Everything Rhett Lashlee said after SMU beat Syracuse

SMU head coach Rhett Lashlee spoke with the media following the Mustangs win over Syracuse on Saturday. Here’s everything he had to say in his press conference.

Opening statement: “Man, excited to be 1-0 in the conference. It’s a big deal here on family weekend. First half thought we played, other than the opening drive on offense, I thought it was a really good first half. Thought that was SMU Football. Offensively, we were efficient. Guys were making plays, we were playing with tempo. Defensively, we were stopping the run. Big, big early stop. We go 3-and-out, shank the punt, they get a short field, they get 3rd and goal at the 1. We stop them two times in a row. That’s a big kind of momentum swing early in the game without any points on the board. We get the turnover right after that. We only get three out of it. So it’s 3-0 and then I think we got another either pick or 4th down stop here right after that short one. Thought our defense was really good early and allowed our offense to really get going. To be up 24-3 at half, eventually 31-3 is a big deal and it doesn’t have to be pretty, but we finished and we got a win we got a double-digit win conference and we’re 1-0 and got a chance to go 2 -0 next week so it was good to have a celebrated locker room.” 

On moving Deuce Harmon around the secondary: “I mean so sometimes you may change some things. Deuce played nickel, La’Modrick’s out and we’ve been struggling with consistency there anyways. That allowed us to put Ahmaad Moses back in the deep free safety spot. I thought Deuce and Kyron Chambers did a really good job there, which kind of settled down the safety picture for us and then Marcellus and Smoke and Speedy doing a good job at corner. I think we kind of fell into probably the best lineups for us, in terms of the five or six guys that played back there. They’re not 100 percent. It’s good to get Kilgore and Barker back, helps our communication. Now those other linebackers have played a lot. So now all of a sudden we have depth of a linebacker. 

“I thought defensive line did a nice job. We didn’t have to sell out pressure to get pressure all night, not that we got it all the time, they threw it a ton. But we got some sacks, we got some pressures, we stopped the run for the most part. I just thought it was a good group effort of just taking pride over the last two weeks saying, look, we’re better than this. We played good defensive stretches in those losses, but we didn’t play consistent enough. I thought we did today, I thought we were much more consistent defensively. I don’t think we went out and just changed everything, we tweaked some things, but I think we just played better. We tackled really well in space. We got off the field better on 3rd down, and just made more plays.”

On two penalties for 15 yards: “Nothing different. See, we coach against penalties all the time. We coach discipline all the time. We didn’t change anything because if we had changed something, that would have just proven that we weren’t doing it right to begin with. I think we did have guys, now we’re four games in, we did play fundamentally better. We executed better, particularly in the first half on offense. So we didn’t see a lot of the foolish penalties that we’ve had. Same thing on defense. We just challenged the guys, let’s be done with the childish stuff. For us to win this year, the last year, the next year, rule No. 1 is make yourself hard to beat. If you don’t beat yourself with penalties and turnovers, then you make yourself harder to beat. We had one turnover and two penalties. They had what three or four turnovers and six penalties. That right there is a big deal. I think our guys were focused and then just played fundamentally more sound and had more poise, but we coached the same way in practice we always have, we just executed better.”

On Kevin Jennings’ day and if there was a thought to get him out in the 4th: “I was just trying to win. Good news is he didn’t get banged up today, I don’t think. You can tell that he was a lot healthier, didn’t have to run a lot, but man he was efficient. They’re playing us the same way everybody else is, they’re not gonna give Romello and Jordan and RJ and those guys 1-on-1 chances to be explosive. So they’re gonna keep everything back and you saw us get the ball on the perimeter, I thought we blocked on the perimeter well. He was really efficient, a lot of those are run perimeter options and he’s making the read to hand it, throw it. We actually called more than 28 run plays, probably eight or ten of our passes were off of run plays. I thought he distributed the ball well, almost like a point guard. Then when we needed it, I mean, the shot to Jalen Cooper kind of got us going on the over route, play action. The shot to RJ, what a catch by RJ. Then the one right next play to Matt Hibner, was still able to push the ball down the field, but he just did a really nice job of not forcing things, taking what they did and gave him. I think that’s why he was so efficient and we were able to do that, at least in the pass game.”

On blue-chip OT Dramodd Odoms getting action for SMU: “I’ll be honest with you. Dramodd’s gonna be a great player and we love him and he’s been working hard. He’s had a really good two weeks, but he also played out of necessity. Andrew Chamblee had a baby, he wasn’t even here, so Savion started at left tackle. Everybody’s healthy, by the way. Everything went good. Now Savion practiced at right tackle all week then played left tackle as up to this morning. Then PJ gets hurt at halftime, can’t go back. Dramodd has to play. So you’re playing with Dramodd, Savion and Chamblee’s not here and PJ’s out. PJ came back in late when it got a little tight. He made freshman mistakes, but he also played hard and we won and he got valuable experience. 

“I think, again, he came here and we feel like he’s going to be a special player and days like today will help accelerate that growth for him. He’s had a good two weeks and we trust our guys. We’re going to recruit guys who are going to come here and we’re going to throw them in the game and let them play. They’re not going to have to be perfect, but that’s how they’re going to get better. We believe in all of them.”

