No. 25 SMU could be a playoff team again, but will have to get in and win ACC title game this time

DALLAS AP There is one certainty for No SMU if the Mustangs are going to get into the College Football Playoff again They would have to win the Atlantic Coast Conference championship battle this time Two nonconference losses in September and then a game-ending field goal by Wake Forest in October put the Mustangs - - ACC No CFP in a much different position than their impressive ACC debut last season They didn t lose a league match during the regular season in and made the -team playoff even after losing to Clemson in the title tournament A long journey honestly quarterback Kevin Jennings reported I think each and every one of those games tested us as a crew and I think it just made us better and stronger And we ll see how this is going to play out SMU returned to the AP poll this week and would clinch a spot in the ACC title encounter with a win in its regular-season finale Saturday at California - - A loss would make things much more murky and uncertain because of a complicated tiebreaker in the -team league I m proud of this organization because this squad is just it s a new club fourth-year coach Rhett Lashlee explained When we were - going into the first bye week after we let two nonconference games get away from us they just kept believing and going to work And now here we are playing with a lot of confidence when it matters And that s a big deal playing with confidence The Mustangs are finishing strong again They are - in November since Lashlee became their coach Jennings has three consecutive -yard passing games since that loss at Wake Forest a stretch that began with a - overtime win at home over then-No Miami The Mustangs then outscored Boston College and Louisville by a combined - their last two games and the only touchdown they allowed was in the fourth quarter of an already-lopsided win over BC Committed coach Lashlee s name was being linked to other Power Four openings in an ongoing coaching carousel including his alma mater Arkansas before the -year-old coach ended speculation about his future with a two-year contract extension reported before the Miami match on Nov which was their first win over a top organization in their campus stadium It was the second extension in as a great number of years for Lashlee who is - is first head coaching job Late field goals The - loss at Wake Forest ended SMU s -game conference winning streak which included its first in the ACC after going undefeated in the American Athletic Conference in the season before the playoff expanded from four to teams SMU punted with seconds remaining and the Demon Deacons with no timeouts completed a -yard pass before spiking the ball to set up a -yard field goal that barely cleared the bar as time expired That event really just woke us up gave like a little edge to us Jennings explained SMU also lost on a game-ending field goal against instate rival Baylor that one in double overtime at home after the Bears scored two touchdowns in the final minutes of regulation in the second encounter of the season The Mustangs blew another fourth-quarter lead in a - loss at TCU that wrapped up nonconference play Every association has growing pains I m thankful for ours to be a little earlier in the season defensive end Cam Robertson commented We were young early in the season still feeling ourselves out senior receiver Jordan Hudson mentioned We didn t know out gang our identity Coaches did a great job with just allowing the captains to be captains and letting us meet with each other getting with the younger guys just making sure we were all on the same page It was never the football aspect of it We knew we could play football all around Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top throughout the season Sign up here and here AP News mobile app AP college football https apnews com hub ap-top- -college-football-poll and https apnews com hub college-football Source