6-2, on track for 8-4 in the regular season.
Bowls and playoffs: 1-3
2022New Mexico BowlL 23-24
2023Fenway BowlL 14-23
2024CFP first roundL 10-38
2025Holiday BowlW 24-19
Fri Nov 6, 7 pm ET 
· Virginia Tech is 6-2 · Lashlee vs. James Franklin: 0-1 · SMU’s chance to win: 70% (the site’s model)
On3Everything Rhett Lashlee said ahead of SMU - Virginia TechTue Nov 3
The Dallas Morning NewsWhile the Rhett Lashlee rumor mill fires up right on time, SMU's coach is happy on the HilltopTue Nov 3
RoundtableSMU's Rhett Lashlee Left Lamenting Self-Inflicted Wounds In Syracuse LossTue Nov 3That’s my chief complaint with Lashlee - what you have is what you got. No real improvement throughout the year from game to game.
Our defense is so unbelievably bad Jesus. At least fraud watch is over, we’re 100% confirmed now.
It’s infuriating! It’s either not being coached or he’s not learning. Thought he’d made a step up after the decision making last week wrt throwing it away more
Fan mood · last 3 weeks · more negative than 3 in 4 FBS fan bases
70%
13%Percent: SMU’s chance to win, from the site’s model. Records are through today. Networks as announced; the rest are set closer to kickoff.
Where SMU stood among 138 FBS programs by stature after each game (1st is the highest; the CFB Zeitgeist ledger).
Yahoo SportsYahoo SportsOn3Yahoo SportsOn3Yahoo SportsEach week as this page showed it at the time. Weeks marked rebuilt came before this page existed: they were built afterward from only what was known by the end of that week.
Watch the biggest plays from SMU’s games, ranked by how much each moved the chance to win.
Above the median on both sides of the ball — 72nd percentile offense, 60th percentile defense.
SMU, every completed season graded against the whole field, then averaged.
Each season is his team’s percentile among every team with that stat (the share it beat), averaged over his completed seasons here; a mid-season takeover year and the season in progress aren’t graded. Letters: A+ 90th percentile and up, A 80, B+ 70, B 60, B− 50, C+ 45, C 40, C− 30, D 15, F below.
This winter
Our poach model, on his record so far, the win chances for every game he has left, his program, his pay and his background. Ranked against the 132 FBS head coaches this season. The zone words describe the market’s interest; none of them says he is leaving.
The biggest factors in his profile, each against the typical FBS head coach today. The games he has left are priced into the number, not listed here.
Tested on every FBS head coach from 2012 through 2025, each season scored by a model fit only on the seasons before it. From three games on, given one coach who left for a head-coaching job elsewhere or an NFL coordinator job and one who stayed, it ranked the one who left ahead 79 to 82% of the time; in a season’s first two games, 78%. Its average chance came within a point of the share who actually left. It counts a move a coach makes while he still holds the job; when his school ends it, that doesn’t count, even if another school then hires him.
I think falling for all of these is why some people want to fire Lashlee.SMU fan
\*Rhett Lashlee enters the chat.SMU fan
With Lashlee’s contract, one of our billionaires is going to have to make him leave.SMU fan
A consistent issue under Lashlee.SMU fan
I hope Lashlee stays with us for a long timeSMU fan
Rhett Lashlee never has team ready until conference play I stgSMU fan
Fri Nov 6: Virginia Tech
63rd of 104 FBS head coaches · from several outlets and r/CFB
While the Rhett Lashlee rumor mill fires up right on time, SMU's coach is happy on the Hilltop
The Dallas Morning News Nov 3 · one outlet
The headlines for each topic are on the News tab.
from many outlets and r/CFB
On3 +1 Aug 21 · a few outlets
The headlines for each topic are on the News tab.
Could another school hire him? What has he said?
Stories are headlines grouped by what they are about, counted through Nov 4.
How he does in the games that matter most — rivalry record, performance broken out by real opponent tier, one-score games, and his toughest historical matchup.
2-3 against his rivals. Just 1-3 against Sonny Dykes.
ATS is his record against the spread: did his team beat the closing betting line, winning by more than it or losing by less? Lines start in 2013; a dash means fewer than 6 of those games had one. One-score games carry no spread record: a big favorite that wins a close game has almost always failed to cover, so that number would say nothing about the coach.
Tags describe each game; they aren’t scores. The weighting that picks these games is still being tested.
From our list of the 50 most defining games of the Playoff era, ranked by how much each game mattered, not by date.
Passed more than the situation called for under Woods.
3,754 run and pass snaps at SMU, 2022–2025, his own games, one row per offensive coordinator. Each cell is how much more often he passed than the rest of FBS did in the same situation (field zone, down, distance, score, quarter, same season), in percentage points.
