WATCH: Rhett Lashlee reviews Day 1 of SMU spring practice

SMU head coach Rhett Lashlee met with the media on Tuesday after Day 1 of spring practice to review how the Mustangs looked. Here’s what Lashlee had to say with reporters.

On the start of SMU spring practice… “Man, it was good. It was exciting. You’re in helmets. It’s probably one of the better helmet practices from the standpoint of guys practicing like pros. We didn’t have a lot of guys on the ground. Defense understands how to practice with that tempo offense. We got a lot of returning faces. We do have some transfers and some high school guys. So there are some new faces, but it didn’t feel like Day 1. It felt like going into Year 3. We know what we’re doing an offense, defense. We know how to practice. You can only tell so much in helmets. But I do think guys flew around and we had some good energy and good competition.”

On Preston Stone’s status… “He’s doing great. At minimum, he’s on schedule. He may be a little bit ahead. I think he met with the doctor yesterday and they were really pleased. He’s been running on hard surface for a couple of weeks. You saw he’s able to come out and warm up. Then kind of go off with our trainers on the side. I think over spring, it’ll be a slow progression. He’s probably ahead of schedule, but we’re gonna still go on the schedule because we don’t have any reason not to.

“I think you’ll see him grow from warming up to maybe doing some individual, maybe some routes on air, maybe a little 7-on-7. I still don’t think he’ll take any 11-on-11 reps all spring. Whether or not he’s cleared to do that yet, I don’t know. Even if he is, probably won’t, but really pleased with kind of how he’s progressing. He’s working really hard.”

On SMU’s new-look defensive line… “Again, I’ll wait until we get the pads on to tell you for sure, but you look at big Tank (Booker) out there. He’s massive. He fills out that No. 10. I wore 10 in high school. Thank God I didn’t fill it out that way. Three to four new faces. I think guys like Kori Roberson and Mike Sandjo are doing a good job of leading that group, but we do have size. We have athleticism with the new guys like Tank and Mike Lockhart and Jonathan Jefferson. You’re going to have to have strength in numbers in the league we’re going into. It’s good to lose three guys and be able to replace them so quickly, at least with bodies.”

On the move to the ACC… “Man, our players are excited. It’s arguably the most exciting time in our school’s history, from an athletic standpoint. Just coming off of a championship season, going to the ACC, we’ve got a brand new facility — you can hear all the trucks running behind me — that we’re going to move into right when the season starts. There’s just a lot of excitement and you only get one opportunity to do something for the first time. So I think again, with a lot of returning guys, I think they’re excited at the schedule and the opportunity to play in the ACC and to play on that stage. 

“They know we got a big challenge ahead of us. But man, I think the way they train for six weeks in the winter, the way they were this morning in the meetings as we came out, you can tell that last year our purpose was to win a championship. Now, they’ve really shifted that focus and if you’re a competitor, how could you not be excited? We’re excited. It’s a great step for our school, for our program, and five months from now we start fall camp and now six months from now we’re playing and seven months from now Florida State’s coming in here so we got a lot of work to do.”

On competition starting for players… “Well one of the things we want our program to be about all the time is competition and there’s a lot of ways that can go. Right now, you’re competing against yourself every day. Spring is not about a depth chart. We’re not gonna have a 2-deep at the end of spring and it’s not about who’s going with this. It’s about from an individual standpoint, development, competing against yourself, it’s about out here fundamentally, offense, defense. Then coming together with understanding the base offense and the defense.

“At times it can get boring so we got to do a good job of making it competitive and spicing it up. It’s a lot of great opportunities for everybody. Everyone’s got an opportunity to win a job. No one’s gonna win one in 14 days, but they got 15 days here to kind of take a step in the right direction into summer and fall. This is kind of a foundational time of year. So, that can get boring, but you gotta have a good foundation if you’re gonna have a good team, so it’s pretty important for us.”

