Everything Rhett Lashlee said before SMU-Houston Christian game

SMU head coach Rhett Lashlee met with the media on Tuesday and recapped the win over Nevada, looked ahead to Houston Christian and more. Here’s everything Lashlee had to say to reporters.

On takeaways from SMU-Nevada: “We’ve talked about it a little bit. I mean, you look back at it, we had 11 penalties for 125. Ten of those were in the first three quarters, most in the first half, which I think contributed to a lot of our offensive woes. There was never any rhythm. We’d do something. We’d go one step forward, two steps back, always behind the chains, all third-and-longs. So we just never really got moving in the first half. Second half, we played pretty good offense. Went right down and got points, moved the ball, even in the drives we didn’t quite get it.

“Scored 19 points, basically two touchdowns and the field goal, I think on five drives in the second half. So we started playing SMU football towards the end. I think we had 200 yards to their 50 in the fourth quarter. We had one penalty, there’s a lot to do with that. Defensively, I thought we played hard. Thought we ran to the ball well. At times we didn’t leverage and stop the run like we want to. It’s hard when everything’s quarterback plus one runs. But still, their average per rush was low. I think we kept them, except for two big plays, from being too explosive in the passing game.

“So, you do things like the penalties, you have a snap go through your punter’s hands and give them a free touchdown, basically. You do those things, it’s a recipe to get beat. And so we didn’t play very well at all first half. There’s just no getting around it. We started playing SMU football towards the end and that needs to continue into this week.”

On improvement from 1st half to 2nd half: “I think we just settled down. I think we were pressing across the board as a team in the first half, whether it be the play calls, whether it be the way we were playing. There is a factor sometimes you’re too excited to play and so you kind of play emotional and hesitant and your body just, you don’t cut it loose. We gave up some big runs on some QB draws on third-and-long and stuff like that. A

“gain, we just did a better job of spelling things, containing the edges of the defense and swarming to the ball. Again, our offense moved the ball better, so we controlled it. I mean, the time of possession was like 36-23 and that’s with us winning the fourth quarter. It was hard. We were out there a lot and some of a lot of it was self-inflicted. But like I said, I just think we settled down at halftime, came out, played SMU football. I think had we not had the issue on the fourth-and-30 that gave them a free first down on a long drive, second half might have even felt entirely like the fourth quarter.”

On SMU DB Brandon Crossley’s ejection: “I mean, look, it’s over. It is what it is. I don’t feel like there’s any evidence that he misrepresented our program in that moment. The call was made. We respect it. I think everyone does a good job. We’re moving forward. Look, the penalties are not good. We have to handle our emotion better regardless of what someone does to you. You can’t put yourself in a position to cost the team like that, and he knows that. And same thing with other scenarios when guys maybe retaliated and got a 15-yard penalty. You can’t do that. And look, we allowed them to get us emotionally unstable in some of those situations in the game and it cost us and it could have easily, very well cost us the game. Yeah, I’ve looked at it and we feel like we’re all in a good position moving forward. I think he knows he hurt the team, but also I don’t know if it went down exactly as they said it was.”

On Brashard Smith and SMU’s run game: “It’s a little deceptive. We ran for almost 140-plus yards. We lost all the yards in the punt snafu, so for the game we still averaged over 4 yards a carry. You’d like to be closer to 5. Brashard himself with 6 yards of carry. It wasn’t explosive ever. They did a nice job the way they were playing, that they would rally and we’d get 4 or 5, 6 6 yards. So it needs to be better. Needs to be more explosive, especially when they’re playing pass and we’re not, maybe, being as explosive as we’d like to be. It’s a work in progress. We had a lot of guys playing on the line in different spots where maybe a couple plays, we were just a hair off from making it a bigger play. Hopefully we’ll continue to get better at that. I do think that the really good sign is that drive late, I think we got the ball was like third-and-1 on, like the 32 or 33 and we ran three straight plays for a touchdown. That’s the explosiveness we need in the run game more often.”

On SMU’s depth: “Probably in some positions, yes, and some positions, no. I think the depth helped us. We won the fourth quarter and we finished and that was really important. So we were fresh. I think you look at the team, depth helped us in places like RJ Maryland got a big game. He only played 38 plays because Matt Hibner played 34, Stone Eby played 10. In the past, RJ would play 60-70 plays. I don’t know how much he’d have left in the tank in that fourth quarter, but he was fresh and those other guys made plays. Then there’s other areas that maybe guys didn’t get in as much as we had hoped. And sometimes when the game goes the way it did that happens. We’ll continue to play the guys that deserve to play and hopefully that’s a lot because we’re going to need that depth.”

On using Kevin Jennings and what went into rolling with Preston Stone in the 2nd half: “We followed our plan going to the game. Preston was going to start, go the first two drives. Kevin knew he was going to play the third and fourth series, so that was how we went into the game. Thought (Jennings) did really well, including even the second series taking us on a touchdown drive. We went back to Preston, that was always the plan. We told both those guys, no matter what happens in those drives that’s what we’re going to do because you don’t want them out there pressing and going, ‘Man, I’ve got to score or I’m not going back.’ Go play.

