Lost in the shuffle of Bill Belichick’s upcoming college debut at North Carolina, Clemson and Miami believing they’re legitimate National Title contenders, and the dueling lawsuits between Florida State and the ACC, the SMU Mustangs’ resurgence under head coach Rhett Lashlee is a storyline that is going largely uncovered. Not since the Pony Express days of the early 1980s has SMU been so relevant in the national college football conversation, yet because the Mustangs are still something of a novelty – and a seemingly stable one at that – it seems as though nobody is too eager to talk about SMU.
But when a juicy story that includes an SEC powerhouse presents itself, well, now it’s time to once again explore what’s going on in Dallas, Texas.
In response to a graphic featuring the names of the quarterbacks attending the Manning Passing Academy that didn’t include SMU starting quarterback Kevin Jennings but did include Alabama’s Ty Simpson, On3’s Billy Embody made a claim that will raise eyebrows around the ACC and the SEC.
“Alabama tried to recruit Kevin Jennings into the transfer portal to take over for Milroe,” Embody said in a quote tweet. “But sure, Ty Simpson deserves a notable mention over Kevin Jennings.”
While there’s no confirmation that Alabama did indeed attempt to lure Kevin Jennings into the transfer portal, the general lawlessness of the current landscape of the NCAA would make such an event unsurprising. Numerous teams who made the College Football Playoff last season dealt with personnel losses before playing their postseason game, prompting many coaches to wonder why the transfer portal was open before season’s end.
Fortunately for the Mustangs, their starting quarterback did everything in his power to avoid having that noise pollute his team. Even before Jennings and the Mustangs played their lone game in the College Football Playoff this past December, the Dallas, Texas native made it clear he wasn’t going anywhere at season’s end.
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“I wanted to let teams around the nation know I’m staying here, I’m not going nowhere,” Jennings said just days before SMU’s season-ending loss to Penn State, per Jacob Richman of Lonestar Live. “One hundred percent locked in with this coaching staff and the players here.”
Jennings played sparingly during his first two seasons with the Mustangs, but exploded into stardom during his redshirt sophomore season, throwing for 3,245 yards and 23 touchdowns, adding 354 yards and another 5 touchdowns on the ground, and leading SMU to an 11-3 record and an appearance in the ACC Championship Game in their first season in the conference.