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00:00It shows how old we are, that I had to go back in time in the space time travel machine
00:10Mafia has in the back of the SportsGrid studios to remember this guy from the ticket in Dallas.
00:17And I never knew that Rich Phillips did the SMU games because I wasn't that tuned into
00:22Dallas other than being on the radio there.
00:26I was on there every day, forever, great station.
00:30And then, where did he take me, Mafia?
00:33What was that place you took me for a barbecue in Dallas?
00:36Do you remember what that town was called?
00:38What was it called?
00:40Where we had the party at?
00:41Well, no, like so Mafia took me for, he took me to some place, a barbecue place that was
00:47legendary in Dallas.
00:49And I forget what the name of the town was.
00:51That doesn't narrow it down.
00:52That doesn't narrow it down here, man.
00:53Mafia should remember this.
00:54Like, he's going to look it up, hopefully, and remember it by the time we're done.
00:58But Rich Phillips calls SMU games down in Dallas.
01:01You know, Rich, it's great to see you.
01:03It's been forever.
01:04I actually, I bet on SMU last week.
01:08And you know, I grew up in Pittsburgh, so I kind of have a little bit of an affinity
01:12for Pitt.
01:13I'm a Canes fan, and I'm an Indiana fan.
01:16I went to Indiana, but I like Pitt.
01:18I used to watch, you know, Dan Marino, Tony Dorsett, and many others.
01:23Hugh Green, you name it, that played there, Siragusa, all of the greats that played at
01:29Pitt over the years.
01:30They had a great team.
01:31They were undefeated in Arduzzi, and I still thought they were going to go to Ford and
01:34get smacked, because that team, SMU, means business this year, and particularly down
01:39there at Ford in Dallas.
01:41Yeah, only lost this year.
01:44Was at home, but it was three points to a team in the top 10 now, BYU.
01:48It's been an incredible run for SMU this year.
01:52It's something that nobody else has ever done, move up from a group of five conference
01:56to a power conference and keep winning.
01:59Nobody had won, had gone 2-0 in a league moving up like that.
02:03They're 4-0 now in the ACC, and right there, firmly entrenched with a chance to go to the
02:08conference championship game here in a few weeks.
02:11My God, Smith ran all over him in that game.
02:15Like, I thought the guy was going to have 200 yards.
02:18That guy is working on getting himself paid.
02:22He was mostly a wide receiver for three years at Miami, transferred here to SMU.
02:27He had played for the Mustangs head coach, Rhett Lashley, when he was the offensive coordinator
02:31at Miami, so he transferred here, and they told him he's going to be a running back primarily.
02:36He's about to have a 1,000-yard season, and he has been nothing short of outstanding.
02:40I've been really impressed, not just with his speed, but his willingness to do the tough
02:44stuff too when it comes to running up the middle.
02:47Well, you saw Rich win the American last year at his team.
02:50You already knew they were good, and then they get somehow into this conference.
02:57You have to explain that to me, how that worked out, because I didn't see that coming from
03:02anywhere, let alone a mile away, that SMU was going to end up in the ACC.
03:07Seriously, and now you win the American.
03:11Now you're going to play for the ACC, it looks like, against Mike Cain's.
03:16Well, it's paying to play, kind of is what they're doing.
03:19They agreed to not take the football TV money for the first nine years in the ACC as part
03:25of this move up.
03:26The other teams that moved in, Stanford and Cal, they're taking a smaller percentage,
03:30but SMU gets none of the football TV money.
03:33They don't need it, I guess, because one week after the announcement was made last September,
03:37they raised $100 million in donations and in efforts to compete with everybody financially
03:42in the ACC.
03:44They're paying to play.
03:45They bought their way in, and now they're doing more than buying their way in.
03:48They're trying to win their way to the title game.
03:51I mean, I know everything's bigger in Texas, and the pockets are deeper.
03:58We've seen that with Jerry Jones, what he's turned that Cowboys team into, a $10 billion
04:04monstrosity of money.
04:06I guess it's no different in college football there, at Austin, at SMU.
04:12I mean, obviously, at Houston, they're paying players to play college basketball.
04:18Is that what it boils down to?
04:19It's just bigger in Texas?
04:22Well, we like to say NIL means now it's legal around here.
04:26It's kind of what they were doing 40 years ago at SMU.
04:30It just wasn't legal back then, and they ended up getting the program shut down for a couple
04:33of years because of it.
04:35But now everybody's allowed to do it, and they've waited a long time.
04:39SMU fans have waited a long time to be back to this level from the Southwest Conference
04:43days of the early and mid-'80s, and a lot of them were willing to pay up to get there,
04:48and so far, so good.
04:51So, I mean, that is crazy.
