SMU's 'Pony Express' ride to the top of the ACC in its league debut makes Dickerson proud

Updated Dec. 4, 2024 4:42 p.m. ET

Associated Press

DALLAS (AP) — There were times when Eric Dickerson said SMU should just shut down its football program for good in the aftermath of becoming the only school ever given the NCAA's so-called death penalty.

“I really meant it because it became an embarrassment," Dickerson said this week, recalling a 95-21 loss to Houston and other lopsided losses that initially followed the resumption of the program in 1989 and was just the start of many seasons of futility.

Now Dickerson, one of the stars from SMU's previous heyday, is among the superfans for the quick ride of the new “Pony Express” to the top of the Atlantic Coast Conference in the league debut for the eighth-ranked Mustangs.

The Pro Football Hall of Fame running back said he probably wears more SMU gear these days than even when teaming up with Craig James in a backfield during a four-season run that included an 11-0-1 record when they were seniors in 1982. That was nearly five years before the most severe penalty ever levied by the NCAA against any school.

SMU (11-1, 8-0 ACC, No. 8 CFP) plays in the ACC championship game against No. 18 Clemson (9-3, 7-1, No. 17 CFP) on Saturday night in Charlotte, North Carolina. The winner moves on to the expanded 12-team College Football Playoff.

“I would have never, ever dreamed this," Dickerson said. “And it just makes me feel so proud.”

The Mustangs have back-to-back 11-win seasons for the first time. They won the American Athletic Conference championship last year, when they didn't lose a league game.

This is their sixth consecutive winning season, the longest stretch since the final seven seasons before no games were played in 1987 or 1988. There were 30 seasons in between, with the Mustangs having a winning record only five times. They won 13 games over the final seven Southwest Conference seasons, then had stops in the Western Athletic Conference USA and the AAC before finally making the long-desired move this summer back into one of the major conferences.

Third-year Mustangs coach Rhett Lashlee, their offensive coordinator in 2018-19 before that same role in Miami for two seasons, has likened their ACC move to a boxer moving up in weight class.

“I said we've got to be like Roy Jones Jr. — we want to win multiple weight classes,” said Lashlee, who is 29-10 overall.

SMU was the ninth school since 2011 to move up from a Group of Five to a power conference. None of the previous eight started better than 1-1 in its conference debut, and only Louisville had finished with a winning record, going 5-3 in the ACC in 2014 after moving from the AAC.

These Mustangs still haven't lost to an ACC opponent.

“I’d be fooling myself if I said I wasn’t surprised because no one’s ever done it before. So that’s the surprising part of it. But I’m not surprised at the qualities that have led to the success, that our team has exhibited consistently throughout the season,” athletic director Rick Hart said. “There’s been just a confidence, not an arrogance. A confidence. You know, they believe in themselves and each other.”

Lashlee hasn't really had a moment yet to reflect on the fast success in the ACC, or all the Mustangs have accomplished since he return to the Hilltop.

“It’s been pretty cool for us to realize to some degree our potential fast," the coach said. “But, you know, we’re going to live in the moment now and try to see how far this year can go.”

The Mustangs have averaged just over 40 points in their nine-game winning streak, all since Kevin Jennings became their starting quarterback after an open date that followed an 18-15 home loss to BYU, a 10-win team from the Big 12. That included winning the first ACC game 42-16 over Florida State, the league's undefeated team last season.

While Dickerson never predicted that SMU would make it to the ACC title game in its league debut, he was encouraged when he showed up for a practice last year. He even called some of his old teammates and friends to tell them what he saw then.

“When I saw the athletes that we had ... and I'm like, man, we have some athletes, and I hadn’t seen that in so long,” he said. “That's what it takes, and that’s what made me have a sense that we had a shot, we had a chance.”

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