You might need to know a little bit about SMU football, given that the Mustangs aren’t hosting a game at the suddenly crowded Ford Stadium. since we recorded The defending Atlantic Coast Conference champions undress in late September. (Unfortunately, we are dealing with Florida State Still He only has one victory.)

The Mustangs spent the month of October on the road worth 7,410 miles. In this first season of the expanded coast-to-coast ACC, SMU played virtually from the Atlantic to the Pacific and won all three conference games. Freshman quarterback Kevin Jennings from South Oak Cliff had his best college game (accounting for 394 total yards in a thrilling win at Louisville on Oct. 3) and his worst college game (committing five of SMU’s six turnovers, He did it in a stunning 28-27 overtime (we won at Duke last Saturday). In between, the 20-year-old threw for a career-high 322 yards against Stanford.

Ford Stadium should be full of excitement when No. 18 Pitt comes to the Hilltop this Saturday night to face the 20th-seeded Mustangs, even in bad weather. It will be a matchup of two of the four teams that have yet to lose an ACC game. (The others are No. 5 Miami and No. 11 Clemson.) SMU has one nonconference loss by three points against undefeated BYU since early September.

Second-year Mustang coach Rhett Lashlee often said his goal this season was to prove SMU belonged in a power conference. But even the most optimistic SMU fans couldn’t have imagined entering November with a chance to win the league title in their first season in a power conference since 1995, let alone an invitation to major college football’s first 12-team playoff. . A win against undefeated Pitt would give SMU an excellent chance to take the lead in the ACC, as incredible as it sounds. We’ve got a visit from Boston College, a trip to Virginia and a finale at home against Cal.

“Knowing the league, I believed we could compete,” says Lashlee, who served as Miami’s offensive coordinator for two years between his time as Sonny Dykes’ OC at SMU and now Dykes’ successor. “I didn’t know what level it was. And we still have a month left to prove it.”

Lashlee’s offense is humming. SMU has the 15th rushing offense in the FBS, averaging 39.1 points per game. (Warning: Pitt is sixth with a 40.9 average.) But the Panthers’ defense is hot, coming back fly He picked six in dismantling Syracuse last week. And the Mustangs may have to conquer it without Jennings, who suffered a major blow to his knee against Duke and is questionable for Saturday. Preston Stone, a Parish Episcopal graduate who replaced Jennings after the team’s only loss, plans to commit to BYU on Sept. 6 if Jennings is unable to attend.

With only eight league games per team in the 17-team conference, not all of the top looking teams will be playing each other. SMU will not play Miami or Clemson. Miami and Clemson won’t meet each other either. After this weekend, the only remaining matchup between the championship contenders will be Pitt hosting Clemson in two weeks. Even if SMU fails to win the ACC and make the playoffs, the Mustangs’ performance this season certainly made Lashlee an attractive candidate for other power conference schools looking for new coaches after this season. And of course, a school full of backers big enough to forgo nine years of ACC television revenue (an estimated $70 million) as part of a deal to join the league will have a good fight to fend off suitors.

Lashlee’s history in the SEC — playing at his hometown school, Arkansas, and being an assistant coach on some of Auburn’s most successful teams of the last 15 years — would invite the most speculation. While neither Arkansas nor Auburn are currently living up to fans’ expectations, it appears neither is in a position to make a coaching change this year.

The SEC coach who appears to be in the shakiest position is Kentucky’s Mark Stoops, who nearly landed at Texas A&M a year ago. The Wildcats are 3-5 and have lost three straight; Last week was Auburn’s only SEC win this season. With trips to Tennessee and Texas ahead of us, the Big Blue would need to pull off at least one upset to become bowl eligible.

But Kentucky purchasing Getting rid of Stoops’ future services (through the 2030 season) will be around $44 million. So who seems more suitable to compete in the play-offs in the near future; SMU or Kentucky? Impressively enough, with ACC membership only a month away, the Mustangs may be the answer.

For now, let’s do what coaches always advise their players to do. Focus on the now, the next game, the next game. The stakes will be high this Saturday night at Ford Stadium. Why can’t SMU’s ceiling in the ACC be even higher?