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Chris 'Mad Dog' Russo slams Rhett Lashlee over 'garbage' SEC depth take, questions ACC accolades

IMG_6598by:Nick Kosko•07/23/25•

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Kirby Lee-Imagn Images/Amber Searls-Imagn Images

Chris “Mad Dog” Russo ripped SMU coach Rhett Lashlee for his comments comparing the ACC and SEC. Safe to say, the Mustangs coach has caused quite a stir in the last two days, considering ESPN’s Paul Finebaum already took his shot.

Lashlee said the ACC has no depth despite its perception. When comparing it to the ACC, the SMU coach, who’s coaching a program that enters Year 2 in the conference, has serious depth.

That’s where Russo fired a shot at Lashlee on Wednesday. He immediately referred back to the non-competitive playoff games featuring SMU and the SEC last season.

“When you go to Penn State in the playoff, and you shouldn’t have gotten in, when you go to Penn State and you lose 50-3 and put America to sleep at the half in the playoff last year, you can’t say a word. That’s number one,” Russo said on First Take. “And Clemson, another team …they (had a) two touchdown loss in Texas, number two. So to sit there, is it not basketball, to sit there and compare the ACC to Texas, Oklahoma, Alabama, LSU, Ole Miss, Georgia, South Carolina. I mean, you must, Auburn … Texas A&M, the SEC is 50 times, always will be, always has been a football conference, better than the ACC.” 

SMU and the rest of the ACC, maybe aside from Clemson which doesn’t necessarily deserve the flak, can get back into Russo’s good graces. He mapped it up for Lashlee.

“Here’s what I want the ACC to do, okay? And don’t give me the idea that only six teams have won a championship out of the SEC. That’s a bunch of garbage,” Russo said. “Here’s what I want you to do, go to an SEC, go to a playoff game this year if you’re SMU, and be competitive in the game. Okay? Be in the ball game, so when I’m watching on TNT on a December Saturday afternoon with me little cocoa and a chocolate chip cookie, I don’t got to turn the game off at halftime because it’s 31-3 Penn State. Will you please? 

“Show me in a big spot that an ACC team can be, outside of Clemson, that can be competitive in a big spot. SMU didn’t show that last year. For him to go to the ACC Media Day and basically kill the SEC is absolutely, mind bogglingly, stupid.”