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Dave Wilson, ESPN Staff Writer
DALLAS, Texas — SMU celebrated some history on Saturday night, honoring Eric Dickerson and the 1982 “Pony Express” team that finished No. 2 in the country after beating Pitt and Dan Marino in the 1983 Cotton Bowl.
Then the Mustangs went out and made history.
SMU (8-1, 5-0 ACC) routed Pitt 48-25, becoming the first team to start 5-0 in their first season in a power conference. It marked the Mustangs’ first win over a team that was 7-0 or better since beating Arkansas in 1954 and the first home win in an AP-ranked matchup since beating Texas in 1949.
SMU, which scrambled to grab one of the last spots in realignment by offering the ACC a sweetheart deal to go without television revenue for nine years, now finds itself sitting atop the league’s standings with Clemson’s loss to Louisville, tied with Miami as the only two 5-0 teams in the league.
“Our program belongs at this level and our program is capable of competing at a high level at this level, which we all believe,” SMU coach Rhett Lashlee said. “We had to go do it. We’re not done and we’ve not accomplished anything yet, but we put ourselves in a position in the middle of November where we’re competing for a conference championship in the ACC in our first year in the league.”
The Mustangs returned home for the first time since Sept. 28, and Lashlee said he may have underestimated how much his team would benefit from it. But SMU started fast, taking a 31-3 lead into halftime and dispensing with any doubts after a shaky 28-27 win over Duke last week in which quarterback Kevin Jennings suffered five turnovers.
He bounced back against Pitt, going 17-of-25 with 306 yards and two touchdowns. Mustangs running back Brashard Smith ran for 161 yards with two touchdowns, including a 71-yarder, against the ACC’s best rush defense.
Earlier in the day on College GameDay, Nick Saban said Jennings “may be the most underrated player in the country,” and the quarterback admitted he was excited.
“That means a lot honestly,” he said. “Just seeing a legend like that say that about me, it was a real moment. I had to show all my friends around me and things like that so I was very pumped. … He wasn’t wrong.”
Lashlee agreed, but said SMU starting to pick up attention isn’t something he is worried about.
“To me, the way Kevin played tonight, I think we’re just fine with nobody talking about us,” Lashlee said. “We know how good Kevin is. We don’t need anybody to tell us. Neither does Kevin.”
The Mustangs have a bye before Boston College comes to Dallas on Nov. 16. Lashlee knows that the first College Football Playoff rankings come out on Tuesday, so they’ll have time to recover from some injuries and see where they stand.
“We’ve been humbled to be ranked in the AP poll and in the coaches’ poll,” Lashlee said. “That’s a big deal for our program anytime definitely in year one [of the ACC]. Tuesday night, you find out what the group whose rankings matter.”
For now, Lashlee said he is most concerned about BC, a team that beat SMU last season in the Fenway Bowl.
“We’re going to celebrate this win, maybe since we don’t play next week, through Monday,” he said. “And then we’re going to start worrying about Boston College because if we get ahead of ourselves, none of it will matter.”
Dickerson spoke to the team on Friday night, Lashlee said, a legend reminding his team that SMU can make a splash. Jennings took it to heart.
“It means a lot just to see this team come this far in our first year in the ACC,” Jennings said. “It’s kind of unheard of for a team to do this. I’m excited that I’m with this group and I’m excited to keep rolling with guys and go get there to the playoffs.”