Kevin Jennings unexpectedly got to stay home, QB now in final season at SMU as Heisman hopeful

DALLAS (AP) — Kevin Jennings wasn’t even one of the players that coach Rhett Lashlee went to recruit at a local high school playoff game right after being hired by SMU.

The dynamic quarterback, who happened to be playing for the other team that December day, is now going into his fifth season with his hometown Mustangs and looking for a return to the College Football Playoff.

“They believed in me, showed the loyalty in me,” said Jennings, the starter since early in the 2024 season and already with a degree in sports management. “It’s my job to reciprocate, show the loyalty back.”

Before that fateful game with Lashlee watching, Jennings had never really thought about staying home in Dallas to play, even though SMU is only about 20 minutes from South Oak Cliff High School. He was verbally committed to Missouri State, then still in the Football Championship Subdivision and his only NCAA Division I offer.

Lashlee, the offensive coordinator for the Mustangs before two seasons in that role at Miami, had returned to SMU for his first head coaching job after Sonny Dykes left for TCU.

Jennings is 19-7 as SMU’s starter, with his 7,709 yards and 55 touchdowns passing in reach of the school career records (9,081 yards, 72 TDs). The Mustangs are 14-2 in regular-season Atlantic Coast Conference games since moving into that power league in 2024, the same season he took over as the starter in Week 4 before league play and they made the 12-team playoff . No ACC team has a better conference mark in that span.

No. 19 SMU, which before last season hadn’t been in The Associated Press preseason poll since 1985, has already launched a Heisman Trophy campaign . It is aptly titled “K7NG OF DALLAS”, a nod to the school’s location and where Jennings was born and raised, plus his jersey number. The Mustangs’ only Heisman Trophy winner was halfback Doak Walker in 1948.

“You want to put your players in the best position to be successful. And so each year, I’m big on you try to under-promise and over-deliver and all those things,” Lashlee said. “But with Kevin now going into his final season, it was a little different. He deserves it. He is worthy of being a preseason Heisman candidate.”

The school is also putting Jennings’ name on a new recovery center in the football complex, a recognition believed to be a first in college football for an active player.

Lashlee said Jennings has “the best blend of humility and confidence,” a player with the belief of his teammates and in himself.

“Everyone needs a Kevin on a team,” fifth-year offensive tackle PJ Williams said.

After being mostly overlooked by recruiters while in high school, Jennings began drawing attention from other schools when he got on the field for the Mustangs.

“In a time when players can move quite a bit ... there’s been plenty of people trying to get Kevin to come play for them and leave,” Lashlee said.

Jennings has repeatedly made it clear to his coach that he isn't leaving home.

“Why would I want to leave and go play anywhere else,” Jennings said.

“He’s still writing his legacy. Luckily, we’ve got a whole year left with him and there’s still a lot to be written,” Lashlee said. "But you start thinking about what he’s done here and the commitment and the loyalties he’s shown to SMU in probably the most pivotal time in our football program’s history, it's been pretty special.”

Jennings' first career start was a win over Tulane in the American Conference championship game in 2023 after Preston Stone broke his leg in the regular-season finale.

That was the Mustangs’ first conference title since matching Houston atop the Southwest Conference standings in 1984, two years after the unbeaten Pony Express team that was No. 2 in the final AP poll. That was before repeated NCAA violations led to SMU being on the only team to get the so-called death penalty and not fielding a team in 1987 or 1988.

Even after going through spring drills as the primary quarterback while Stone was still recovering, Jennings wasn't the starter at the beginning of 2024. Stone was 13-3 in his starts for SMU, the last against BYU in the third game with three-and-outs, three sacks and negative yards on its first three drives. Jennings finished that game, accounted for 178 of SMU’s 261 total yards, and has been the starter ever since.

“I knew if I got the opportunity to do it, I wasn’t going to let it go,” Jennings said. “That’s just a competitive nature in me.”

Jennings finished with 3,245 yards and 23 TDs passing in the season that ended with losses in the ACC title game to Clemson and the first-round playoff game at Penn State . He then threw for 3,641 yards and 26 TDs last year, when the Mustangs just missed making the ACC championship game again after both conference losses came in the final minute on the road, including the regular-season finale at California .

Casey Woods, now head coach at Missouri State after being SMU’s offensive coordinator the past four seasons, was with Lashlee when Jennings threw for 250 yards with a TD and ran for two scores in a 42-21 win over Lovejoy. Jennings signed with SMU before South Oak Cliff won the state championship two weeks later.

In his first game for the Mustangs in 2022, Jennings completed 8 of 11 passes for 91 yards and a TD when forced into a win at Tulsa after Stone got hurt. Jennings later led a clutch drive in a win at Memphis.

“He flashed early signs of when he was in the game, good things happen," said Woods, whose team is at SMU on Sept. 26. "He’s a guy that should be in the Heisman conversation, just because some much of the offense rests on his production.”

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