SMU head football coach Rhett Lashlee sits down for 1-on-1 interview

Coach, there's so much history surrounding this program and now that you guys are, are going into AC C, it feels like big time football is back on the hilltop. I can't imagine what the excitement level is around campus. How would you describe it? It's hard to describe the excitement of our, just on campus, our fan base, our university to your point. I mean, we spent 75 years in the Southwest Conference won 11 championships, you know, have had national champions Heisman winners and, and then we're in the city of Dallas and, you know, we have a great mayor, Eric Johnson and you think about everything that's going right with the city right now, like the city does. That of Dallas deserves a big time college football team. And so we're excited to have a chance to be on that stage in the AC C and compete and represent our city, represent our state. And so, uh I could say there's, there's probably not been a more anticipated season in SMU in a long time. And it's interesting, right? Because of all that history, it still feels like we're on the ground floor of the future of SMU athletics. And with that being the case, I, I'm curious about the foundational traits that you wanna ensure are embedded in your ball club in order for this thing to grow the right way. Yeah, I think you look at a couple different ways but the number one thing, not only in this year's team but in our program, um, is, is we wanna be Dallas's team, we wanna be connected to the city. Um I think that's, that's grown over the last four or five years and our, our move to the AC C only helps that, you know, when you have Florida State coming in here, um, the following year, Miami's coming in here and some of the nonconference games we have in the future. Um I think it, it just changes the field, the stadium expansion, but the best high school players every year come out of Dallas and for us to be able to recruit South Dallas, North Dallas DISD all in between, uh, the surrounding areas. That's a big deal to us. And I think the move to the AC C allows that, that vision to become, uh much more of a reality for us. Fair, not the football team is really the standard bearer for an athletic department. Um, it's the front porch of the university. So with that being said, what do you want people to see? What do you want people to feel when they watch the SMU Mustangs? Yeah. It's a great question because when, when you go to, when you make a move like this to the AC C, everybody talks about the athletic piece of it. This is massive for our university SMU we are, our peers are now Virginia and North Carolina and Duke and Wake Forest and Miami and Clemson and Notre Dame and Stanford. And on and on this raises the profile of our school. But to your point, the football program, we're the front porch. We're almost the one who's running around carrying the flag for SMU and uh millions of people watching us. And so, you know, I want us to represent our school in a, in a very strong way. I want us to represent our city the right way. Um And the biggest deal is we wanna show that we're here to compete. We belong, we're gonna compete, uh the wins and all that will work itself out over these first few years. But I feel like we have a team that's gonna compete and represent Dallas and represent SMU Well, after the move to the AC C was announced 100 million was raised in about a week. Uh Athletics has raised some 100 and 59 million uh over the last year. What's it like? Like having that kind of support behind this groundswell in this growth movement in the university? I just think it shows that the commitment that our alumni has such a strong, powerful um alumni base that we have, that we wanna seize the moment. Like we have this opportunity. 100 plus million in a week, 100 and 25 million already raised just for the AC C move. You already said 100 and 59 for the year, which was a record in the country. Um You know, I just think we have a chance to seize the moment. Um We, we have a different appreciation at SMU I think our, our alumni and our fan base that have been here for the long haul because we were in the Southwest conference, we were in quote power football and we had that taken away for about 28 years. And so I think to someone who's had it and lost it, there's a different appreciation for it. There's a different um level of humility we have knowing how, how big a deal it is and how grateful we are to be back. So we're very thankful but make no mistake. We're uh we're fully committed and uh we want to compete right away. I wanna keep pulling on that thread because to whom much is given much is required. So how do you view that responsibility? Knowing you have this humongous support system? It's a huge responsibility for myself, our staff, our team, you know, again, we're representing the city, we're representing our school, but the amount of investment that's been put into this move at a university level athletic level from our donors. Um, you know, they expect us to compete and we expect ourselves to compete. But if you're a competitor, if you're a high achiever, you want those, you wanna be in a place where the standard is high, the expectations are high. You know, when I got the job, we hadn't won a championship in almost 40 years. We wanted to do that. We were able to do that last year. Um, you know, we wanted to get the conference move happen. It's happened. We wanted the new facility, we're gonna move in in a week. Um, now we gotta take, we gotta raise our level. You know, we got, we're going up in weight class now we gotta win a major conference championship again and, and just show we belong, show we compete and hopefully put Dallas in the playoff. Yeah, you led me to my next question. 