DALLAS — A move up in weight class can come with many challenges.
SMU Head Football Coach Rhett Lashlee knows this. However, it's not something he believes will slow down his team's momentum.
As the Mustangs prepare for their inaugural season as a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), many think they will end up somewhere in the middle of the new-look, 17-member conference, which features historically dominant programs like Florida State, Miami, Clemson and North Carolina. But coach Lashlee thinks his team is ready to seize the opportunity standing in front of them this season as more eyes than ever will be focused on the Mustangs in Dallas.
SMU, who won the American Athletic Conference Championship last year against Tulane, wants to get back to where they finished last season despite facing a plethora of new opponents with a leg-up on experience in Power conference football.
"We gotta raise our level," Lashlee told WFAA Sports Anchor Joe Trahan. "We're going up in weight class. Now we have to win a major conference championship again, and just show we belong, show we compete and hopefully put Dallas in the playoff."
Adjusting to a new conference is easier for some depending on factors such as the quality of the conference, seniority of their team, resources available and toughness of schedule.
SMU is entering a conference with some heavy hitters that have long-standing traditions of championship football. And they aren't tip-toeing their way in either. In fact, the Mustangs' first ACC game will be at home against last year's ACC champs, the Florida State Seminoles.
"We're going off the high dive," Lashlee said about SMU's upcoming ACC opponents. "It's exciting. [FSU] won the league last year and then the next week we go to Louisville who was playing them in the championship game. So the ACC gave us the best two from last year right off the bat. If you're a competitor, that's what you want."
Taking these challenges in stride with an abundance of optimism is an attitude that seems necessary for a team like SMU, which seemingly has little to lose heading into the 2024-2025 season.
Media voters in the ACC preseason poll picked the Mustangs to finish seventh behind Virginia Tech. These moderate expectations lead coach Lashlee to believe his Mustangs will surprise some people this season with how they compete and execute on game days.
"We have a veteran team. A lot of guys are returning from last year's team," Lashlee explained. "We're defending champs this year. We're defending in a different league, but we're defending champs. I think our guys are excited about that opportunity to move up and hopefully, we can be like Roy Jones Jr. and win in both classes."
Admittedly, coach Lashlee said it realistically takes teams entering a new conference an average of three to four years before they can compete for a conference title. However, the Mustangs aren't waiting for that.
Lashlee said SMU is all in right now and ready to show the world what they've been building over the last few years, which is hopefully enough to get them a shot at the ACC title.
"We're expecting to compete this year," Lashlee said. "We're doing everything we can as a team to put ourselves in position that when we get to November we're playing for something, we're playing for the postseason, we're playing still in contention with the chance to get to [The ACC Championship Game]. If you get there, you got a chance to be in the playoffs."
A trip to the College Football Playoff isn't out of the question for the Mustangs as the new format invites the top 12 teams as opposed to four in its previous iteration.
If Lashlee wants any chance of this happening, he will need to maintain his optimistic attitude by shooting for the moon and in hope, the Mustangs will land among the stars.
"The winning has happened, the investment has happened," Lashlee said. "Now we have the [ACC]. We have an opportunity to seize the moment."
Full 2024 SMU Football Schedule
- Aug. 24 | SMU at Nevada - 7 p.m. on CBSSN
- Aug. 31 | HCU vs. SMU - 7 p.m. on ACCNX
- Sept. 6 | BYU vs. SMU - 6 p.m. on ESPN2
- Sept. 21 | TCU vs. SMU - 4 p.m. on The CW
- Sept. 28 | Florida State vs. SMU - TBD*
- Oct. 5 | SMU at Louisville - TBD*
- Oct. 19 | SMU at Stanford - TBD*
- Oct. 26 | SMU at Duke - TBD*
- Nov. 2 | Pittsburgh vs. SMU - TBD*
- Nov. 16 | Boston College vs. SMU - TBD*
- Nov. 23 | SMU at Virginia - TBD*
- Nov. 30 | Cal vs. SMU - TBD*
Games in bold denote home games
* ACC game