Everything Rhett Lashlee said after SMU beat up on TCU
SMU head coach Rhett Lashlee met with the media on Saturday after his Mustangs beat TCU, 66-42. Here's everything he had to say to reporters .
Opening statement: "Man, wasn't this an all-around team win. Just really, really proud of our guys. We felt like to win, from the first play to the last play, we needed to just leave no doubt that we were the most physical team on the field. That was literally our only thought process coming into the game, on offense, defense, special teams and credit to our guys for carrying it out. I think offensively, we knew we'd have to have an efficient game. We did. We ran for 240 yards. Kevin was 14-of-19, two touchdowns. I kept thinking they would come up more, but they didn't. But we were able to run it and get the ball in the perimeter. And then our defense, especially early man, they were swarming and the big stop on fourth-and-1 and then to scoop and score. And then Roderick Daniels on the punt return. I think we had three non-offensive touchdowns and the ball at the 1, and we got it in this time. So, 28 points generated as a team, that's how you score 66 points against a good football team. I thought our guys started really fast. I thought that was big. They made a run, got it to 24-21. I thought the sequence of events right before half was huge. A big third down touchdown pass from Kevin to Jordan Hudson followed by Ahmaad Moses's pick-six, followed by us getting a field goal. That was big and it just kind of gave us some breathing room going in at the half. So happy for our fan base. Happy for our students. I mean, our students were incredible tonight. We set a record for student section. Happy for our players. Everyone in SMU family deserves to enjoy this win and share in this win. It was a complete team win."
On SMU's first fumble: "I thought we had a good first drive going and, obviously, we had to settle for a field goal, but still got on the board first. And then, they should have gone for it at midfield. We'd have gone for it on fourth-and-1. First of all just to stop them, we were going to get great field position, but to get the ball out and for for B Cross the scoop and score. Our guys were ready to play, you could tell, but that just fed the energy. Between that, and then we go out and get a three-and-out immediately right after and then Roderick with the punt return. I mean, that was just a big just three plays in a row, field goal, touchdown, touchdown and I think we were off and running at that point."
On the defense and special teams taking pressure off SMU offense: "Yeah, it takes, it takes a lot of pressure off. What's weird is, we had one drive in the first quarter and we scored three points. And then, I don't know if it's seven, eight plays out there, how many was and then we get the defensive touchdown, then the punt return. So it kind of hurt to some degree. I'm not trying to complain, we're good with it, but, our defense was gassed when they went down and, I think, made it 17-7, I can't remember. So, it was just weird. I think that's why at the end of the game, you see the time of possession. We actually caught up in the plays being like, 61-78 because we ran like we had one drive in the first quarter, but we scored 17 points, so we'll take it."
On being up 17-0 early: "Yeah. I mean, I wasn't upset about it, but also understood we have three more quarters. We know how explosive they are and they showed that throughout the game. I think, think Josh Hoover's a great player. They've got those three wide outs that are just impressive. I mean, we actually, for us to hold Williams in check the way we did and I don't even see No. 7 on here, but obviously, Bech's a great player and made plays. And I think 88, McAllister, he made some big plays. So, they've got three or four big-time weapons. And so to get out to a fast start was big. Our guys were ready to play. We felt very confident, but we played the way we did the last game. We weren't really excited about how we performed and so to get out to a fast start, I think, helped kind of erase any doubt in your minds."
On SMU QB Kevin Jennings: "We worried about us a lot the first week. And not to give you coaching jargon, I mean, we as coaches we looked at TCU and we introduced it, but we were just more worried about us offensively, the identity we want to have. We've always made people defend the whole field. We hadn't been doing that. So we tried to get more to that, whether it's vertical and horizontal and running the football. And so I thought he played well. I mean, the fumble's inexcusable. Can't do that. I mean, didn't get hit, he just lost control of all and that was critical game them seven points. And at that time, made it 17-14, I believe and gave all that momentum we had taken back. But then we went right back down and scored and responded. And that's just, that has been the strength of his. If you go all the way back to the two lane game last year, when the first play the game happened. He just stays the same. And so look, we're going to have to throw more than 19 times and 137 yards in the future, but if we can run the ball the we did, play defense, special teams and be efficient, we'll be all right."
On emotions of SMU's win: "I feel very humble just to get a win. You know, it's hard to win. I'm relieved to get a win. Football is hard. It's the greatest game there is. I've said it before, it's the greatest team sport. Teaches you so much about life and, unfortunately, if you play it long enough you're going to have to lose some. We haven't lost a lot lately, and that's good that we're not used to it, but that one stung just because we felt like we let it, let it get away from us and then you had to wait 15 days. But I'm just humbled to get to be here. I'm humbled to be the coach at SMU. I'm humbled to get to live in Dallas, coach those kids in that locker room. Our fans were incredible today. Like I said, this win is just a great win for our entire SMU family and the skillet is here in Dallas and I'll probably be cooking with cast iron in the morning."
