With realignment now being the norm in college football, adjustment is a big topic during the off-season. As SMU adjusts to its new life in the ACC, head coach Rhett Lashlee says he is trying to learn from those who have made the move before.
The Climb Back Up
Leaving the Group of Five level of football for one of the power conferences has been a dream for SMU for decades. Since the school was handed the NCAA death penalty in 1987, it has been in relative purgatory. The football program was shut down for two years due to excessive repeat penalties.
But it took decades to regain a semblance of what it once was in the old Southwest Conference. The “unintended consequences” of the penalties were so severe that the NCAA never leveled them against any other school.
Lashlee met with the national media in Charlotte for ACC Kickoff. He said the school’s legacy with the likes of Doak Walker and Eric Dickerson has always been a source of pride. But now he says it is time to show it on a bigger stage. “We started working in January with recruiting to be in this league,” Lashlee said. “Being here at ACC Media Day makes it kind of real for us.” The Mustangs will bring a high-powered offense with them. Matching up on defense might be different.
The Preparation
Lashlee said much of the work came off the field, with him, and researching on how to make the jump. He met with coaches of other programs who have made the jump from G5 to the upper level. The list of coaches he met with includes Gus Malzahn, Kyle Whittingham, and Gary Patterson. He said he even had dinner with West Virginia’s Neal Brown. Lashlee said he wanted to get a sense of what it was like playing the teams that were making the leap.
He told us he learned that the biggest key was going to be depth on both sides of the line. “Probably the biggest thing is going to be the depth in the trenches,” he said. “Our starting o-line is going to be good, but hey, if we get a guy banged up does the next guy come in and there is a drop-off.”
He added that the schools that do well at the power conference level have lines where there is no real drop-off from the first team to the second. “Thirteen of 20 transfers this cycle were O or d-linemen. I feel like we have addressed the depth.
The Mustangs will get a barometer early. They play defending conference champion Florida State in their conference opener in late September.
Photo from Tony Siracusa
