{"id":356891,"date":"2025-09-10T13:08:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-10T13:08:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/356891\/"},"modified":"2025-09-10T13:08:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-10T13:08:10","slug":"smu-to-return-to-big-screen-15-years-after-pony-excess-in-new-espn-documentary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/356891\/","title":{"rendered":"SMU to return to big screen 15 years after \u2018Pony Excess\u2019 in new ESPN documentary"},"content":{"rendered":"

For those who lived through SMU\u2019s death penalty<\/a> and helped the university rise from it, even 40 years later, it\u2019s still difficult to talk about.<\/p>\n

Half a dozen filmmakers and another handful of authors approached SMU Board of Trustees Chair David Miller over the last decade seeking to tell the Mustangs\u2019 story in full \u2014 from being dealt the NCAA\u2019s most extreme punishment to their 40-year journey back to power-conference status.<\/p>\n

\u201cInitially, I declined all of them,\u201d Miller told The Dallas Morning News this week. \u201cYou can\u2019t tell the story without diving deeply back into the whole death penalty thing, and we\u2019ve worked so hard to move past that. Resurrecting it wasn\u2019t particularly exciting to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

But now 15 years after SMU was last on the big screen when \u201cPony Excess\u201d aired as an ESPN 30 for 30<\/a>, the Mustangs are returning to the spotlight.<\/p>\n

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On Sept. 21 at 2 p.m. CT, ESPN will air \u201cThunder On: Resurgence of the SMU Mustangs,\u201d a feature documentary that picks up where \u201cPony Excess\u201d left off and shows how SMU overcame the most severe punishment in sports history to ultimately return to college football\u2019s biggest stage last season in reaching the College Football Playoff.<\/a><\/p>\n

After declining many opportunities for the Mustangs to be featured in similar projects, Miller came around once approached by Peyton Manning\u2019s Omaha Productions, which chose to partner with Texas Crew Productions and director Chip Rives. <\/p>\n

Rives, an Emmy and Peabody Award winner, previously worked on ESPN 30 for 30\u2019s \u201cBrian and the Boz\u201d and \u201cPhi Slama Jama,\u201d among many other documentary projects. <\/p>\n

\u201cAs Kirk Herbstreit says in the film, it truly is one of the greatest comeback stories in the history of not only college football but sports,\u201d Rives said. \u201cSMU has this amazing story. A lot of people wanted it to be told.\u201d<\/p>\n

SMU alumnus Thaddeus Matula, who directed \u201cPony Excess,\u201d is also an executive producer on the new documentary.<\/p>\n

Rives told The News the intention was not to create a sequel to the 2010 film. \u201cPony Excess\u201d featured bombshell interviews from former players and coaches from SMU\u2019s teams in the 1980s detailing how university officials, coaches and boosters were involved in directly paying players, leading to the program\u2019s downfall when it became the first and only college athletics program to be served the NCAA\u2019s death penalty on Feb. 25, 1987. <\/p>\n

SMU did not play football in the 1987 and 1988 seasons as a result of sanctions.<\/p>\n

Only 15 minutes of the near-two hour film focuses on life after death and all SMU had to overcome when its football program was shut down. It concludes by showing SMU making and winning its first bowl game post-death penalty in 2009.<\/a> <\/p>\n

But since the film aired, the Mustangs have had back-to-back 11-win seasons, returned to a power conference by joining the ACC, reached the ACC championship game and made the College Football Playoff for the first time. Through the transfer portal, NIL and years of persistence, the Mustangs have managed to return to the national spotlight<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe perfect storm of these three events happening at SMU at this time has created a situation where they can immediately start to compete with the true blue bloods of the sport,\u201d Rives said. \u201cThe timing just felt right. Why wait for something like this when it\u2019s happening right now?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThunder On: Resurgence of the SMU Mustangs\u201d \u2014 which went from idea to finished product in just six months \u2014 will feature new voices not included in \u201cPony Excess,\u201d including former Dallas Morning News reporter Jean-Jacques Taylor and current columnist Kevin Sherrington, as well as current coaches and players like Rhett Lashlee and Kevin Jennings. It will highlight the challenges SMU faced from 1989-2024, not just as a football program, but as a university as a whole.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s just no debate that college athletic success helps drive the overall brand of the university,\u201d Miller said. \u201cIt\u2019s not just about sports. It impacts the way the university is perceived nationally.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur applications for enrollment year-over-year are up 60%. That\u2019s about being in the ACC, our success on the football field and on the basketball court but principally about getting back to power conference status. We\u2019re relevant again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still 40 years later, it isn\u2019t easy for those at SMU to talk about the school\u2019s darkest times.<\/p>\n

But now on the other side of it, they\u2019re able to see how their comeback story is one worth making not one, but two movies about.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I\u2019m most excited about is how we have rebounded, how we have been resilient, how the fan base and people have stuck with this institution through thick and thin,\u201d SMU athletic director Damon Evans said. \u201cThat\u2019s what this documentary is going to highlight. We went through our tough time, but we didn\u2019t give up on ourselves. We didn\u2019t give up on each other. And we learned a lot of valuable lessons from that.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Twitter\/X: @Lassimak<\/a><\/p>\n

Find more SMU coverage from The Dallas Morning News here<\/a>.<\/p>\n