On SMU getting the tight ends involved: “They were both a little more healthy than they’ve been. I mean, Matt Hibner’s been hobbling too. Think you could tell the bye week helped them both a lot. Kevin has a lot of faith in those guys. You saw him late in the game, he hit Hibner twice to run some clock and get some first downs. Obviously, RJ wasn’t exactly open when he threw that, but he made a great throw and RJ made a great catch. So those two guys are great. They’re NFL players. They’re as healthy as they’ve been this season. That was why it was a lot easier to get them more involved, and we’ll continue to try and do that every week.”

On the defense swarming effort: “That’s SMU defense. When you swarm the football, it fixes a lot of issues. I did think we tackled a lot better, but we swarmed. We played with great energy. They didn’t let the drive or the situation dictate how hard they were playing. We rolled a lot of guys. That’s it. We just challenged them. That’s it. Let’s swarm and play SMU football. Let’s get 11 white helmets with a Mustang on the side and around that football every time. I think, for the most part, we did that and it covered up some issues when we weren’t perfect and then when we were, we made a lot of plays and that’s got to be who we are.”

On SMU P Wade McSparron being ambidextrous: “I thought you were going to ask me about the shank. We have a guy who can putt with his right and his left foot. Pretty cool, huh? I’ve never even heard of that before. So anyways, Coach Cooper and Coach Casey Horny, our special teams coaches, we’ve been working it all fall camp. It’s a great weapon when you can rugby left, rugby right, punt in the pocket. So it kind of makes it really hard for the defense to overdo one side and he’s effective with both. So pulling that out today was good. Give some other people things to worry about, but no, it’s not my call. We know throughout the week what our reps are for punt. We knew this week we were gonna give them that option to go both ways.”

On how much it meant to get this win: “Well, I mean, it feels great to go 1-0 in the league. That celebrated the locker room was good. I mean, our guys needed that because they worked so hard. We were in two really good contested games. One we definitely should have won, one we could have won and we didn’t. To feel the reward for your work is important. It was 31-3. We didn’t finish the way we’d like, but shoot, we finished, we won. That is all that matters. This could give us momentum going into this week. We get to play at home again, got an early kick, Stanford coming in. We got an opportunity to go 2-0. We’re in that kind of elimination conference play down like we’ve been in the last couple of years. Each week, you just gotta kind of find a way to win whether it’s home or on the road. I wasn’t worried about who we got in or out. I just wanted to win. I wanted to see three zeros and us have more points than them. So, yeah, it feels good.”

On having a breakthrough potentially with this win: “Yeah, You gotta accomplish confidence. Today we did. We’re up 31-3. They had a nice little drive. Probably the one time we kind of gave up a drive on defense this game. And they make it 31-10. Then we go throw a really dumb interception, and then our defense holds them. Then I call probably the worst play in the history of college football. We get a safety. So now it’s 31-12. They just kept fighting and then it got tight. I mean, they’re kicking an onside kick that we didn’t exactly field great. But we got it. 

“We didn’t run all the time off the clock, but we got it with five minutes left in the game Week 2, and we didn’t run enough time off. We got all the way down to one minute, no timeouts. Could have kicked a field goal, chose not to, and then our defense stopped them, right? So yes, it doesn’t matter how it looks or how you do it, it just matters that you do it. Now our entire team, offense, defense, special teams, we know we can finish the game, we can close out a game. Guess what? Next week, if we wanna win, we’re gonna be in the same position at some point where we have to close out the game. Now we’ve been there, we can say no, we’ve done it instead of well, we almost did it. And so, yeah, it’s a big step for this team.”

On safety play for SMU: “Yeah, so I’ve coached for 18 years, called plays for 12. I don’t run stretch on the goal line for that reason. We had not been running well in between tackles. The ball was on the 5, not the 1 and the 2. We got in formation, we felt good about running stretch. Our freshman running back’s in there with our freshman left tackle. And lo and behold, the first time we’ve seen it from them all year, they play a different look and bring pressure off that edge. We should get hats on hats and at least get a no gain or minus one. But I put our guys in a really bad spot, two freshmen in a really bad spot. That’s just bad coaching. Put them in a spot they’ve never been in, doing something they’ve never done, and then we get a safety. So that’s not on them, that’s on me. I probably won’t do it again either.”

On SMU’s 18-game conference winning streak: “It’s a big deal. It’s a big deal coming in today us and Oregon each had 17. Chris told me for now we’re at 18, we’re in first. I don’t know what time they play (they’re on a bye). So I mean 18 straight, so it’s been like November of ’22, right? I mean, at Tulane was the last time we lost. I remember that, it was a bad day. But then we came back and beat Memphis and we haven’t lost a regular season conference game since. I think it’s a testament to what we’re building, our coaches, our players that were here that are still here. It’s hard to do, and half of that. Nine of those 18 are in the ACC.

“So it’s a big deal, and I think one of our guys told me on Thursday, ‘Coach, we’ve never played an ACC regular season game that we weren’t first or tied for first in the league. Let’s not stop now.’ Here we are 1-0, and however you look at it, we got a 1,000 winning percentage. And so we’re 3-0, 2-0, 1-0. We control everything in front of us. Our guys take a lot of pride in that, and it’s a big deal. It’s a big deal. It doesn’t happen often anywhere. A lot of good programs that don’t do that. So we’re humble, we’re thankful, a lot of work, a lot of players did a lot of great things and won some tough games to do that. We gotta come back next week and try to make it 19.”