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By Rowan Fisher-Shotton
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Rhett Lashlee has SMU eyeing the College Football Playoff for the second time in three years. The Mustangs are 7-2 overall and 5-2 in ACC play, with a crucial game against Wake Forest coming on Saturday in Dallas, Texas. The Demon Deacons have broken out this year under Jake Dickert, sitting 8-1 overall and 5-1 in ACC play, with their only loss this season coming against the high-powered Miami Hurricanes back in September. With two losses already, SMU needs a win to keep their season alive, especially with remaining matchups at No. 5 Notre Dame and at Stanford to close out the year.
Leading up to the game, Lashlee took a moment to put the spotlight on Mustangs quarterback Kevin Jennings, who he believes is hands down one of the best players in college football.
"He's just in total control. He's elite. He's as good as anybody in the country. If you were to list the top five quarterbacks, there's a lot of good quarterbacks in the country. You're really not watching football if you don't list him," Lashlee said on Friday's episode of "SportsCenter.
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"He's been special for three or four years, but this year you can tell the game has slowed down for him. He's in total command, distributing the ball well, taking care of the ball. He's just doing everything we need him to do as our leader. And when you have a guy like him, it doesn't matter who you play, you're going to have a chance every game."
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A Dallas native, Jennings was a mere three-star recruit and the No. 99 quarterback in the 2022 class coming out of high school, receiving just a handful of offers and committing to SMU over Missouri State, Sam Houston, East Texas A&M, and Lamar. He's since been a big part of the Mustangs' rise back to relevance under Lashlee, who came over in 2022 as well.
In five seasons at SMU, three as the starter, Jennings has 11,163 total yards on offense, including 10,473 passing yards and 92 total touchdowns, including 80 passing touchdowns, all of which are program records. He led SMU to back-to-back 11-win seasons in 2023 and 2024 and is in the middle of arguably his best season yet, completing a career-high 73.9% of his passes for 2,764 yards and 25 touchdowns with just six interceptions.
He's also put up over 350 passing yards four times this year and in back-to-back games, including going 24 of 32 for 350 yards and four touchdowns in SMU's 51-28 win over Virginia Tech last week.
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With three games remaining in what will be Jennings' final college season, he has a chance to get SMU back into the playoffs and further cement his legacy, though the path won't be easy. The Mustangs are currently third in the ACC, behind Miami (8-1) and Wake Forest (8-1). A win over the Demon Deacons on Saturday would be huge, but their only realistic path to the CFP at this point would be winning the ACC Championship Game on Dec. 5.
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