“Did intend to play Kevin more and the game went the way it did. There’s a lot of people that can say what they want. We won, so feel good about what happened. But Kevin did really well, which you expected him to, and he earned the right to continue to play and hopefully play even more. I suspect you’ll see more of him this week. That’s not a slight to anybody, that’s a compliment to him.”

On communicating the plan to SMU’s QBs: “I think so. As a quarterback it’s hard if, ‘Hey, you’re going to go this series.’ Well, one series, sometimes the series doesn’t go well and it’s not your fault. You want them to get in a rhythm as much as they can, and that’s the challenge with playing two guys. At the same time, if you don’t know, it’s ‘Hey you’re going to play,’ but you don’t tell them when, then either he doesn’t know when to expect it and sometimes the situation dictates that you don’t do it. So by telling them, it helps us do it. I think that’s the best way, at least we’re taking it week-to-week right now.”

On what he wants from his team in this matchup before a run of tough games: “Well, we need to win. That’s all we’re worried about. Last week, probably, teaches everybody that. And we need to play four good quarters of football. First game of the season, they’re always crazy and weird. They just are. Sometimes it goes the way you want, like it has for us the last two years. Sometimes it goes like it did Saturday night, but we won. Now we have to start to see that consistency of performance. We did play some guys in some different spots. In some places we feel like that’s best.

“In some places, we’re going to move some guys around. I do think we feel like, on both sides of the ball, now that we’ve had summer, fall camp and an actual game in an adverse situation, we know one, how our team will respond. We just don’t need to put ourselves in those positions anymore than we have to. And two, I think we know where all the pieces need to go not only this week, but over the coming weeks. It’s the best fit for our team whether it be O-line, wide out, D-line, DB. I just want to see us play harder and start better. Last year we were a great first quarter team. The other night we were a terrible first quarter team. So hopefully we can start faster and continue to finish the way we did.”

On Houston Christian: “Jason’s taken over as head coach. Phenomenal job with the offense (last year). They had their winning season last year. So, explosive. They spread the field. They can play fast, they can throw it, they can run it. They do a nice job offensively. They got a new defensive coordinator, he’s one of the best defensive minds coming from our state. It’s two weeks in a row that we don’t have any game film on our opponent and they have tons of film on us.

“That’s part of it. Usually you play one game a year like that, we’re playing two. I think we have to be ready to adjust. We have an idea what they’re going to do offensively. We have an idea on defense, but they’ve got a new DC and they’ve had all off season. So you have no idea what you’re going to get defensively. You plan the best you can, but you’ve got to be ready to adjust in-game. I think they’re going to be well coached. They’re going to be excited to play. It’s their first game. And then, hopefully, we can make a big jump from Game 1 to Game 2.”

On in-helmet communication: “I think it’s an adjustment. Offensively, other than the fact that the first three plays I didn’t even use it because one, you’ve never had it, and two, in practice you talk into a walkey and in game you’ve got to push a button. I think it was a third play, Preston screamed from the field, ‘I can’t hear you.’ I’m like, ‘I’ll fix it.’ I just needed to hit the button, so there’s a reason he wasn’t hearing me. I was calling plays like I’ve done for 15 years. Usually have to use my hands, but I think it was good. There was once or twice that it kind of stalled out for a play or two, but nothing major. (Stone) may have a different opinion, you can ask him. I think defensively it’s a different adjustment.I think because defenses have to react to the offense.

“So if the offense is going fast, they’ve got to get a call in. And sometimes, doesn’t matter if you got a helmet on one guy, there’s still 10 other guys out there, right? And then, offenses are smart. We do it some now too, when they’re not going (fast), huddle up and defensive coordinators can’t see the picture to call their defense on. That’s what they like to do now. That’s how they’ve adjusted to teams that spread the field and no huddle, like us. They see the formation to call their defense based off tendencies and formations. So if you’re not going fast, you give a defensive coordinator an advantage. But also, if you huddle and bust out and snap it somewhat old school, you kind of mess with them now because they’ve adapted. I think our defense probably learned a lot. I think they’ll adjust. I think it was probably a bigger challenge for them than it was for us offensively. And then hopefully we’ll just get better and better. But I did like the idea, in especially those last two drives late in the game, I was able to call the play and then just give Preston like a thought. So he knew he and I were on the same page on that last drive. I think it helped.”

On SMU’s special teams: “That one play was really, really bad, but other than that thought we played well on special teams. I think we dominated on kickoff coverage. We tackled him inside the 20 a few times. Then they had the misstep where they stepped out on the 2. Kickoff return, wee got the ball at midfield twice. That’s big time. We didn’t get a chance for a (punt) return. But we also, had one where I think we could have blocked. We just missed. I thought our punt return unit was good, like I said. I think punt team, other than the one play, they were solid. We’ve probably got to finish the tackle a little bit better, we gave them like a 10-yard return a couple times. But we were running down there, playing hard. We protected well. We just can’t have a high snap and let it go through our hands and give somebody free points. Wee did miss a 51-yard field goal, which was unfortunate, but we also made a 52 and a 35 and our protection was good. So I think we were a lot better than we were in the areas we needed to be. But the one glaring issue is a really big one.”