The SMU football team clinched its first conference championship game appearance since 2010 with a 59-14 win over Navy in its regular-season finale at Gerald J. Ford Stadium on Saturday.
SMU took immediate control of the game, scoring touchdowns on all four of its first-quarter possessions while outgaining Navy in yards 300-23.
“I’m just really proud of our team,” SMU head coach Rhett Lashlee told the media during his postgame press conference. “Ten wins, undefeated 8-0 in the league, undefeated at home, and really just the way they came out and played. We didn’t talk about it with them, but we felt like we still had a good chance [to get in] with the results from yesterday, but you never know. They came out thinking they had to win, and boy, did they play well early.”
Each SMU possession took about two minutes of game time, as quarterback Preston Stone completed 11 of his first 13 passing attempts for 275 yards and three touchdowns.
Senior running back Tyler Lavine punched in the first score from the one-yard line on SMU’s first drive of the contest after the passing game moved the ball for 57 yards, and replay overturned a touchdown run from Camar Wheaton.
Stone then took over, connecting with wide receiver Moochie Dixon for 125 yards and two touchdowns in the first quarter and finding Jordan Hudson for a contested touchdown grab as the Mustangs built a 28-0 lead.
Late in the first quarter, Navy recovered a muffed punt at the SMU one-yard line, and running back Daba Fofana got the Midshipmen on the board with a touchdown on the next play. Navy tried to create a momentum swing by following its touchdown with an onside kick but was called for an illegal blocking penalty after appearing to have recovered the attempt.
Early in the second quarter, SMU made up for its special teams mistake, recovering a Navy muffed punt in the end zone for a touchdown to improve to 35-7, and Lavine added two more touchdowns to help the Mustangs take a 52-14 lead at the half after Navy quarterback Braxton Woodson ripped off a 69-yard touchdown run.
Neither team managed much in the second half, but SMU added another score on an Isaiah Nwokobia interception return for a touchdown.
Stone threw for 322 yards and three touchdowns but left the game with an injury in the second quarter. Lavine added three touchdowns, and Dixon was the Mustangs’ leading receiver.
Woodson led Navy with 104 rushing yards and a touchdown.
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WHAT TO KNOW
— SMU beat Navy to clinch a spot in next week’s American Athletic Conference Championship Game against No.23 Tulane, who will host the game on its New Orleans campus.
— SMU will appear in a conference championship game for the first time since losing the 2010 Conference USA Championship to UCF and has a chance to win its first conference title since 1984.
— SMU quarterback Preston Stone left the game with an injury after being sacked in the second quarter and did not return. No update on his status for Saturday’s AAC Championship Game has been announced.
— The Mustangs finished the regular season with a 10-2 record, an 8-0 record against conference opponents, and an unblemished record at home. It is the program’s first 10-win season since 1984 and two short of its all-time mark, which was set in 1935.
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BY THE NUMBERS
— Last season, SMU allowed 510 yards in a loss to Navy, but on Saturday, the SMU defense held the Midshipmen to 253 yards, much of which came on just a handful of plays.
— Stone threw for 275 yards in the first quarter alone, while Navy gained 139 yards the entire first half.
— SMU has now outscored its opponents 133-34 in the first quarter this year, improving to 10-0 when scoring at least 30 points.
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WHO SAID
— Lashlee on the quarterback situation heading into the conference championship: “If [Stone] can’t go, we have as much confidence in Kevin Jennings as anyone else. It won’t change how we play the game and how we attack the game, and no matter which one of those guys is in there, we got a really good opponent that we got to go play. So it’s going to be tough.”
— Lavine on reaching the conference championship and going undefeated in conference play: “This has been what we’ve wanted since January. It’s really cool to see the work paying off. We’ve still got one more, but this team’s really fought through a lot during the spring and just seeing everybody bond together. It’s been really cool to see that and everybody actually taking the mentality that we want each week and be uncommon and be a team player, and I really felt like everybody’s been bought into that, and it’s paying off.”
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NEXT UP
— SMU (10-2, 8-0 in the AAC) travels to New Orleans to take on No.23 Tulane (11-1, 8-0) in the AAC Championship Game at 3 p.m. CT next Saturday. Navy (5-6, 4-4) plays its annual rivalry game against Army (5-6) on December 9.
