Who is SMU's football coach? Rhett Lashlee has Mustangs on verge of CFP berth
SMU has surprised many pundits and fans alike in 2024, going undefeated in its first season as an ACC member and reaching the the conference's championship game.
A big reason for the Mustangs' success has been coach Rhett Lashlee, who has built on SMU's strong finish a season ago to put together one of the programs' best seasons in recent memory.
No. 7 SMU (11-1, 8-0 ACC) is well positioned for its first-ever College Football Playoff berth, as a win over No. 17 Clemson (9-3, 7-1) on Saturday would put the Mustangs in the 12-team field automatically as one of the five highest-ranked conference champions. A loss, however, would make things interesting for SMU, as it would compete with a slew of programs for one of the final at-large bids as a two-loss team.
Regardless, Lashlee's success in a short period with SMU has the program on the upward trend, especially as the Mustangs are now in a Power Four conference.
Here's everything to know about Lashlee as SMU is set to face Clemson in the ACC championship game on Saturday:
Who is SMU's coach?
SMU's coach is Rhett Lashlee, who's in his third season with the Mustangs after previously serving as the program's offensive coordinator from 2018-19 under former coach Sonny Dykes, who's now at TCU.
Lashlee was hired as SMU's coach after a two-year stint as the offensive coordinator at Miami from 2020-21, replacing his former boss with the Mustangs. Lashlee inherited a roster that lost numerous transfers following Dykes' departure to the other side of the Iron Skillet rivalry between Dallas-Fort Worth programs.
Lashlee comes from the Gus Malzahn tree, as Lashlee coached under the now-Florida State offensive coordinator at every stop until becoming the UConn offensive coordinator in 2017. Lashlee, who played quarterback for Malzahn at Springdale High School in Arkansas, was a Malzahn assistant at Arkansas, Auburn and Arkansas State in his career.
Malzahn, of course, is one of the best offensive minds in college football and led Auburn to the national championship in 2013, with Lashlee serving as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach on that staff.
Lashlee started his coaching career as the quarterbacks coach at Springdale High, his alma mater, from 2004-05, before becoming a graduate assistant at Arkansas on Malzahn's offensive staff in 2006. Malzahn then left to be the offensive coordinator at Tulsa in 2007 and invited Lashlee to be on his staff, but Lashlee decided to stay in Arkansas.
During the time, Lashlee and his brother-in-law wrote articles and marketed "High School Sports The Magazine," which later became what's now Vype. Lashlee then returned to coaching in 2009 when Malzahn was hired at Auburn.
Lashlee was also a backup quarterback at Arkansas from 2002-04 but medically retired after suffering a shoulder injury.
The 41-year-old served as offensive coordinator at Samford, Arkansas State, Auburn and UConn before being hired as SMU's offensive coordinator, which he parlayed into becoming the offensive coordinator at Miami, where he spent two seasons before being hired as SMU's head coach.
The 2024 ACC Coach of the Year holds a 29-10 record with the Mustangs, including leading them to the American Athletic Conference championship game in 2023, a game they won over Tulane.
Rhett Lashlee record
Here are Lashlee's year-by-year records as a college football head coach:
- 2022 (SMU): 7-6
- 2023 (SMU): 11-3
- 2024 (SMU): 11-1
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