operational game issue.”

On going head-to-head physically with BC:

“Yeah, well, I don’t think they were more physical than us. I don’t think that for one second. I do think in the second half, I mean, that’s a massive offensive line. It was a tough matchup for us. Because it doesn’t matter how many people you put in the box. A bat could hide behind that line and get three, four, five [yards]. And you contain the run, but just the sheer volume and mass of humans that are that big, it’s just, and candidly, nobody plays that way anymore. That’s not modern football. Modern football is more like what we do, what Virginia does. Even in the NFL, very few people do that, some do. So it kind of makes them an outlier in a positive way for them. And so, if you don’t get a negative play, when they do their play action, if they’re able to dink and dunk like they did, they didn’t have a lot of explosive plays. They just had a lot of efficient plays, and it kept them on the field. And then when you take into account, they were gonna go for it on fourth down. They’ve kicked two field goals on the year, so they don’t kick field goals, and they don’t punt great. So they weren’t gonna punt a lot. Like if it was reasonable, he was gonna, and so the play caller could call third and six differently than he ever would. So all those things go into account. I thought our guys were physical. I just thought they did a nice job executing. I think we only had 46 rushing yards in the first half for them. But in the second half, they really got after it. And their quarterback got loose on one. So I don’t think our guys feel like, man, we got physically overpowered like maybe we did a year ago. I think it’s just, hey, we gotta bow up. We gotta maybe win a few more battles up front to get a negative play here or there or fit the run a little bit better. And I think strategically, we feel like maybe there are some things we could have done differently to put them in a better position in the second half to stop the run. So, I still have a lot of confidence in our physicality. I think our guys have proven it over and over and over again. And I think it was a tough matchup. We hung in there and found a way to win. And now we gotta do it in the last two games of the year. We gotta continue to bring that physicality when your body’s tired and everybody is tired.”