Virginia’s first trip to SMU comes with a pretty clear warning label: this isn’t a sleepy stop on the schedule, and Gerald Ford Stadium has not been a welcoming place for visitors.
The Mustangs have turned their home field into a real problem for opponents under fifth-year coach Rhett Lashlee, going 22-2 there while putting up 44.5 points per game in Dallas. ACC teams have had no answers either, losing all nine games they’ve played on SMU’s home turf.
That kind of edge has helped SMU keep rolling in conference play. Since joining the ACC in 2024, the Mustangs are 16-3 in regular-season league games. Stretch that back to their days in the American Athletic Conference and the run gets even louder: SMU is 29-6 against league foes since 2022, including a 20-game winning streak from 2022-25.
What makes the offense so hard to deal with is how fast it can score. Over the past two seasons, the Mustangs have logged 27 touchdown drives that lasted less than two minutes. They’ve averaged less time of possession than their opponents - 29:38 per game - but haven’t needed to dominate the clock to control games.
Kevin Jennings is the engine. The senior quarterback has thrown for 1,588 yards and 14 touchdowns in five games this season, and he’s 23-8 as SMU’s starter.
Among active ACC players, he leads the league in career passing yards with 9,297 and total yards with 9,925. Virginia has already seen what he can do: in SMU’s 33-7 win at Scott Stadium in 2024, Jennings threw for 323 yards and two touchdowns.
SMU can beat you in plenty of ways, though. The Mustangs have seven different players with a touchdown catch this season, led by tight end Theo Melin Ohrstrom’s four. That kind of spread-out production has become a habit, too - at least seven SMU players have caught a pass in 45 of the last 49 games.
And then there’s Kendrick Raphael, who gives the Mustangs a ground threat strong enough to keep defenses honest. The senior back ran for 197 yards and three touchdowns against Louisville this season, and that was SMU’s only loss so far.
Up front, the Mustangs can turn a game into a long afternoon for an opposing quarterback. No FBS program has recorded more sacks than SMU since 2023, and the Mustangs already have 17 in five games this season.
Marques White leads the way with 4.5, and 10 different SMU players have at least one sack. Virginia’s line will have plenty to sort out after Beau Pribula was taken down 10 times against Florida State.
The numbers on third down are just as sharp. Opponents have converted only 18 of 70 third-down tries against SMU this season, a 25.7% mark that leads the ACC and ranks fourth nationally. Virginia is sitting at 33.3% on third downs, so staying ahead of the chains figures to matter a lot if the Cavaliers want to keep drives alive.
There’s one more telltale Lashlee stat that sums up the challenge: when SMU scores at least 30 points, it is 34-5 under him. Virginia, meanwhile, is 0-2 on the road this season after allowing 38 points in both losses, at West Virginia and N.C. State.
All of that sits against the backdrop of SMU’s larger football history. The Mustangs were once a national power, going 41-5-1 from 1980-84 and finishing 11-0-1 in 1982, when they shared the mythical national championship in the poll era. Those teams were fueled by the “Pony Express” backfield of Eric Dickerson and Craig James.
Then came the NCAA’s “Death Penalty,” handed to SMU for improper payment to players. The program was banned from fielding a team in 1987 or ’88, stumbled to a 4-29 record in its first three seasons back, and didn’t post a winning season until 1997.
Now, with paying players legal and mandatory, SMU looks every bit like a program that has climbed back to its strongest stretch since that era. Virginia will get the full version of that test on Saturday in Dallas.
In Other News...
Virginia Just Got The Kind Of ACC Hype Fans Crave
Virginia is entering the season with an unusual kind of buzz for a program that tends to let February do most of the talking. Forward Thijs De Ridder was picked as the Preseason ACC Player of the Year, and the Cavaliers landed second in the league's preseason standings behind Duke, with Louisville, Miami and North Carolina rounding out the top five. It is the kind of early conference respect that can turn a quiet October into a much louder winter in Charlottesville.
The recognition does not stop there, either, because point guard Chance Mallory also earned preseason All-ACC second-team honors. For Virginia, the combination of De Ridder's headline status and Mallory's inclusion gives the roster a little more sizzle before the games count, even if the real test will come once the league's favorite, and the teams chasing it, start sorting themselves out on the floor. [Read more 🡒]
Virginia Defense Faces One Fixable Problem Before ACC Play Gets Ugly
Virginias defense has been uneven enough early in 2026 that the issue feels less structural than basic, which is often a better sign for a staff trying to clean things up before ACC play sharpens the edges. Missed tackles have piled up, and the secondary has had trouble holding up in one-on-one coverage, with Jacobie Henderson and Ethan Minter among the defensive backs finding those matchups tougher than the Cavaliers would like.
There is still a path to a steadier unit, though, if the tackling gets tighter and the pass rush starts turning pressure into sacks instead of just forcing hurried throws. Health matters here too, especially with Omillio Agard and Jason Hammond unavailable, because Virginia needs more bodies to make the back end less exposed and give the defense a chance to settle in before the conference schedule starts asking harder questions. [Read more 🡒]
Virginia Just Got A Huge ACC Vote Of Confidence
Virginias latest offseason buzz came with a clear sign of respect from around the league, as the ACCs preseason picks slotted Thijs De Ridder among the conferences biggest names and gave the Cavaliers another strong vote of confidence heading into the year. The media also projected Virginia to finish second in the ACC for a second straight season, which says plenty about how this roster is being viewed before the first meaningful games even begin.
For Ryan Odom, the bigger takeaway may be the balance of recognition across the lineup. Chance Mallory landed on the Preseason Second Team, giving Virginia two preseason All-ACC selections for the first time in Odoms tenure. That kind of spotlight matters in a conference where expectations travel fast, and it puts the Cavaliers in the familiar position of trying to turn preseason approval into something sturdier once the season starts. [Read more 🡒]