Missouri State Bears at SMU Mustangs

Kevin Jennings becomes SMU's career passing leader as No. 22 Mustangs overcome Missouri State 34-24

“Absolutely fantastic,” SMU coach Rhett Lashlee said of the third-year starter. “He was awesome. He made us go.”

Jennings finished 33-of-39 passing, including a school-record 21 consecutive completions, with three touchdowns and an interception. Tight end Theo Melin Ohrstrom had two of the scores, while Yamir Knight had 11 catches for 164 yards with a late 28-yard TD. Jalen Cooper caught eight passes for 125 yards.

“Kevin doing Kevin things,” Knight said.

“You can see why their quarterback is a Heisman Trophy candidate,” said Casey Woods, the first-year Missouri State coach who was SMU's offensive coordinator the past four seasons.

With his 722 career completions and 9,162 yards passing, Jennings surpassed the 9,081 yards and 718 completions Ben Hicks had from 2016-18. Jennings also had a 1-yard TD run and his 78 TDs responsible for (67 passing, 11 rushing) broke Tanner Mordecai's previous school record of 76 in that category.

“Got a lot more to be done, but this is a blessing,” Jennings said.

While Jennings already had 291 yards passing and Knight 125 receiving by halftime, the Mustangs (3-1) had two turnovers in the first quarter that Missouri State (1-3) converted into a 10-0 lead.

A 19-yard TD pass from Jennings to Ohrstrom with 4 seconds left in the first half finally put the Mustangs ahead 14-10. Jennings' scoring run ended their first drive after the break.

“A little adversity came early, but we knew we had to respond. ... That’s what we did," Jennings said. ”Feel like we played a pretty good game in the second half. You just can’t start that slow again."

Joel Boamah’s 60-yard interception return for a touchdown, on a pass when Jennings was hit and threw it right to the cornerback, put Missouri State up 10-0 with 41 seconds left in the first quarter. That came only four plays after Yousef Obeid’s 35-yard field goal set up by Martavis Blackmon’s recovery inside the Bears 10 when Knight fumbled at the end of a 23-yard gain.

“The reality of it is, four games in we're 3-1. We're thankful for that, but if you're just honest, we don't make ourselves hard to beat,” Lashlee said. “I’ve looked at the stat sheet every game, and it looks like we should have won by three or four touchdowns.”

SMU outgained Missouri State 592 total yards to 239, with a 29-14 edge in first downs.

Kendrick Raphael had 98 yards rushing for SMU, including a 1-yard TD run early in the second quarter to cap a 78-yard, 11-play drive.

The coaches have not been on opposite sides often Woods and Lashlee recruited Jennings soon after they got to SMU nearly five years ago. The coaches are longtime friends who also were on staff together at Arkansas State after being low-level assistants at Auburn when the Tigers won the 2010 national championship.

The takeaway Missouri State: Just like last September when hosting SMU in its first home game as an FBS team, Missouri State jumped to a 10-0 lead. The Bears, who opened this season with a 50-0 loss at then-No. 8 Texas A&M, now go into Conference USA play.

“I think we have the makings of a good team,” Woods said. “This entire time we’ve said we wanted to be playing our best football by time we get to conference play, and certainly want to be playing meaningful games in November.”

SMU: The Mustangs rebounded from their 41-31 loss at Louisville, but were far from sharp as a more than four-TD favorite in their last non-ACC game. Along with the two early turnovers, the Mustangs' opening drive of the game ended with an incompletion on fourth-and-3 from the 30. They also missed two field goals and had 12 penalties for 106 yards.

Up next SMU plays its first ACC home game against Boston College next Saturday.

Missouri State has an open date before its C-USA opener Oct. 8 at Western Kentucky.

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