There was a lot of excitement leading up to No. 20 SMU’s first home game in the ACC against a traditional powerhouse that finished the regular season undefeated.
Now, the Mustangs’ second game in their new conference, after being away for over a month, is also highly anticipated.
SMU (7-1, 4-0) is finally back on campus Saturday night to face No. 18 Pittsburgh (7-0, 3-0), one of the eight remaining undefeated teams in FBS. This matchup of Atlantic Coast Conference co-leaders to start November is somewhat unexpected.
“When you’re winning, every game is the next big game. … so that’s the exciting part,” Mustangs coach Rhett Lashlee said. “We got to feel that a little bit last year when we went on the run late to win the conference.”
Last year marked SMU’s final season in the American Athletic Conference before moving into a more competitive league. When the ACC schedule came out in late January, SMU fans quickly looked forward to the league opener against Florida State—even though it was the fifth game of the season.
Florida State’s season has turned out poorly, and the Mustangs added to their troubles with a 42-16 win on September 28 in their last home game.
In October, they also won against then-No. 22 Louisville, fellow ACC newcomer Stanford, and Duke in overtime last week despite committing six turnovers—three interceptions and two fumbles by dual-threat quarterback Kevin Jennings.
“I’m ready to go out this weekend and show it was just a hiccup,” said Jennings, a third-year sophomore who took over as the starter after SMU’s only loss to still-undefeated No. 9 BYU in the third game.
“This is the first big kind of piece of adversity in his short starting career,” Lashlee said. “He’s actually been explosive and protected the ball pretty well.”
Eli Holstein has thrown 17 touchdown passes for Pitt, matching the record set by Alex Van Pelt in 1989 for the most by a Panthers freshman.
The Alabama transfer suffered an undisclosed injury after an option run that took him out late in the game against Syracuse last week, but coach Pat Narduzzi said the quarterback has been cleared by medical staff and will start against SMU.
Pitt was expected to finish near the bottom of the newly expanded 17-team league at the start of the season. Instead, the Panthers are aiming for an 8-0 record for the first time since 1981, when Dan Marino was the quarterback and Jackie Sherrill was the coach, even though they are the lowest-ranked among the undefeated Power Four schools.
“The only thing that matters is wins and losses,” Narduzzi said. “If we keep doing what we’re doing, I think we’ll be in good shape in the end.”
