DALLAS — The billboard along North Central Expressway, touting “K7NG OF DALLAS’’ — a Heisman Trophy campaign that involves a slightly tortured spelling of Kevin Jennings along with his jersey number — will be up soon enough. Whatever finger injury he suffered two weeks ago was not in evidence Wednesday morning as he whistled passes of every variety all over the SMU practice field just off Mockingbird Drive.
But the real story (and the one that best describes coach Rhett Lashlee’s accomplishment with the Mustangs) can be found on banners hanging along the east and west walls of the practice field that recognize the school’s 12 conference titles. Seven came between the years 1923-48 when SMU dominated the Southwest Conference in different ways, capped by Doak Walker’s Heisman season 78 years ago. While it’s the Texas-Oklahoma game that has been most responsible for the never-ending expansion of the Cotton Bowl, the reason there were ever any upper decks to begin with was Doak Walker.
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The final five SMU conference titles are indicative of a school that lost its way. There’s Jerry Levias’ title in 1966 when the Mustangs belatedly broke the color barrier in the SWC. There are the 1981-82-84 titles that the Pony Express and a sizable amount of SMU donor money brought to town. And then — following an unmentioned NCAA death penalty and a long penance outside the big conferences — came the 2023 title, SMU’s final season of American Athletic Conference participation.
That lengthy absence of conference crowns feels like part of a distant past. SMU will begin the 2026 season ranked 19th in the nation, one of five ranked teams from the state of Texas and one of just three from the Atlantic Coast Conference. Being ranked in the top 20 in consecutive preseason polls is a first for the Mustangs since the 1980s.
A long and winding road has finally reached the Boulevard, and the party is on.
“I think we’ve had a good camp, but we haven’t proven anything yet,’’ Lashlee said. “And we’ll find out in about 12 days.’’
SMU will not tiptoe into the 2026 campaign. The Mustangs open at Florida State on Labor Day, one of three prime-time games the school has earned for the coming season. While FSU’s program has been down, it feels unlikely that the Seminoles will stay in the bottom half of the ACC forever. Regardless, it’s a challenging place to visit, as is Louisville, where the Mustangs will play in Week 3 on Sept. 19.
“Nine conference games and [a game] in Notre Dame. Two of our first three games are conference games on the road that are talented enough to win our league,’’ Lashlee said. “It’s going to be different. We haven’t opened with a conference game since we’ve been here. We haven’t opened with a game of this magnitude on the road since we’ve been here. So, yeah, it’s a little unique, but it’s awesome. It’s exciting.
“Let’s get to it.’’
The presence of Jennings gives the Mustangs a leg up on most of the competition. In this era of maddening transfers, especially among quarterbacks, six of the last seven Heisman-winning passers attended at least two schools. Jennings is not only a third-year starter for SMU, having guided the Mustangs through an unbeaten ACC regular season in his first year on the field. He’s a fifth-year Mustang. And it’s not like other schools haven’t sought his services, which may explain why SMU players now work on their physical and mental health in the Kevin Jennings Recovery Center.
Whatever you have to do to survive in today’s game.
Like others around the country, Lashlee has at least one player (safety Ahmaad Moses) practicing with his team and hoping that a ruling will allow those from the 2022 recruiting class to play a fifth season. Lashlee and his coaches have also fielded calls from former SMU players now in NFL camps asking if they can return to college and play. The correct answer, of course, is: Who knows?
There’s a lot of chaos to wade through as a college head coach. Lashlee said he’d just like a set of rules to be established, rules that favor student athletes. Anything would be preferable to today’s almost total absence of structure.
In the meantime, he’s hoping freshman wide receiver Jordyn Adams can contribute by 2027, if not this year. That’s 26-year-old freshman Jordyn Adams, former Angels and Orioles center fielder who was highly recruited in the class of 2018 before trying his hand at baseball (toiling mostly in the minor leagues) for eight seasons.
There’s always something unexpected in college football. Lashlee admits that it helps immensely to be working at a school that has never been shy about paying top dollar for talent. And now it’s legal.
“It’s great to be at a place where we have great support, unity and alignment right now,’’ he said. “I think our administration and our donors and our alumni trust that we’re going to be good stewards of everything. But also it’s like, what does it take to compete?
“And we’re going to do that.’’
Jennings to be the first Mustang since Doak to bring home the Heisman? That’s a long shot. But get to 3-0 after the Louisville game, and then maybe see where this 2026 Pony Express is headed before calling it off.
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