No. 21 SMU and Stanford face off for first time as ACC foes

STANFORD, Calif. — When Stanford and SMU were part of the ACC's westward expansion last year, they were set up as annual rivals in football in a plan to cut down on coast-to-coast trips.

The first edition of a matchup that hasn't been played since the 1936 Rose Bowl is set for Saturday night when the 21st ranked Mustangs (5-1, 2-0 ACC) visit the Cardinal (2-4, 1-2) in their first meeting ever as conference rivals.

SMU's debut season in the ACC has gone far better than it has for Stanford, which is hoping to be able to build a program that can compete the way the Mustangs have under coach Rhett Lashlee.

“You know you’re going to play them every year just like Cal. So I think it’s important that you’re in a great position to be successful,” Stanford coach Troy Taylor said. “They’ve done a really good job building their program in terms of supporting it and transfer portal. They have been all in and you can see the results. They’re competing at a really high level in their first year in the ACC."

The Mustangs are coming off back-to-back wins over Florida State and Louisville to open conference play but now must start dealing with the increased travel in the new conference with road games the next two weeks on the West Coast at Stanford and the East Coast at Duke.

“Everyone’s got parts of their schedule that are more positive and others that are more challenging, back-to-back road games on each coast,” Lashlee said. “I like the challenge, so we don’t really need to worry about the travel back in the next game until we worry about this game anyway.”

Lashlee believes the bigger challenge than travel is dealing with the high expectations that his players are now experiencing thanks to a three-game winning streak that started with a non-conference win over rival TCU.

The Mustangs followed that up with wins in their first two conference games and now return to play after a week off where the players heard plenty of praise.

“You’re ranked and people start patting you on the back and telling you how good you are,” he said. “Our guys have earned that. But with that comes a lot more responsibility and maturity demanded of us because it’s human nature to relax when things are going better for you instead of double down and try to chase a higher standard.”

Memory lane

When the schools met in the 1936 Rose Bowl, it marked the first time two teams located west of the Mississippi River played in the game. Stanford got a touchdown run in the first quarter from Bill Paulman and six interceptions to win the game 7-0 for the school's second win in seven trips to the Rose Bowl.

Rough start

The Cardinal won their ACC opener at Syracuse but have lost the last three games, getting outscored 120-28 against Clemson, Virginia Tech and Notre Dame.

The task doesn't get any easier this week when banged-up Stanford will try to snap a 15-game losing streak against ranked opponents.

“When you’re playing those type of opponents, you’re going to be challenged,” Taylor said. "Obviously we have some injuries and some depth issues that happen in a physical season. ... Our goal as a program is to get more depth because even though we have more depth this year, we’re pretty beat up."

Slow it down

Taylor said the biggest challenge this week is dealing with SMU's fast-tempo offense that is well-suited to quarterback Kevin Jennings' game. Jennings took over from Preston Stone as starter after a loss to BYU on Sept. 6. Jennings has thrown five TD passes with no interceptions in his three starts.

He had a career high 394 yards of offense two weeks ago at Louisville with 281 yards passing and 113 yards rushing. He was the first Mustangs player with at least 200 yards passing and 100 yards rushing in a game since Matt Davis did it at Tulsa in 2014.

“He's really sparked their offense,” Taylor said. “He's dynamic. It really plays into his skill set really well. He plays really well in the fast-tempo offense.”