On roster for ACC play: "We, obviously, wish we were 4-0 right now, but the non-conference, the quote, preseason, if you will. I mean BYU, TCU, two really good Big 12 opponents going on the road Week 1. We're still 3-1, now we start ACC play with and I don't know what's happening right now, but I just, I know the talent on the Florida State roster. We finally get to play in the ACC. Yeah, I think we have an idea offensively, defensively, special teams. Now, the thing we've all known, it's happening at running back a little bit for us, but like, this was a physical game. We were physical. Well, you know, it's 8:30, we're second quarter, almost halftime seven days from now against Florida State. So we've got to get our bodies ready and get back. So that's going to be the challenge for eight more weeks. But, yeah, I think we know who's in our rotation, probably, for the most part everywhere and hopefully we can stay healthy."
On if it was motivating knowing it was the last Iron Skillet in Dallas: "We didn't talk about TCU one time this week. I did the scouting report. We do it on Monday mornings. Usually a coach does it. I usually do this one. Their logo wasn't anywhere in our building this week. Weren't our practice scripts, wasn't even on my call sheet. We knew we had a good opponent, but we knew what we needed to do to win. And so I didn't, we didn't talk about it as the first answer your question. I mean, I knew, obviously, this was the last time they're playing here for a while, I didn't think about it. And now that you asked, I thought about it after the game when I saw Dr. Turner because, you know, he's retiring. This is his last time as our school president in this rivalry. This the 103 time and to win it and score 66 points and force five turnovers and all that in front of our home fans for him, that's pretty cool, you know, 30 years and he deserves that. But we really didn't, and that's look, we knew as coaches, we were playing a really good opponent. They knew it's a big game. I didn't have to tell them. We knew if we took care of the things we needed to do to win the football game, then we'd be OK. We knew defensively, we had to swarm to the football, which we did a lot early. We had to limit explosives, which, we did early. We didn't late and they scored a lot of points. We knew offensively, we had to value the football, which we did except for one play. We had to make them defend the whole field and we had to run right at them. And then we knew on special teams, we feel like we've been playing really good special teams, but one play every game has been a problem. Like one of 30-plus plays make you feel differently than like we dominated, and we wanted to make no critical mistakes on teams and make a spark play. And we did. We returned a punt for a touchdown. We didn't turn it over, have any bad field position because of teams. So that's what we focused on and we just said, 'If we do those things and we leave no doubt from the first play the last play who the most physical team is we're going to win.' And I don't think there's any question, anybody that was in the stadium, watched the game on TV, who the most physical team was today."
On SMU OL: "The Monday after our last game. Yeah, we know the four guys who, PJ Williams, Justin Osborne, Jakai, Clark, Logan Parr, if they're healthy those four are going to be in there. We believe in Andrew Chamblee and Savion Byrd are super talented tackles. We believe in Nate Anderson and Ben Sparks, those guys can play. But we had to have some continuity, just like we did at other spots. And so, the only shuffling was we put Logan back at left guard, which is where he played most of the year last year. Jakai was already kind of established at center. We moved JO back into guard. And JO is the unsung hero this group. Jakai got hurt, he goes in at center first play we run power for a touchdown, but guard'ss his best position. He can play them all, but guard's his best position for the next level and for us. He was, last year, a great right guard for us until he had to move out to tackle him. We moved PJ to the right side because he's been struggling. You know, he's had some holding penalties, but he's got a shoulder harness on his left arm, so felt that would free up his outside arm a little bit. And then, given you the answer you hopefully wanted, Andrew Chamblee started eight games at left tackle last year in the SEC. Savion Byrd's more comfortable on the left side. So we're going to give them the time to figure that out over there because they're both super talented. We feel like if we can say healthy, which, week-in, week-out who knows, that's going to be the best formula for us. So we made that decision about 13 days ago."
On the last two weeks: "Yeah, it's going to be a lot more fun to prepare this week than it was two weeks ago coming after a win. I mean, after church tomorrow, I've got to start worrying about Florida State, so celebrate until then. But, this is what we asked for as a school and as a program, we asked for this. I said a week ago that these next three games, just TCU, Florida State, Louisville, is going to be the hardest three games we've played in 30 years here. That's what we asked for. So, we're going to do our best to take it one game at a time and break it up. You know, the way out schedule works is weird. We've got three bye weeks because we played Week Zero and it's a leap year. So we go 3, 3, 3, 3. Our goal is to win every quarter. And we went 2-1 in the first quarter of our season. We wanted to go 3-0, but we won the quarter. We're 1-0 now in the second quarter. And that's our goal. We're just trying to break it up that way. I mean, don't get me wrong, we want to win every week, but the grind that's in front of us is real. But hey, we're 3-1 and we're starting an eight-game stretch in ACC and it looks like every week anybody can win in that league if you look at some of the conference games I've already been played. So we're excited."
On LJ Johnson: "Yeah, I can't confirm it, what I was told during the game is, I think he has, they diagnosed him with what they thought was a concussion. But I don't, that's not been confirmed to me post game. I have not seen him, so as far as I know he's OK, but I don't know the extent of it."
