DALLAS — Kevin Jennings threw 5 touchdown passes before halftime Saturday and moved past Ben Hicks for SMU’s career total offense record in a 56-10 win over UC Davis at Gerald J. Ford Stadium.
Jennings completed 14-of-16 passes for 337 yards, 5 touchdowns, and no interceptions. He carried 3 times for 5 yards and did not play the second half. The 342 yards of total offense pushed his career figure to 9,073, according to SMU’s postgame notes. Hicks finished his SMU career with 8,977.
SMU coach Rhett Lashlee said football contact Chris Smith told him after the game that Jennings broke the record on a 42-yard completion to Jalen Cooper in the second quarter.
“Chris told me after the game he broke the all-time total offense record on that pass to Jay Coop. Like we said, we knew it would be kind of one of many this year. If he can stay healthy, he’s going to break every record there is probably,” Lashlee said. “We celebrated in the locker room. Guys were happy for him. But there’s more records out there for him if he can stay healthy and keep playing. And there’s more opportunities for us. But he’s a special player. And I think he shows what can happen if you stay at a school a long time, you can cement your legacy and do some special things.”
Jennings had been tracking the career passing yards list, not the total offense list.
“I knew the passing yards record, like how far I am from that, but I never knew about the total yards. So it kind of caught me by surprise,” Jennings said.
“It’s truly amazing. Just having all the great quarterbacks come through here and just be on top of that list is truly amazing,” Jennings continued. “And props to Lashlee. The guys around me, they helped me out tremendously. So I’m just very blessed and very grateful to be on top of that list.”
SMU Mustangs led 42-0 at the break with a 372-121 advantage in total yards. The last first half in which SMU scored 42 points came Aug. 31, 2024, against Houston Christian. Jennings’ 337 first-half passing yards were the first 300-yard half by an SMU quarterback since Preston Stone threw for 332 against Navy on Nov. 25, 2023.
At halftime, ACC referee Jerry Magallanes offered both coaches the option of shortening the third and fourth quarters. Lashlee and UC Davis coach Tim Plough agreed to 12 minutes.
“Jerry, the white hat from the ACC, he’s awesome. He came up to me on the way in at halftime and said, hey, this is an option if both head coaches agree to it. It’s the first time in my career that’s been presented to us,” Lashlee said. “But if both coaches want to shorten it to 12 minutes or 10 or whatever, you can do that. They got a long trip back. And they got a really good football team, and they’re in a really good league. And so for them, I’m sure they want to get back as quick as they can and get started for their conference openers. So Tim and I both said, yeah, we’ll do 12.”
“A lot of our younger guys on both teams got to still play a lot,” Lashlee continued. “But that’s six minutes less of game time. We’re not in the heat. I learned we’ve got a lot of good young players that deserve to play and that’s how they get better.”
Kickoff temperature was 100 degrees, tied for the fourth-warmest in SMU history. Announced attendance was 29,054. SMU played at Florida State on Monday night and kicked off here at 3:02 p.m. CT Saturday, a turnaround of five days.
Seven Mustangs scored a touchdown, the first time that has happened since the Houston Christian game in 2024. Kendrick Raphael opened the scoring with a 5-yard run at 6:40 of the first quarter, the first touchdown of his SMU career and the 18th rushing touchdown of his career overall. The drive covered 90 yards in 8 plays and included a 51-yard catch by Jalen Hale. Derrick McFall caught a 52-yard touchdown pass with 1:18 left in the quarter.
Four more touchdown passes followed in the second quarter. Theo Melin Öhrström caught a 2-yard score at 12:33 and a 14-yard score at 0:59. Randy Pittman Jr. caught a 2-yard score at 10:28. Yannick Smith caught a 44-yard score at 0:24 on a one-play drive that started at the UC Davis 44, hurdling a defender on the way in.
“He didn’t do the hurdle very well. But it was so bad it faked everybody out, and then I guess he ends up scoring,” Lashlee said.