04:52So how about Jennings, 3-0-6 in that game, two touchdowns.
04:57How good is he?
04:59He is as calm, cool, and collected of a quarterback that you'll ever see, and we even knew that
05:04about him two years ago when he was a true freshman.
05:06He got thrown into a game when he was the third stringer because the starter was hurt,
05:11and the backup got hurt in that game, and he was awesome.
05:14Helped beat Tulsa that day.
05:15Last season, he had to take over as a starter for the Conference Championship game and the
05:20bowl game because of injury to the starter, and he was outstanding again.
05:24He just is a really calm kid back there in the pocket.
05:28Local kid, too, from South Dallas who won a state title there at South Oak Cliff High
05:32School, and, man, he's been a pleasure to work with and a pleasure to watch.
05:36He just is so in command of the pocket and very in command of the team when he's on the
05:40field.
05:40So they, I mean, they started, they got the lead early in this game on Johnson's TD run,
05:48and then they just blew him out, and I was surprised because I think Holstein's a good
05:53quarterback.
05:54I don't think he played like the last 10 minutes of the game, right?
05:57They took him out because it was such a blowout, and, you know, that team was trying to go
06:03to 8-0 for the first time since Dan Marino.
06:06I mean, they have been a very big surprise.
06:08I think I'm really not that surprised that SMU's good.
06:14Like I said, you knew they were good last year.
06:16They're still good.
06:19And the reason they got there last year is because while they get so much credit for
06:23their offense, their defense was outstanding last year.
06:26They were top 25 in the nation in most major categories, and they're doing it again this
06:30year defensively.
06:32And I thought Saturday against Pitt was about the best I had seen them play, particularly
06:36in just basic things like tackling, and Pitt struggled.
06:39Pitt didn't tackle guys, and they had a receiver horizontal coming down to the ground at one
06:44point, and he winds up with a 40-yard catch and run after the play.
06:47SMU, though, wrapped guys up.
06:50They really put a ton of pressure, too, on Eli Holstein.
06:52That's why I don't think he had a very good night against him as well.
06:55Their defense, really, as much as Rhett Lashley's an offensive guy, and he gets credit for that,
07:00and he should.
07:01I mean, they score 40 a game.
07:02Defensively is where they've really made the difference the last couple of years.
07:05Is that kid Davis okay?
07:07Like, I saw him carried off the field.
07:11I was watching when he hit his head.
07:13Is that kid all right?
07:16So we did find out he actually made it back to the stadium before the game was over.
07:20He was on the sideline for the fourth quarter, did have a cervical collar on.
07:25Like it is a lot of times nowadays, like it probably should be, too, there's a lot of
07:28precautionary stuff that's done when you see shots to the head, shots to the neck,
07:32things like that.
07:33I haven't gotten any update on him yet this week.
07:35They got by this week, so not a lot going on, but at least we know he was back from
07:39the hospital before the game ended.
07:41So take me back to the Duke game, because that game was way wilder than the Pitt game
07:47that you won in overtime in Durham, and you had a bunch of turnovers in that game,
07:51but you still won.
07:53Just six.
07:54Is that a lot?
07:55Yeah.
07:56Six turnovers.
07:58And then he's got five picks.
08:00Three picks, and he had two fumbles, and he lost, and he had two other fumbles,
08:05one that he recovered and one that the left guard recovered.
08:08I mean, that's a game that you look back at it, and it's like six turnovers,
08:12and they didn't take it away once.
08:13They got no business winning that game, but Duke scored zero points off of turnovers,
08:20including the last three possessions of regulation.
08:22They got the ball three times in SMU territory, missed a field goal, had to punt,
08:27and then on the last play of regulation, a ridiculous play by Jafari Harvey to block
08:32a 30-yard field goal, which was their only hope, and then they went on and won it in
08:36overtime.
08:37Sometimes you're living right when you're having a magical season, and that definitely
08:41was a night where they were living right.
08:42I got 30 seconds.
08:43Do you think they can beat Miami?
08:46Boy, I don't know.
08:47They would have a chance because their defense plays so well, and Miami has to score a ton
08:51of points to win a lot of these games.
08:53You got to see it.
08:53Cam Ward's got to do a ton to get them to a win, but it'd be a huge test.
08:58I'd love to see it.
08:59I hope I get to see it here in early December.
09:02Real quick, 10 seconds.
09:03How's the SMU basketball team looking?
09:06Won by about 33, I think, last night.
09:08Andy Enfield's first game, the former USC coach, getting started here with a bunch of
09:12new guys.
09:13They got him down there with some money, too.
09:16Yes.
09:16Hey, Rich, it's good to see you.
09:18Congratulations on everything with the SMU football and basketball.