Where each stint’s offense sat between run-first and pass-first, and how far it moved from one season to the next, against the FBS-wide average of 41% pass. The band is that stint’s real season-to-season range, not a fixed-width box.
Season-to-season pass-rate range for all 449 FBS coaching stints with at least three covered seasons, 2004–2025.
Five numbers on how he actually stocks a roster, from signing day to draft day.
His 5 ranked SMU classes of his own have averaged #65 nationally — best #31, worst #107.
His class — he had the full signing cycle
Rank is each signing class’s national recruiting rank (#1 is best). Only a class he had a full signing cycle to build counts as his.
of his 2026 roster arrived on his watch — 107 of 107 players. Nobody is left from before he was hired.
Of his own players on this roster, 23% came through the transfer portal; the rest are non-portal arrivals (high-school signees, JUCO transfers, walk-ons).
29% of his 272 new players since 2022 came through the portal (FBS programs, same seasons: 23%). His share was 20% in 2022 and 30% in 2026.
Graded on the players who arrived and the players who left together, his portal seasons came out better than most FBS programs’ in all 5 seasons graded. our read
Each player counts once, in the season he arrived. 2021, the first season of portal tracking here, is left off because its arrival records look incomplete (about 31 new players per FBS team, against 52 in 2022). Portal grade: the site’s position-value-weighted scoring (the same engine as the Portal Heat feed and the “Who won the portal” grade): the value of the players who came in minus the value of the ones who left, ranked against every FBS program’s grade that same season. A season with fewer than 4 transfers in and out is not graded.
“His own” means the player arrived while he was head coach; “inherited” means a predecessor brought him in.
Offensive linemen on his SMU rosters have averaged within a few pounds of the FBS average (2022–2026). In the three seasons before he arrived, SMU’s line averaged within a few pounds of the FBS average.
Average listed weight of every offensive lineman on each season’s roster, holdovers included, against every FBS roster that season (2010 on; a program needs 3+ seasons under him to appear). Weights are the ones programs publish, and programs list differently. This describes size only — not scheme, and not quality.
is his biggest recruiting state: 64 of 92 signees (70%) across his 2022–2026 tenure, drawn from 10 states in all. Next: CA (12).
73% of his signees come from TX and its 4 border states (LA 2, AR 1).
The map counts signed recruits across his tenure; the distance figures cover his current roster, transfers and walk-ons included. Two different groups, kept separate on purpose.
players drafted into the NFL off his teams here. He brought in 3 of them himself; 1 arrived under Sonny Dykes.
| Year | Pick | Player | Pos | NFL team | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | R4.33 | Matthew Hibner | Tight End |  Baltimore Ravens | |
| 2025 | R5.21 | Elijah Roberts | Defensive Edge |  Tampa Bay Buccaneers | |
| 2025 | R7.12 | Brashard Smith | Running Back |  Kansas City Chiefs | |
| 2023 | R2.24 | Rashee Rice | Wide Receiver | Kansas City Chiefs | recruited under Sonny Dykes |
A pick counts toward his tenure when the player’s final college season was one he coached, a checkable rule rather than a claim about who developed the player. A blank note means the player is on a verified roster and arrived on his watch. “Estimated” means no roster record, so the final season is assumed to be the year before the draft.
Headlines, grouped by what they are about. Each is the outlet’s own.
Press conference and quotes
Press conference and quotes
Roundtable +1SMU's Rhett Lashlee Reacts To Wasting Kendrick Raphael's Monster Day vs. LouisvilleSep 22Roundtable +1SMU's Rhett Lashlee Highlights Key Takeaway After Boston College WinOct 7On3Everything Rhett Lashlee said Day 1 of SMU Fall CampAug 7On3Rhett Lashlee announces pair of SMU Mustangs no longer with programAug 7Game preview
On3 +1Rhett Lashlee shocked SMU is not an underdog vs. Florida StateSep 3RoundtableSMU's Rhett Lashlee Questions Strength Of Schedule PredictionsAug 9The Dallas Morning NewsSMU's Rhett Lashlee previews Week 1 test at Florida State, laments 'chaotic' CFB landscapeSep 1On3Seminoles face all-too-familiar challenge from Rhett Lashlee's high-powered SMU offenseSep 3Quarterback and depth chart