On if there’s more pressure on SMU’s offensive tackles after losing Marcus Bryant, Hyrin White… “I don’t think there’s more pressure. I think you can tell after one day, we’re a lot more athletic. That’s nothing against… I think Hyrin and Marcus did a great job for us, and they had great size. When you already look at Savion and PJ, PJ was arguably a co-starter by the end of the year, and they’re very athletic. We’re toying with J-O (Justin Osborne) at center, which is really athletic. 

“Now you got depth, so guys like those guys got to earn those spots. Then you got guys like Caleb (Johnson) you mentioned and Sean Scott’s going to get a first real spring and who knows who maybe adds to the roster after spring ball, but we’re going to need depth. I think just looking at the first guys that ran out there we look more athletic and we still have good size, which we’re going to need where we’re going.”

On Alex Woods, Braylen Jackson on OL… “Braylen made the move over to offense, see if that’ll work. Stone (Eby) made a move last year and it worked out. We’ll see if that could be a good fit for him on the offensive side. You got Alex Woods, you got Reagan Gill, you got Sean Scott, guys that need to now going into their second year. They’re just like a Keldric Luster. Wverything’s slowed down a little bit for them. We can maybe really see what their potential, what their ceiling is. And we’re going to need guys like Alex to be able to be a backup center, backup guard, and so spring is really important for guys like that.”

On SMU WR Jake Bailey… “Jake’s a winner. Jake’s a professional. Jake’s going to play at the next level. We’re thankful he’s here for one more year. His first year he played a little bit and made a lot of plays, remember the TCU game, and then he got hurt. Well, this year, it’s funny. First time in my career we had a guy lead our team in receiving and not catch a touchdown. It was unique. We had like eight guys between 30 and 50 catches, but he’s a guy who can make 50, 60, 70, 80 catches. Could catch it 100+ if you needed him to, but he’s just a veteran guy. He’s got a lot of length for that slot. He’s got great catch radius. He’s got enough speed and quickness to get open versus press man. So to see him come out here on Day 1 and kind of lead in the way you expect him to is very encouraging.”

On injuries… “Obviously nobody got hurt today, thankfully, but, yeah, Logan Parr and Ben Sparks had offseason surgeries. We expect them to be back by August, but that’s why they’re not out here. We’ve already talked about Preston. Guys like Braeden Flowers on the defensive side are recovering. I’m sure I’m missing a few, but no new injuries, no one that was unexpected. So everyone who’s not out here this spring is just recovering, and we expect them to be back either full by this summer or by fall camp.”

On Elijah Roberts… “Tuesday I believe is his day that he’s got a 10 o’clock class, so there’s no issues or concerns there at all. I think Elijah’s a guy, and a lot of these guys can kind of take the next step from a leadership standpoint, and they’ve done that in the winter. Sometimes, ‘Hey, we need a few leaders.’ Man, I hope everybody’s leading. I mean, that’s what you want, and so I know he’s hungry. I know he had a good year. He’s hungry to go back into the ACC and I think prove he can do it there.

“I think he can improve that way, I think he can improve as a pass rusher. He was great on guards last year. He’s gonna go against better tackles in the ACC. He played the run well, but I know he’d like to get even a little stronger in that area. So I know he’s excited about not being satisfied. A lot of these older guys, it would be easy to be satisfied. They’re really hungry to take the next step, raise their level, raise the standard for themselves, much less our team. Then him not being here today gives a guy like David Abiara and Omari Abor a great opportunity as well.”

On new SMU QB coach D’Eriq King… “It’s funny, half the time I turn, I’d have to think to say coach King, because I’m used to quarterback King. Man, it’s cool. I love that young man. I enjoyed getting the opportunity to coach him. He’s a winner. He’s always calm. That’s why he was such a great quarterback. I think he’s a really steady presence for our quarterbacks. He relates well to them. He’s played in our system. He’s now coaching in it. He’s been through a lot of the things these guys have been through. So to have a calming voice who’s been where you are, and probably I’m getting older, he’s a little more relatable probably too, but man, he’s been awesome. He’s great with our staff and we’re excited we got him.”