BERKELEY, Calif. — Rhett Lashlee made it his mission when he became SMU’s head coach in 2022 to change one defining fault of the program.
Some of the top players on that 2022 team told him they wanted to finish better in November. Before Lashlee arrived, SMU hadn’t had a winning record in the last month of the regular season since 2009. It was a 12-season streak that spanned three head coaches.
Lashlee took that request to heart and led the Mustangs to a 14-1 record in their first 15 November games of the Lashlee era. They had won 12 in a row before Saturday. It took them to two straight conference championship games and put them on the cusp of making a third.
But the Mustangs’ core message was somehow forgotten on their road trip to California Saturday — and their inability to finish cost them.
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“Extremely disappointed that we let a great opportunity slip,” Lashlee said. “You can’t go on the road in conference play and dig a hole like we did.”
Despite entering the weekend in control of their own fate in the ACC title race, No. 21 SMU (8-4, 6-2) fell 38-35 to California (7-5, 4-4) on the road. With the loss, SMU was eliminated from ACC championship contention, and Duke and Virginia instead clinched the two spots in next Saturday’s game in Charlotte, N.C.
All SMU had to do Saturday was beat a California team barely above .500 that had fired its coach earlier in the week.
But SMU allowed Cal to take a 10-point lead at halftime, a 17-point lead in the fourth quarter and score a go-ahead touchdown with under a minute remaining to negate the Mustangs’ hard-fought comeback effort.
The Mustangs came out flat on both sides of the ball Saturday. Their offense only generated 74 yards in the first half outside of one 54-yard rushing touchdown by Chris Johnson Jr. The defense reverted to its early-season struggles, giving up six plays of over 15 yards in the passing game and extending opponents’ drives with seven penalties for 79 yards.
“Sometimes, you’re on scholarship, and they’re on scholarship, and they played better than us in the first half,” Lashlee said.
But late in the third quarter, SMU found some momentum. The Mustangs scored touchdowns on four consecutive drives in the third and fourth quarters to take the lead on a TJ Harden touchdown run with 2:22 remaining in regulation.
However, it wasn’t enough. Cal drove 75 yards downfield in 1:39, and a 2-yard run by Kendrick Raphael put the Golden Bears up 38-35 with under a minute remaining.
SMU had one final chance to send the game to overtime, but kicker Sam Keltner missed a 52-yard field goal wide right with three seconds left.
Lashlee doesn’t agree that the Mustangs didn’t finish Saturday.
“We finished. We didn’t win. There’s a big difference,” he said. “When it was 24-7, most teams are going to roll over. That’s just not in our guys’ DNA.”
As they have all season, SMU didn’t quit even when it dug itself into a hole that seemed insurmountable.
But outside of that, there isn’t much comfort the Mustangs can take from the loss.
The consolation prize is a trip to a bowl game with no postseason implications, a situation in which Lashlee and Co. could be without their full roster if players opt out. They’ll have to watch a 7-5 Duke team compete for an ACC title and possibly be the reason the conference gets left out of the playoff altogether in favor of two Group of Five champions.
Through all of that, SMU’s coaches and players will have to remember that all of their goals were still in front of them on the last Saturday of the season — but withered away.
“There’s no consolation. We lost,” Lashlee said. “We lost an opportunity to play and compete for a championship next week. There’s really no sugarcoating that or silver lining to it.
“We lost a couple of games we probably shouldn’t have and that’s why we’re not playing next weekend.”
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