Urban Meyer on SMU in College Football Playoff race: ‘They are legit’

Even in their first ACC season, SMU has gone under the radar in the College Football Playoff discussion. Rhett Lashlee currently has his team undefeated in conference play, with their lone loss on the year coming early against BYU. Tuesday’s rankings saw the Mustangs at No. 14, just outside the 12-team field for now.

Even so, FOX’s Urban Meyer is buying into SMU and what they are building. Meyer was previously skeptical but after watching them play a few times, he likes what has been put on tape.

“I’m jumping on that SMU train a little bit,” Meyer said. “I took shots at them a little bit the last couple of weeks. But they’re a balanced team, a really good team.”

SMU is currently on a six-game win streak following the BYU loss and has won in different ways. Offensive explosions have occurred thanks to a quarterback change with Kevin Jennings. The Mustangs are No. 6 in scoring offense thus far, averaging 40.1 points per game.

But then you take the win at Duke, where the Mustangs turned it over six times, and their defense made the difference. Not many teams in the history of college football have won after six turnovers.

The program’s rise is nearly at a new all-time high, a journey Lashlee has worked on for some time. Not too long ago, SMU was one of the worst teams in the FBS. June Jones brought back some of the pride but never to the level of winning a conference or competing for a national championship.

Last year’s American championship broke a lengthy drought and SMU is now searching for back-to-back conference titles for the first time since 1981 and 1982, retroactively earning a spot in the College Football Playoff. Not many would have predicted to see SMU in this position but now that they are, Meyer believes they are a legit contender.

“I was a little shocked with what I saw because I’ve never thought of them that way,” Meyer said. “They’ve been down for so long. They’ve always been a decent program but they are legit.