Kevin Jennings Passes Ben Hicks For SMU’s Career Total Offense Record
A program-record 16 Mustangs caught a pass. The previous record was 13, against Tulsa on Oct. 28, 2023. SMU has had at least 7 players catch a pass in 42 of its past 45 games.
Lashlee said UC Davis showed six or seven defenders near the line to outnumber the run, then dropped seven or eight into coverage on passing downs.
Yamir Knight led the group with 3 receptions for 62 yards. Zach Turner had 3 catches for 53 yards and 1 touchdown. Melin Öhrström finished with 3 receptions for 25 yards and 2 touchdowns, a career high in receiving scores and his first as a Mustang. McFall had 2 catches for 57 yards and 1 touchdown, along with 6 carries for 46 yards and a long of 40. His 103 all-purpose yards led the game.
Melin Öhrström was targeted three times at Florida State and did not catch a pass.
“It was really good to see Theo. It was really weird. A lot of guys got involved Monday night, and somehow the ball just never found Theo. We called it to him four or five times. The touchdown to Jay Coop Monday night was really one we thought Theo would hit. They kind of doubled Theo, and that’s just sometimes how it happens. We think he’s a weapon, as you saw today,” Lashlee said.
“I’ve been saying it in the offseason, I feel like we have the best collection of playmakers we’ve had around Kevin. Outside guys, slots, tight ends, running backs,” Lashlee continued. “It was good to get Derrick McFall going today. Him and Theo were probably the two Monday night didn’t, I mean, you only get so many plays and there’s only one ball. When you got that many guys, it’s hard for a defense to take something away because who is the go-to guy? We don’t know. It’s just whoever’s in.”
Lashlee found Melin Öhrström on Tuesday, after the team got back from Tallahassee.
“I have a lot of respect for Coach Lashlee as a coach. He tried to get the ball to me last Monday. And sometimes it just doesn’t happen. You call the plays and they’re just not there,” Melin Öhrström said. “And he came up to me on Tuesday when we got back and he was like, I’m going to make sure you get involved. And held true to that, so that was very real by him.”
Pittman caught the tight ends’ other touchdown at Florida State.
“It’s amazing, because you have the room, and it doesn’t matter what guy’s making the plays. Everybody’s going to be happy for each other,” Melin Öhrström explained. “Randy made a lot of really good plays last week and we were all really happy for him. And then today we were able to score four touchdowns as a tight end group. And I just felt like that shows what we’re able to do as a group.”
Hale caught 1 pass for 51 yards. Cooper caught 1 for 42. Smith’s 44-yard touchdown was his second in as many games and the 11th of his career, and it gave him back-to-back games with a touchdown catch of 40 or more yards. Pittman’s 2-yard score was also his second in as many games and the 10th of his career.
SMU recorded 8 explosive plays and rushed 24 times for 93 yards. Dramekco Green made the first start of his career and finished with 4 carries for 19 yards and 1 reception for 31. Raphael carried 3 times for 3 yards.
Jennings has 63 career touchdown passes, third in program history behind Tanner Mordecai‘s 72 and Hicks’ 71. Saturday was his 11th career game with 3 or more touchdown passes and his ninth with 300 or more passing yards. He is 21-7 as SMU’s starter.
Ty Hawkins Throws The First 2 Touchdown Passes Of His Career
Ty Hawkins replaced Jennings and completed 11-of-13 passes for 104 yards and 2 touchdowns. He also carried 3 times for 15 yards. Turner’s 8-yard catch at 6:12 of the third quarter was the first touchdown reception of his career. Alijour Miles II caught a 3-yard touchdown at 9:01 of the fourth for his first. Charlie Fiser went 1-of-2 for 8 yards and Cole Leinart went 1-of-1 for 5.
“I thought Ty did a really good job. There’s a couple times he got hit pretty good. We didn’t protect him with the second group as good as we’d like and they’re still blitzing and all that, but he hung in there and threw two touchdown passes, made a really nice throw and a great catch by Zach Turner on the over route,” Lashlee said.