11 wins a conference championship last year. It's an interesting situation because you want your team to build off that conference championship. But admittedly it is a much tougher weight class. It's gonna be a tougher mountain to climb. How do you balance that with your messaging to your team? Uh, it's a new team. So now we have a veteran team. A lot of guys are returning off last year's team. But to your point, we did it, you know, almost in like the middleweight division and, uh, it doesn't devalue it, it was a championship and it's hard to do. There's only 10 schools or whatever. I think that won one last year. So we're defending champs this year. We're defending in a different league, but we're defending champs. So I think our guys are excited about that opportunity to move up, you know, and hopefully we can be like Roy Jones Junior and win in both classes. You know what I mean? But like they wanna be on that stage, our program wants to be on that stage, our staff, our school, we wanna be on the stage. We're now gonna be on, we feel like we belong on that stage. The messaging is, you know, the formula for winning doesn't change, you know what we, the make up of a championship team doesn't change what we did last year. We have to find a way to develop this year's identity for this year's team. Um, but the challenges are different and 10 straight power, four opponents, you know, Florida State coming in here for our first conference game. We have great nonconference games like BYU and TCU in Nevada. Like, um can we sustain a more consistency of success, consistency of performance week in week out in a different weight level? That's the challenge. Yeah, that consistency is absolutely key. Interesting because when it comes to joining the AC C, you guys aren't dipping your toe. Hey Florida State, come on in, we know you won the league last year but, but but come on in. Um, wow, how do you approach that challenge? Knowing the daunting nature of it. Yeah, we're going off the high dive. Right. So, um, you know, it's exciting two defending champs. They won the league last year and then the next week we go to Louisville who was playing them in the championship game. So AC C gave us the, the best two from last year right off the bat. But again, if you're a competitor, that's what you want. Here's, here's what I say for, for 30 plus thir 30 years almost, we've won it as a program to be in this position. We felt like we belonged on the stage. We now got it. Um That's what we asked for. And so look, I've said this the last couple of weeks, like I, I really like our team. I do, I think we have a team that's gonna compete. I think we have a team that's tough. That's gonna be fun to watch. Um, I don't know what that looks like, wins and losses, but I know we're gonna compete. I just know we're excited to get on that stage with the Florida States of the World and see where we measure up. What do you want from your crowd? What do you need from your crowd in that AC C inaugural game? Well, that's the thing. It, it, it takes two. You know, we're, we're trying to do our part to represent the school, the city we have to win. We have to be AAA program, a team that people wanna support and follow. We need our crowd and we've already pretty much sold out the Florida State game, which is awesome. Uh, we're already well over all our record ticket sales here. I think we're close to selling out all the season tickets for the year. Uh, we need a crowd that look, the Boulevard is one of the best things in college football. We need a crowd that's in the stadium when it starts in it, when it leaves and when we're ahead, they're celebrating with us and helping us finish the deal. But, you know, with the, the level of competition we're gonna be playing now, there's gonna be a lot of times you're going into the second half or into the fourth quarter down a score or two and that's where your home crowd can really pull your team through. That's the home field advantage. So, uh I'm confident that if we continue to do our part and, and put a product together, that's exciting. Our fans will come and create one of the most electrifying home field atmospheres in college football. We've got, I think, an eight game winning streak here and it's only gonna get better. You've been an offensive coordinator at the University of Miami. So you've been in these hostile environments in the AC C, we all know adversity baked in the cake when you play football but it's gonna be a different kind of adversity for a lot of your players. What will you tell them as you look forward to trying to go into some of those very tough places to play? Yeah. I mean, that's, that's what you want, you want those environments but they're different. And, uh, you know, fortunately we've had the opportunities, like last year we went to Norman Oklahoma year before we went to Maryland, we've gone up to Michigan in the last several years. It's just the week in week out piece of it. Um You have to have an incredible focus, an incredible credible level of unity to, to go on the road and win in those environments. Um I think that's where our veteran team will help us. I think that's where the team that we have that has a lot of transfers that came from the Power conferences by the AC C, the SEC. They've been in those environments. So hopefully that's an edge for us. Um But make no mistake. That's, that's part of the challenge of moving up a weight class that we're really excited about in a power four conference. Now, you have a direct pathway to the playoff. It's expanded. Now, I suspect that you can hold that out as a carrot to your football team. How long do you think it will be and can be before you can li legitimately contend for one of those playoff spots, you know, it's a great question and, and it's kinda like I said, we're gonna find out where we measure up this year. And I think in some ways we're gonna surprise some people, I think, I think we're gonna do some things and have some moments where people go. Wow. They, they're a little bit ahead of schedule and then there may be some times we learn a little bit about ourselves and maybe where we've got to improve. And so, you know, in this year one, it's kind of hard