UNIVERSITY PARK — Rhett Lashlee made a quick, 23-month stop at Miami in between his two stints at SMU — and his time as the Hurricanes’ offensive coordinator shaped the program SMU would become when he returned to the Hilltop.
Almost Lashlee’s entire offensive staff at SMU is made up of coaches who followed him from Miami. SMU has recruited more players out of the transfer portal from the Hurricanes since Lashlee arrived than any other program. Four are still on the roster, and three have gone on to the NFL.
“You want to be with good people who you know you can trust and who understand you and you understand them,” Lashlee said. “You just create bonds with those guys. When I came here, I didn’t know how many of them would come.”
Lashlee’s move from one ACC program to one that would join the conference two years later has created a pipeline that, for the first time, will get to head-to-head with their former program Saturday at 11 a.m. at Ford Stadium. Miami enters Ford Stadium as the No. 10 team in the nation.
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Saturday’s game was one with major ACC title implications before SMU’s 13-12 loss to Wake Forest last week. Many thought it would bring ESPN’s College GameDay to town.
While it lost some luster for fans, it’s still an opportunity for SMU to earn its first win over a ranked team this season — and for those who spent time in both programs to get a meaningful win.
“It’s a great opportunity for us just to display things that we couldn’t display at Miami,” SMU wide receiver and former Miami transfer Romello Brinson said.
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Staff built in Miami
Lashlee and his staff helped transform the Miami offense rapidly in their two years with the program.
In the 2019 season, before he arrived, Miami ranked 90th in the nation in scoring offense (25.7 points per game) and 52nd in total offense (248.2 yards per game).
The Hurricanes jumped to 26th in scoring offense (34 ppg) and 32nd in total offense (440.3 ypg) in their 8-3 season with Lashlee leading the offense in 2020. In his second year, the Hurricanes finished 7-5, but the Hurricanes’ offense improved to 23rd in the nation in scoring (34.1 ppg) and 19th in yards per game (449.9).
“Manny Diaz did a great job with the culture there and got the culture back to winning and expecting to win,” Lashlee said. “Offensively, when we got there, that was the thing we tried to turn around, and a guy like D’Eriq King, who’s here now, deserves a ton of credit for coming in and changing the mindset and culture offensively, which I think has carried over to what they’ve been able to do.”
Last season, Miami, led by No. 1 overall NFL draft pick Cam Ward, had the best offense in the nation.
Becoming a head coach for the first time, Lashlee wanted to bring staff members along whom he was familiar with. But Lashlee departed for SMU in November 2021, and many of his coordinators would have to decide whether to leave with him.
“When he knew, I knew,” SMU running backs coach and special teams coordinator Kyle Cooper said. “I knew that it was destined for me to follow him here. He had mentioned that he didn’t know what side of the ball I would go work for him on but that he wanted to offer me an on-field position somewhere, and I said, ‘I don’t care. I want to be your Swiss Army Knife. Let’s go to Dallas.’”
For others, it became an easy decision when Manny Diaz was fired in December and replaced by Mario Cristobal.
In addition to Cooper, Lashlee brought wide receivers coach Rob Likens, offensive line coach Garin Justice, assistant quarterbacks coach and head coach analyst Sam Hullender and quarterbacks coach Jonathan Brewer. He then replaced Brewer, who left SMU to become the offensive coordinator at Duke in 2023 under Diaz, with D’Eriq King, who played quarterback for Lashlee at Miami.
By their third year at SMU, Lashlee and his staff had led the Mustangs to an American Conference title, an ACC title game and the College Football Playoff. They attribute much of that rapid success to their history together.
“If we know each other really well, if we know how every Tuesday of the season’s gonna go and every Wednesday of the season is gonna go, there’s no surprises,” Cooper said. “Any time there’s a lot of staff continuity, the players that are in your program year in and year out, they feed into that.”
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Hitting the portal
SMU sophomore running back Chris Johnson Jr. wanted to come to SMU after watching a player with a similar path achieve his goals.
Johnson Jr. was still at Miami last year when Brashard Smith had transferred from the Hurricanes program to join SMU’s and became the team’s breakout star. He was the team’s leading rusher and an AP All-American.
Smith was drafted in the seventh round of the 2025 NFL draft by the Kansas City Chiefs. SMU needed a new running back and brought in a few to fill his shoes, including Johnson.
“Brashard really impacted my decision,” he said. “What he did here last year. He didn’t really get the opportunities that he wanted at Miami, so that was another push for me.”
Johnson was one of 13 SMU players since 2023 who felt they didn’t get the opportunity they hoped for at Miami and transferred to SMU to chase it. Before the 2023 season, it was players like Brinson, running back Jaylan Knighton, defensive end Elijah Roberts and offensive lineman Jakai Clark who made the move. A year later, it was Smith and defensive linemen Jahfari Harvey and Jared Harrison-Hunte. This season, Johnson Jr., offensive lineman Zion Nelson and quarterback transfer Tyler Van Dyke joined the Mustangs, though Van Dyke made a stop at Wisconsin after leaving Miami.
Including Brinson, the Mustangs have four ex-Hurricanes on the roster currently. And most that they’ve brought in have become key contributors.
“It wasn’t intentional,” Lashlee said. “When I took this job, not one player from Miami came here the first year. We didn’t seek anyone out. I don’t believe in that. We weren’t trying to poach people off that roster to come here.
“It’s going to make sense to gravitate to people they trust and they’re confident and there’s familiarity. Same thing for us as coaches: we knew what we were getting. I think it kind of was the perfect storm.”
Trust was especially important when bringing in Van Dyke, who could be a future starter for SMU after Kevin Jennings but needed to rehabilitate a torn ACL. He sought out a staff he could trust, and his time both playing with King and playing for Lashlee at Miami made it an easy choice.
But many of the players and coaches say they’ve maintained relationships with those in Miami’s program despite all the turnover they’ve had. Cooper said he’s exchanged some texts with former colleagues throughout the week.
For the large cohort of players and coaches who have been on both sides, a win on Saturday at Ford Stadium would be even sweeter.
“We just really want to go out there and play ball,” Johnson said. “Opportunities that they didn’t give us, we got those opportunities here, so we just want to go out there and make the best of the opportunities that we get.”
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