DALLAS — Kevin Jennings wasn’t even one of the players that coach Rhett Lashlee went to recruit at a local high school playoff game right after being hired by SMU.
Jennings is 19-7 as SMU’s starter, with his 7,709 yards and 55 touchdowns passing in reach of the school career records . The Mustangs are 14-2 in regular-season Atlantic Coast Conference games since moving into that power league in 2024, the same season he took over as the starter in Week 4 before league play and they made the 12-team playoff . That was the Mustangs’ first conference title since matching Houston atop the Southwest Conference standings in 1984, two years after the unbeaten Pony Express team that was No. 2 in the final poll. That was before repeated NCAA violations led to SMU being on the only team to get the so-called death penalty and not fielding a team in 1987 or 1988. Jennings finished with 3,245 yards and 23 TDs passing in the season that ended with losses in the ACC title game to Clemson and the first-round playoff game at Penn State . He then threw for 3,641 yards and 26 TDs last year, when the Mustangs just missed making the ACC championship game again after both conference losses came in the final minute on the road, including the regular-season finale at California . Casey Woods, now head coach at Missouri State after being SMU’s offensive coordinator the past four seasons, was with Lashlee when Jennings threw for 250 yards with a TD and ran for two scores in a 42-21 win over Lovejoy. 26.
Jennings signed with SMU before South Oak Cliff won the state championship two weeks later.
And so each year, I’m big on you try to under-promise and over-deliver and all those things,” Lashlee said. “He flashed early signs of when he was in the game, good things happen,” said Woods, whose team is at SMU on Sept. “He’s a guy that should be in the Heisman conversation, just because some much of the offense rests on his production.”
The dynamic quarterback, who happened to be playing for the other team that December day, is now going into his fifth season with his hometown Mustangs and looking for a return to the College Football Playoff. No ACC team has a better conference mark in that span. “You want to put your players in the best position to be successful. “But with Kevin now going into his final season, it was a little different. He deserves it. He is worthy of being a preseason Heisman candidate.