to project and guess, uh, look, we expect to compete this year. Uh, we're doing everything we can as a team to put ourselves in position when we get to November that we're playing for something. We're playing for the postseason. We're playing maybe still in contention with the chance to get to Charlotte. Uh, if you get to Charlotte, which is where the AC C title game is, you got a chance to be in the playoffs. So, um, do I think if we don't do that, the year is a failure? No, but we're not, we're not waiting, you know, we're all in now. Um, realistically, if you look at history probably takes three or four years. Um, but I think the city we have the, the support we have behind our program, the talent base in Dallas and Texas, we have to recruit from, uh, if we do it right, it could happen sooner than later. You know, all in your quarterback has been all in since he stepped foot on this campus. He hasn't second guessed playing for SMU and in this age of transfer portal and players switch teams regularly. How much is his commitment meant to this program and his ability to be a leader in it. It's been huge. I mean, you look at a guy like Preston who was one of the top quarterbacks coming out of the country coming out of high school and he chose to go to SMU over the likes of the Texas, the Stanford, the Alabama before the facility was built before a championship had won before we were in the AC C he believed in SMU and staying in Dallas early on. Um, guys like him, I think have paved the way for this, his leadership. What he did last year as a starter for the first year. He's 11 and two as a starter. Um, and that consistency has been a lot and I'll say this, not just him when you talk about quarterbacks, Kevin Jennings from South Oak Cliff could have gone to a lot of places he came here, won, it, won the championship game for us, chose to stay Krick Luster from mckinney. Our top three quarterbacks are all Dallas area, kids north, south and central and they're all, they're all guys that, that can win at a high level. Um, but a lot of guys like that again, I think there's just a spirit of kids wanna stay and play in Dallas. We gotta give them a reason to wanna stay. The winning has happened. The investment has happened now, we have the league again. We have an opportunity to seize the moment. I'd be remiss if I didn't ask you uh about what you have done in terms of the resource expansion and the resources that have been ported to your program uh specifically with the new end zone um expansion and that facility. How is that gonna shape this program for years to come? It, it's a game changer, you know, the Gary Webber End Zone complex, we, we're moving into this season. It's 100 and 90,000 square feet. It's state of the art. I mean, I've, I've been blessed to coach at some really great places over 15 plus years in the SEC and the AC C and I, it's gonna be the best facility I've ever coached out of and it's, uh it's not gonna take a back seat to hardly anyone and it's brand new, everything for our players, for our staff. So when you talk about recruiting, you talk about retention now in the portal area for guys to stay, um uh a football facility is like a player's home if you will when they're in college. So when they make decisions, there's usually three or four things that really matter and that's one of the top things. So for us to have that. It's gonna help us continue to recruit at a high level, retain good players, retain good coaches. Um I think the investment in our program is massive, will help us in recruiting retention, our staff too. But um that facility is special. It's a transformative piece and, and we've seen this program, this stadium, this area around campus continue to evolve. Is there something more that you need to continue to take those steps? Because we always talk about the arms races between all these power four schools. Um, what, what more is there? You know, it's, it's funny because I came here in 2018 and, and, and we didn't have the indoor yet. We have that now. We didn't have the, the end zone complex. We have that now we didn't have as much support as we have. Now, we had good support, but now we have all the resources and backing, um, from our alumni base and we didn't have the conference and we have that now. Oh, and we have a championship. And so I think we've checked a lot of boxes. I'll be honest with you, the last thing we need, besides doing our part and winning and putting a great team out there. We need the city of Dallas to rally around us. We need them to come out and embrace us as dallas' team. Excuse me, much like they do the Mavericks much like they do the Cowboys, the Rangers um, there's gonna be times that we don't have as good a year, but we're gonna have good teams. We're gonna be competitive and there's a lot of guys and, and w men and women that live in the metroplex live in Dallas that may not have gone to SMU, they may have gone to other schools, but when they're not at their school, they can come support the Mustangs. We can still be their town, their city's team, we can still be Dallas's team. That's what we need. And if we get that, I think the sky is the limit. What we can do with this program. You're about to embark on a fantastic journey coach. I'm curious what about your team allows you to sleep better each night nowadays, the culture, yeah, the culture, I think the culture, our staff has built in our short 2.5 years here. I think again, having a lot of returning players, a lot of veterans. We had 27 seniors. A lot of those guys were on the roster last year. Um We got a good core group of, of leadership back. But our staff, the culture, we have guys that uh that believe in the team concept, which is hard in this day and age nil transfer, they all have their own goals. A lot of them wanna play in the NFL and some of them are going to. But we have a, we have a team unity in a culture that I think special. It makes it really fun to coach, fun to come, to work with our staff.