No. 20 SMU is finally back home vs. No. 18 Pitt in unexpected November tilt of ACC co-leaders

DALLAS — There were many months of hype leading up to 20th-ranked SMU's first ACC home game against a traditional power coming off an undefeated regular season.

The Mustangs' second game in their new league, after more than a month away from home, is just as anticipated.

SMU (7-1, 4-0) finally returns to campus Saturday night to play No. 18 Pittsburgh (7-0, 3-0), one of the eight remaining undefeated FBS teams. It is a somewhat unexpected matchup of Atlantic Coast Conference co-leaders to open November.

“When you're winning, every game is the next big game. ... so that's the exciting part,” Mustangs coach Rhett Lashlee said. "We got to feel that a little bit last year when we went on the run late to win the conference.”

That was SMU's final season in the American Athletic Conference before the long-desired move into one of the power leagues. When the ACC schedule was released in late January, SMU fans immediately focused on the league opener against Florida State — even though it was the fifth game of the season.

Florida State's season has been a disastrous dud, and the Mustangs piled on with a 42-16 win on Sept. 28 in their last home game. They won in October at then-No. 22 Louisville, fellow ACC newcomer Stanford and Duke in overtime last week despite six turnovers — with three interceptions and two fumbles by dual-threat quarterback Kevin Jennings.

“I'm ready to go out this weekend and show it was just a hiccup,” said Jennings, the third-year sophomore who supplanted incumbent starter Preston Stone after SMU's lone loss to still-undefeated No. 9 BYU in the third game.

“This is the first big kind of piece of adversity in his short starting career," Lashlee said. “He’s actually been explosive and protected the ball pretty well.”

Eli Holstein’s 17 TD passes for Pitt are tied with Alex Van Pelt’s 1989 total for the most by a Panthers freshman. The Alabama transfer had an undisclosed injury after an option run that took him out late against Syracuse last week, but coach Pat Narduzzi said the quarterback has been medically cleared and will start against SMU.

Pitt was a preseason pick to finish near the bottom of the expanded 17-team league. The Panthers instead are trying to get to 8-0 overall for the first time since 1981, when Dan Marino was their quarterback and Jackie Sherrill their coach, though they are the lowest-ranked of the undefeated Power Four schools.

“The only thing that matters is wins and losses,” Narduzzi said. “If we keep doing what we’re doing, I think we’ll be in good shape in the end."

Atop the ACC

No. 5 Miami and No. 11 Clemson are the other ACC teams undefeated in league play. Those two teams don't play each other in the regular season. Aside from Pitt-SMU, the only head-to-head matchup between the co-leaders is Pitt hosting Clemson on Nov. 16. The ACC championship game for a spot in the 12-team College Football Playoff is Dec. 7.

Streaking SMU

The Mustangs have set a school record winning their last 13 regular-season conference games, including all eight last year in their final AAC season. SMU has averaged 50.5 points over its last 12 home games, the only loss in that span being 18-15 to BYU in September without a touchdown.

Shark attack

The Panthers and their “sharks” linebacker group put on a show last week, returning three interceptions for TDs on a night Pitt picked off five passes by Syracuse quarterback Kyle McCord.

Still, defensive coordinator Randy Bates figures his young group that returned just a handful of starters from 2023 has a ways to go.

“I think we had a lot more (turnovers) in us, quite frankly,” Bates said. “We dropped two or three (interceptions). We still have a lot of work to do. We’ve come a good ways ... (and) we still have a lot of teaching (to do).”

Pitt is also starting to generate more pressure, with 10 sacks over the last two games after 12 in the first five.

Slowing down

Pitt’s offense has hit a speed bump since entering ACC play. The same group that averaged over 500 yards in four nonconference games is at just 338 yards for league games.

Running back Desmond Reid was held without a catch for the first time this season against the Orange, a game in which Pitt was held to just 217 yards. The offense’s inability to generate a rhythm is one of the reasons Holstein was still in the game midway through the fourth quarter.

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AP Sports Writer Will Graves in Pittsburgh contributed to this report.