On Sonny Dykes' ejection: "Yeah. I mean, I know he was upset that the kick return got called back. Now they tackled Smoke, so I'm glad they called it. But I mean, I'd probably be fighting for our team too, so, like, whatever. And so I don't know what he did or said and then I don't know why he got the second one. And it's unfortunate. He's over there, competing, fighting for his team. He just wants to win. So I don't know, have no clue."
On focus areas moving forward: "I think just offensively we want to continue to evolve with our identity. I think you saw today, we're going to have good balance. Again, we ended up running a little more today, but we really felt like two weeks ago, we felt like this was a defense that was really athletic and loved to rush the passer, but didn't love people to run right at them. And so we kind of already thought that was the best plan, is to run right at them and get the ball on the perimeter and hopefully that would bring him up where we could throw it over their head, they just never came up. And then we watched the UCF game and that kind of gave you some validity to that, that if you just stay with it. So our goal was to have 40-plus runs and we did. I think on defense, we're stopping the run really well, which I don't know if it's a concern, but that's the No. 1 thing we have to do in a power conference, is you have to be able to stop the run. Look at our bowl game a year ago, look at our game against these guys a year ago and then look at our game tonight. And so, when they have 32 carries for 65 yards, you can let somebody go for 400 yards and lose. I mean, my first year here, we threw for 400 yards a couple times and lost, right. So, you have to be able to control the game. So if we can stop the run defensively and swarm. I know Coach Symons is upset with some of the explosives we gave up late. That's been something we've been good at, we've got to limit that and make people drive. And then on teams, I think we've been very improved on teams. I know with the snap in Game 1, the ball bouncing off Cross last game and a couple holding penalties it hadn't felt that way, but we've been pretty good. So it's good to see Roderick make that play tonight. So if we can just keep getting better in those areas, I mean, got to be balanced on offense and keep that as our identity and value the football. We've got to continue to stop the run on defense, limit explosive plays and then do what we're doing on teams. I like our chances to keep getting better."
On SMU's special teams improvement: "Yeah, I think roster depth and we're playing our best players on teams. And having as many older guys as we do, they've bought into understanding that if you want to go play in the NFL, take Trevor Dembo for example. I think he just got a new deal. He's making almost a million dollars a year to play special teams, undrafted. So, whether you get drafted and you want to enhance your draft status or make it, that matters. So they bought into, 'Man, I need film,' because when the scouts, you know there's there's five or six scouts at our practice every Tuesday and Wednesday, and if one of those guys isn't on teams they're going to ask us, 'Why are they not on teams?' And so they've bought into it. I thought we had a really good fall camp. We did a lot of good-on-good. Like we would go our 1 punt versus our 1 punt return, and we have the depth to have a 1 punt that doesn't have anybody that's on our 1 punt return, that's rare. So I think Coach Cooper has done a really good job, Coach Horny and our whole staff, coaching them, but our guys have bought into it and I think the depth is a big, big reason."
On Brashard Smith: "He's a playmaker. He had four touchdowns. Brad told me that's the most we've had in the game here since, like 2017 for a player. You know, he can run the ball, can clearly catch the ball, he can return the ball, he can take a direct snap, he've not let him throw it yet. But he's just, especially at the running back position, the best ones, i's almost like they get one. What I mean by that, there's one guy that they make miss on the runs, because though line can only block it so well. There's always going to be an extra guy, where is he? And he does a really good job of setting it up with his vision. But just his versatility. He can do it all. He can run it, he can catch it, he can return it. And so I think it's given us a really explosive playmaker in the backfield we didn't have the first couple years."
On making the SMU-TCU game too big maybe in the past: "Yeah, you know, that's a great question. Um, I think you're right. I think two years ago, it was a big game for our players, our fan base and everybody. So I do think we were emotional about it and we didn't play well early, then we came all the way back and lost by a touchdown. Last year, I think we all wanted it too much and I think I'm probably the one to blame for all that. I made, hey this is a rivalry game, it's about the skillet, it's TCU-SMU, it's Fort Worth-Dallas, blah, blah, blah, blah. While there's nothing wrong with that. I mean, I've been in the Iron Bowl rivalries, I've been in the Florida State-Miami games. And trust me, when we were at Miami they played the tomahawk chop song all during the week at practice. You were sick of it. And same thing when you're in Auburn, Alabama and wasn't an issue. But I do think that was a little bit of at least it felt like last year, I felt like we pressed. I felt like we really pressed and didn't play very well. Because when you're emotional instead of passionate, there's a difference. You play with passion, you're in control. When you play emotional, you're not in control. And what it does is it slows you down, your reaction time slows down, you don't play as fast as your ability allows you to. You make silly mistakes. You know, you hit people when you shouldn't and that kind of stuff. But when you're passionate. This is a game of passionate and intensity now, but you're in control and there's a fine line. And so that's why I didn't, we didn't talk about them at all this week. We didn't play their fight song in warm ups. We didn't, like we didn't do any of that. And it's not that we didn't respect them or think it was a big game. It just, we wanted to focus on controlling us because we felt like we had a good enough football team that if we did, we would win the game."