Sports Illustrated +1'They've Altered Who They Are': How SMU Coach Rhett Lashlee, QB Kevin Jennings View Boston CollegeSep 30RoundtableSMU QB Kevin Jennings Suffers Hand Injury; New Rhett Lashlee UpdateAug 11RoundtableSMU's Rhett Lashlee Gets Honest On Turnover Battle Ahead Of Louisville ClashSep 15On3Rhett Lashlee and the SMU Mustangs are poised to sign another blue-chip quarterback in the 2028 classSep 29Loss
The Dallas Morning News +1Behind Rhett Lashlee and Kevin Jennings, once lost SMU football program is finding its wayAug 26Yahoo SportsSMU news: Rhett Lashlee drops blunt reaction to delayed Florida State clashSep 7
Locked OnSMU Mustangs stunned by Syracuse in crushing Repeat Loss | Is Rhett Lashlee to blame?Nov 2RoundtableSMU's Rhett Lashlee Left Lamenting Self-Inflicted Wounds In Syracuse LossNov 3Recruiting
On3FSU coach Mike Norvell offers final preview of SMU, Rhett Lashlee offenseSep 4On3SMU gaining traction with blue-chip recruits, excitement growing around Rhett Lashlee, the MustangsOct 3On3Rhett Lashlee visits pair of key SMU commitmentsOct 8On3Blue-chip EDGE David Dotson commits to SMU: "I believe in what Coach Lashlee is building"Oct 11RoundtableSMU's Rhett Lashlee Offers High Praise For 'All Business' Kendrick RaphaelOct 21Win
Sports Illustrated +1SMU, Rhett Lashlee Troll FSU Football After 27-24 Win In TallahasseeSep 8Roundtable +1SMU's Rhett Lashlee Names Defensive Masterclass As Catalyst In 59-20 California WinOct 27Locked OnWhy smu’s Rhett Lashlee Could win Coach of the Year—2026 Is his yearAug 16Locked OnSmu’s Rhett Lashlee Must prove He Can Win Tight ACC Games—Championship or Bust?Aug 26Locked OnSMU Mustangs Prove Growth as Rhett Lashlee leads Win—Can Offensive Line Improve?Oct 20It’s so easy to get caught up in the scoreboard
We were aggressive, we didn’t get (the first down), and our defense got a stop
There’s guys in Pop Warner who can take a snap and hold better than we can right now
We probably had a chance to put a little more distance than 17-14
If we want to be what we want to be, we’ve got to be able to tackle on defense against the run
I called two awful fourth-and-short calls
At that point you’re thinking 35 [points] is a good number
We knew it would be one of many if he can stay healthy
[During] the second or third play of the game, Kendrick comes out with a shoulder injury
I thought it was a good first game for the defense
I think [the] first half we played great
The arc of his career is on Now.
Builder meaningfully raised a program that wasn't one
5th-best SMU tenure of 18 by the numbers.
Followed Sonny Dykes (2018–2021).
| Season | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Record & result | ||||||
| Record | 7-6 | 11-3 | 11-3 | 9-4 | 6-2 | |
| Postseason | L bowl | L bowl | CFP loss | W bowl | — | |
| Coordinators | ||||||
| OC | Casey Woods | Casey Woods / Jonathan Brewer / Rob Likens | Casey Woods / Garin Justice / Rob Likens | Casey Woods / Garin Justice / Rob Likens | Garin Justice / Rob Likens | |
| DC | Scott Symons | Scott Symons | Maurice Crum Jr. / Scott Symons / Rickey Hunley Jr. | Maurice Crum Jr. / Scott Symons / Rickey Hunley Jr. | Maurice Crum Jr. / Rickey Hunley Jr. | |
| Outcome — opponent-adjusted efficiency percentile | ||||||
| Offense | 78 | 88 | 67 | 90 | 87 | |
| Defense | 10 | 95 | 97 | 89 | 42 | |
| Tendencies — play-by-play, neutral script | ||||||
| 1st-down pass% | 49.2 | 39.6 | 44.5 | 54.1 | 47.0 | |
| Red-zone pass% | 41.1 | 35.0 | 32.8 | 44.2 | 37.5 | |
| 4th-down go%opp. territory | 51.1 | 33.3 | 21.6 | 22.9 | 50.0 | |
Outperforms his recruiting talent, on both sides of the ball.
Brings in bigger-than-position-typical players than most.
A typical class-year mix of incoming transfers.
AI Narratives — “SMU's Rise Into Dynasty Territory” and 19 more on the team page.
Wins at programs this site tracks, 1936–present — one consistent count for every coach, not each program’s own historically reported total.
3rd all-time at SMU
The data leans positive: every conclusive reading points the same way.
+13.8 pts at SMU · #138 of 1290 · top quarterModel fit as of 2026-09-04.
Offensive coordinator across 4 programs, 5 stints, before and after wearing the head-coach hat — every season measured on the same axis, whether he personally ran the unit or someone else did.
How to read this. Coordinator seasons come from our coordinator career records; head-coaching-era seasons are the same unit's FBS-relative percentile for those years, regardless of who coached it, read directly from the staff assignments record. A role change (a “hinge”) is a fact, never a performance verdict — only the season-by-season data itself is colored by outcome.