“It’s unique. You’re wanting to not stay here forever, but you’ve got to let your other guys play and run the offense. So I thought it was good to see Ty do that,” Lashlee continued. “And then defensively, J-Mo with the big play. The first quarter or so on defense we were really good. We got some guys that got in there and we let them get a few plays popped on us. That’s what it’s about, developing those guys, getting them a chance to play.”
Jennings watched the second half from the sideline.
“I’m the biggest cheerleader for them. Those guys put in just the amount of work I put in. So for them to get the opportunity and go out there and go crazy, I’m really proud to see them do that,” Jennings said. “Ty went crazy today, got his first career touchdown. He had two of them today. So that was pretty dope, seeing Charlie out there and seeing Cole out there. So super excited for our QB room.”
Melin Öhrström addressed the team the night before about what the second half was supposed to look like.
“Sometimes you have these games where you’ve got to set the standard for what you are as a program. And we had a meeting last night, and I told the guys, there shouldn’t be any drop-off whenever the younger guys come in the game,” Melin Öhrström said. “And I feel like they showed that they were able to do that, and it was really fun to see Zach score.”
SMU finished with 6 tackles for loss and 2 sacks. Jimmy Wyrick had a sack for 4 yards, his second straight game with one. Amontre Harris had a sack for 9 yards. Jaylen Moses forced and recovered a fumble in the fourth quarter. SMU has 53 takeaways since the start of the 2024 season.
Jarvis Lee intercepted Treynor Cleeland at the UC Davis 48 and returned it 28 yards with 1:51 left in the second quarter, the third interception of his career. Lee transferred from South Florida in January and grew up in Green Cove Springs, Florida.
“For me, really just being in the right place at the right time, doing my job, being in deep half. I seen the quarterback. Really at first, the receiver made a double move,” Lee said. “Seen the quarterback just throw the ball up. Throw it in the air, and when we back there, it’s our ball.”
SMU has held opponents to 4-of-28 on third down through two games. UC Davis converted 2-of-13.
“Mo and Rick have done a really good job of taking what we’ve become and built on defense and just keeping what’s good but maybe tweaking a little bit. They’ve done a nice job with our third-down package,” Lashlee said, referring to co-defensive coordinators Maurice Crum Jr. and Rickey Hunley Jr. “It’s college football. People are going to make plays. They’re going to get first downs. They’re going to pop a run. But when you can get off the field on third down, it changes everything.”
Lee is not satisfied with the first two downs.
“First we want to get off the field. Like we harp on all the time, get off the field on third down,” Lee said. “We’re good on third down right now, but we want to be better also on first and second down. We haven’t been good, so that’s what we need to improve on.”
UC Davis did not score until 11:18 of the fourth quarter. It was the first time SMU held an opponent scoreless through three quarters since a 20-0 win at Virginia on Nov. 23, 2024.
Cleeland completed 11-of-26 passes for 83 yards with 1 interception. Jackson Kollock completed 8-of-10 for 88 yards and 1 touchdown, a 4-yard throw to Coby Herman that capped a nine-play, 45-yard drive lasting 7:15. Robert Meyer made a 33-yard field goal with 3:35 to play and missed from 42 in the first quarter. Samuel Gbatu Jr. caught 5 passes for 60 yards. Jackson Fay had 1 catch for 47.
Drew Faulkner blocked Nick Reed‘s 43-yard field goal attempt in the fourth quarter, SMU’s only attempt of the game. Reed went 6-of-6 on extra points and Brendan Baird went 2-of-2. All 8 of Reed’s kickoffs went for touchbacks.
Five of SMU’s scoring drives lasted 2 minutes or less. SMU is 40-16 under Lashlee and 22-4 at home under him. The Mustangs are 33-4 under Lashlee when they score at least 30 points. SMU beat Florida State 27-24 in the season opener and moved up to No. 17 in the AP Top 25 on Sept. 8.
SMU plays at Louisville on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. CT on ESPN2. UC Davis dropped to 2-1.
