Kevin Jennings has spent this season rewriting the SMU record book, and he’s carrying the No. 19 Mustangs into a meaningful ACC road trip with plenty of momentum behind him.
SMU will try to make it five straight wins Saturday afternoon at Syracuse, where Jennings says he’s ready for the challenge of playing in the Dome.
"I'm definitely excited," Jennings said. "I've heard a lot about Syracuse, the dome, how good it is. I'm very excited to get up there and play in a great atmosphere."
Jennings already owned the school marks for passing yards and completions before last week’s 59-20 win over California added another line to his résumé. He finished that game with three touchdown passes, giving him a school-record 74 for his career. The Mustangs also flipped the game after halftime, erasing a 20-17 deficit by scoring touchdowns on their first six drives of the second half while shutting out the Golden Bears after the break.
That win pushed SMU to 6-1 overall and 4-1 in the ACC, good for a tie with Wake Forest for second place in the conference and a one-game chase of Miami. The Mustangs also sit a game ahead of Virginia Tech and Louisville.
Jennings has been sharp since SMU’s 41-31 loss at Louisville on Sept. 19.
Over the last four games, he has completed 71.9% of his passes, going 92 of 128 for 1,073 yards and 10 touchdowns. His numbers stack up near the top of the ACC, where he trails only Miami’s Darian Mensah in completion percentage, touchdown passes and passing yards per game.
"He's a Heisman-candidate type of guy, in my opinion," Syracuse coach Fran Brown said of Jennings.
Syracuse enters at 3-4 overall and 1-4 in conference play, but the Orange finally broke through in ACC action last week with a 31-30 overtime victory at North Carolina. Before that, they had dropped their first four league games, with three of those losses coming by one score.
That recent stretch caught SMU coach Rhett Lashlee’s attention.
"If you look at the last three weeks, they're playing their best ball," Lashlee said. "They got a lot of confidence from (when they) really had Virginia on the ropes on the road and let them off the hook, then had Louisville on the ropes at home and then put it all together last week and beat a good North Carolina team. So we're going to get their best and we've got to go find a way to win on the road."
Syracuse’s win over North Carolina got a lift from Steve Angeli, who returned after missing three games for treatment on his Achilles. Angeli threw the game-winning touchdown and two-point conversion to Calvin Russell III in overtime and finished 20 of 34 for 256 yards and two touchdowns. One of those scoring throws went 76 yards to Umari Hatcher.
Brown said Angeli’s performance meant a lot in more ways than one.
"I was just happy with his leadership and his toughness," Brown said. " ...
He's still a kid, but he's mature. We're all emotional when we can't play a game that we love.
I think when he had to sit out the last couple weeks, it was mixed feelings for him. ... For him, being able to go out there and prove to himself, I know who I am and I know I can do this and get this done, meant a lot."
Angeli will look to keep building that connection with his top targets. Russell caught eight passes for a season-high 86 yards against North Carolina, while Hatcher hauled in four catches for 103 yards to extend his streak of 100-yard games to four in a row.
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Ahmad Miller has been the clearest beneficiary of that progress, emerging as the lead back and forcing a team-leading 24 missed tackles. The next challenge is a tougher one, though, with SMU bringing a defense that keeps opponents under 4 yards per carry, a matchup that will say plenty about how far Syracuses ground game has really come. [Read more 🡒]