{"id":70572,"date":"2025-11-30T14:41:15","date_gmt":"2025-11-30T14:41:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/70572\/"},"modified":"2025-11-30T14:41:15","modified_gmt":"2025-11-30T14:41:15","slug":"smu-squandered-its-chance-to-play-for-championship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/70572\/","title":{"rendered":"SMU squandered its chance to play for championship"},"content":{"rendered":"

BERKELEY, Calif. \u2014 Rhett Lashlee made it his mission when he became SMU<\/a>\u2019s head coach in 2022 to change one defining fault of the program.<\/p>\n

Some of the top players on that 2022 team told him they wanted to finish better in November. Before Lashlee arrived, SMU hadn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

But the Mustangs\u2019 core message was somehow forgotten on their road trip to California Saturday \u2014 and their inability to finish cost them.<\/p>\n

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Related<\/p>\n

\"California<\/p>\n

\u201cExtremely disappointed that we let a great opportunity slip,\u201d Lashlee said. \u201cYou can\u2019t go on the road in conference play and dig a hole like we did.\u201d<\/p>\n

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<\/a>, and Duke and Virginia instead clinched the two spots in next Saturday\u2019s game in Charlotte, N.C.<\/p>\n

All SMU had to do Saturday was beat a California team barely above .500 that had fired its coach earlier in the week.<\/p>\n

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\u2019 hard-fought comeback effort.<\/p>\n

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\u2019 drives with seven penalties for 79 yards.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes, you\u2019re on scholarship, and they\u2019re on scholarship, and they played better than us in the first half,\u201d Lashlee said.<\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

However, it wasn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Lashlee doesn\u2019t agree that the Mustangs didn\u2019t finish Saturday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe finished. We didn\u2019t win. There\u2019s a big difference,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen it was 24-7, most teams are going to roll over. That\u2019s just not in our guys\u2019 DNA.\u201d<\/p>\n

As they have all season, SMU didn\u2019t quit even when it dug itself into a hole that seemed insurmountable. <\/p>\n

But outside of that, there isn\u2019t much comfort the Mustangs can take from the loss.<\/p>\n

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\u2019ll 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.<\/p>\n

Through all of that, SMU\u2019s 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 \u2014 but withered away. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no consolation. We lost,\u201d Lashlee said. \u201cWe lost an opportunity to play and compete for a championship next week. There\u2019s really no sugarcoating that or silver lining to it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe lost a couple of games we probably shouldn\u2019t have and that\u2019s why we\u2019re not playing next weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n

Twitter\/X: @Lassimak<\/a><\/p>\n

\"California<\/a>5 thoughts from SMU-Cal: Mustangs see CFP, ACC hopes crumble in upset loss to Golden Bears<\/a><\/p>\n

SMU squanders an chance to play for a national championship after controlling its own destiny coming into the weekend.<\/p>\n

\"SMU<\/a>SMU picks up comeback win on road over Mississippi State to remain unbeaten<\/a><\/p>\n

The Mustangs trailed by nine points with nine minutes left to play, but rallied for a key nonconference win.<\/p>\n

Find more SMU coverage from The Dallas Morning News here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BERKELEY, Calif. \u2014 Rhett Lashlee made it his mission when he became SMU\u2019s head coach in 2022 to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":70573,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[3688,102,104,103,18312,20515,7284],"class_list":["post-70572","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-colleges","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news","tag-kevin-jennings","tag-rhett-lashlee","tag-smu-mustangs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70572","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70572"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70572\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}