UNIVERSITY PARK — In no other sport than college football after losing an overtime shootout to a respectable opponent in the second week of the season does the head coach of the losing team need to justify to his players that their season isn’t over.
In any other sport, it’s a small blemish on their schedule, at worst.
But after No. 17 SMU fell to unranked Baylor 48-45 in double overtime at home, it immediately makes the Mustang faithful wonder if replicating last year’s run to the College Football Playoff is even possible.
“If we want to have a good football team, all our goals are still there,” SMU head coach Rhett Lashlee said. ”This doesn’t take any goals off the table for us.”
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It’s probably an over-exaggeration to believe SMU’s loss to a Baylor team that could be ranked soon would put an end to its College Football Playoff dreams in September. It certainly doesn’t impact its ACC title game hopes at all in which a win would automatically punch the Mustangs’ ticket back to the playoff.
But SMU learned firsthand last year just how challenging it is to be one of 12 teams that makes the College Football Playoff, how the ACC is perceived on a national stage and how in this era of college football, there’s little room for error — even in September.
Simply put, SMU has used its one chance to stumble. It needs to be near-perfect from here on out.
“I think we can have a good team,” Lashlee said. “I think we’ll keep getting better, as long as we stick together. We’ll see how we respond. This is the first big moment of adversity for this year’s team.”
Photos: Baylor celebrates game-winning FG as Bears upset No. 17 SMU
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SMU was in a similar position last year. The Mustangs faced plenty of adversity in their first three games of the season, nearly losing to Nevada on the road in Week 1 and dropping a home contest to BYU 18-15.
At the time, that BYU loss looked a lot worse than it was. The Cougars went on to finish No. 17 in the nation, so it was blemish the committee was willing to overlook — and didn’t look as bad as Alabama’s losses to unranked Vanderbilt and Oklahoma.
SMU needs to swallow its pride and root for its former Southwest Conference rival to be good. The Bears have one of the best offenses in the country, and quarterback Sawyer Robertson ranks second in the nation with 859 yards passing through two weeks. This Baylor team appears to have more potential than BYU did at this point last year.
From there, SMU needs to use the early-season adversity as inspiration like it did last year. It cannot afford another non-conference loss to either Missouri State or TCU in the next two weeks.
Then, it needs to survive a far more demanding ACC slate largely unscathed. SMU knew it could never afford to lose to Clemson, Miami and Louisville and still make the conference championship and playoff.
But now — assuming at least one ACC team makes it through the eight-game slate with one loss or fewer — SMU can lose one at most. And if it does, it must still find a way to make the conference title game because a two-loss SMU team not in the ACC championship won’t get the same respect from the committee that Alabama did last year. We saw what happened to Miami.
The Mustangs wanted to be in a power conference for this reason exactly. They could afford to lose a game early in the season and still have a shot at college football’s ultimate prize.
SMU will just need to turn this Baylor loss into a positive and show again that it is one of the ACC’s best if it wants to play meaningful football in November, December and even January.
On Twitter/X: @Lassimak
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