{"id":29676,"date":"2025-11-01T22:54:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-01T22:54:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/29676\/"},"modified":"2025-11-01T22:54:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-01T22:54:10","slug":"in-a-season-full-of-adversity-smu-restores-hope-with-culture-win-over-no-10-miami","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/29676\/","title":{"rendered":"In a season full of adversity, SMU restores hope with \u2018culture win\u2019 over No. 10 Miami"},"content":{"rendered":"

UNIVERSITY PARK \u2014 At many moments this season, SMU<\/a> couldn\u2019t catch a break.<\/p>\n

Early on, it was injuries to multiple starters. Then, it was two close losses in non-conference play to in-state rivals when SMU held fourth-quarter leads. <\/p>\n

Once SMU finally hit its stride early in ACC play, a 50-yard field goal served them a one-point loss on the road at Wake Forest last week<\/a> and put their season on the ropes.<\/p>\n

The adversity \u2014 and three losses that came from it \u2014 made it clear the Mustangs had little hope left to replicate their 2024 season where they made a run to the ACC championship game and College Football Playoff.<\/p>\n

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But there may have been no better way to restore hope than what SMU achieved Saturday.<\/p>\n

The Mustangs kept their conference title and College Football Playoff hopes alive by defeating No. 10 Miami 26-20 in overtime at Ford Stadium<\/a>. Saturday\u2019s win was SMU\u2019s first over a top-10 opponent since Jan. 1, 1983 and its first in Ford Stadium\u2019s 25-year history.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a great culture win,\u201d SMU head coach Rhett Lashlee<\/a> said. \u201cWe beat a playoff-caliber team with a national championship-caliber defense.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou learn how to win. You learn how to respond. I just couldn\u2019t be more proud of our guys and our program.\u201d<\/p>\n

Saturday\u2019s game had every chance to go wrong as SMU\u2019s other two one-possession games this season had.<\/p>\n

The Mustang offense came out flat in the first half, scoring just one touchdown that was all but handed to it on an Ahmaad Moses interception that started the drive on the Miami 28-yard line. The run game could never get going, finishing with just 23 carries for 25 yards Saturday.<\/p>\n

Key players who made game-defining plays suffered injuries that appeared to be game-ending. Quarterback Kevin Jennings<\/a> could not put any pressure on one ankle after being tackled in the third quarter before returning two plays later and leading SMU to two game-tying field goal drives and a game-winning touchdown drive. Moses suffered an injury as well before returning to haul in an overtime interception to set up SMU\u2019s game-winning drive.<\/p>\n

Not to mention, SMU had three points taken off the board when kicker Sam Keltner\u2019s 42-yard field goal with 6:25 to play in regulation sailed over the right upright but was ruled wide right, simply because officials said the entire ball wasn\u2019t inside the vertical plane. A matter of inches prevented the Mustangs from tying the game and handed Miami the ball back late in the fourth quarter up 20-17.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen it goes over the top, you can\u2019t review it,\u201d Lashlee said. \u201cLooking at it, I think more than half the ball was inside, but the whole ball has to be inside.\u201d<\/p>\n

But SMU didn\u2019t flinch and didn\u2019t let the moment get too big.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey didn\u2019t worry about the score,\u201d Lashlee said. \u201cThey just kept playing.\u201d<\/p>\n

SMU\u2019s defense made a stop, forcing Miami to punt with 2:10 remaining in regulation. Jennings marched the Mustangs into Miami territory. A fourth down conversion attempt could\u2019ve sealed the game, but Miami\u2019s coaches called a timeout and its players kept playing, tackling Jennings and getting flagged for unnecessary roughness. That call extended SMU\u2019s drive and set up a 38-yard Keltner field goal to tie the game with 25 seconds left.<\/p>\n

In overtime, Miami\u2019s offense started with the ball, but Moses intercepted Hurricanes quarterback Carson Beck for the second time to hand the ball back to Jennings and the offense. <\/p>\n

An SMU run game that has struggled for two weeks got all of its yards in overtime and capped off a game-winning drive with a one-yard touchdown run by UCLA transfer TJ Harden.<\/p>\n

The significance of Saturday\u2019s win in the grand scheme of this season wasn\u2019t lost on SMU\u2019s coaches and players, who enjoyed a lengthy locker room celebration postgame.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs players, we know,\u201d Jennings said. \u201cWe\u2019ve definitely got that in our head. We can\u2019t lose a game. We\u2019ve got to win out. So we know every single game, we\u2019re going to give it our all.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the significance in the grand scheme of the program\u2019s trajectory wasn\u2019t overlooked either.<\/p>\n

Hours after SMU signed Lashlee to a third contract extension in three years<\/a> \u2014 keeping him in Dallas until 2032 and making him one of the top-10 highest-paid coaches in college football \u2014 he earned the biggest win of his career.<\/p>\n

Ford Stadium was packed with Mustang fans for homecoming, whom the SMU defense had to quiet down on the sidelines in overtime so the offense could work in peace.<\/p>\n

It was a scene SMU fans could only dream of two years ago. So was their now 3-1 record over blue bloods Clemson, Miami and Florida State to start ACC play.<\/p>\n

SMU\u2019s season may not end back in Charlotte or the College Football Playoff. The Mustangs still need to beat Boston College, Louisville and Cal to make that happen \u2014 and need some help from Virginia or Georgia Tech, who have cruised through ACC play. <\/p>\n

But regardless of what happens over the next two months, no one can take Saturday away from SMU \u2014 a moment that shows just how far this program has come.<\/p>\n

Photos: SMU fans rush the field, Mustangs celebrate after upset win over Miami<\/p>\n

\"SouthernView Gallery\u2018Awesome win for SMU\u2019: National reaction to Mustangs\u2019 upset win over No. 10 Miami<\/a>Watch: SMU fans storm the field after upset win over No. 10 Miami<\/a><\/p>\n

Find more SMU coverage from The Dallas Morning News here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UNIVERSITY PARK \u2014 At many moments this season, SMU couldn\u2019t catch a break. Early on, it was injuries…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":29677,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[20228,8472,123,125,124,10892,4700],"class_list":["post-29676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-colleges","tag-kevin-jennings","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news","tag-rhett-lashlee","tag-smu-mustangs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29676","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29676"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29676\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29677"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}