Kevin Jennings threw for 306 yards and two touchdowns Saturday night as No. 20 SMU stayed unbeaten in the Atlantic Coast Conference with a 48-25 drubbing of No. 18 Pittsburgh in Dallas.
Jennings completed 17 of 25 passes as the Mustangs (8-1, 5-0) joined No. 5 Miami atop the conference standings while handing the Panthers (7-1, 3-1) their first defeat. The result was never in doubt after SMU scored 24 points in the second quarter to take a 31-3 halftime lead.
Eli Holstein hit 29 of 47 attempts for 248 yards with an interception for Pittsburgh, which could fall out of the Top 25 after the lopsided loss. The Panthers yielded a season-high 467 yards, turned it over twice and committed six penalties for 66 yards.
The Mustangs wasted little time putting their stamp on the game, scoring less than three minutes into it when LJ Johnson punched it in from the 2-yard line. Ben Sauls then got Pittsburgh on the board with a 44-yard field goal at the 5:55 mark of the first quarter.
But it was all SMU for the rest of the half. Roderick Daniels made it 14-3 less than a minute into the second quarter on a 3-yard touchdown run and Brashard Smith, who rushed for 161 yards and two scores on 23 carries, zoomed 71 yards to paydirt on the first play of the Mustangs’ next possession.
Jennings and Smith hooked up for a 3-yard touchdown pass on the first play after the two-minute timeout, followed by Collin Rogers’ 50-yard field goal with two seconds remaining.
Rogers added a 27-yard field goal on SMU’s first drive of the third quarter before Desmond Reid scored on a 1-yard run for the Panthers with 38 seconds left in the period.
Smith’s 18-yard touchdown run and Jennings’ 80-yard scoring strike to Matthew Hibner upped the Mustangs’ advantage to 48-11 with 9:56 remaining in the game.
Backup quarterback Nate Yarnell made the final margin a bit more respectable with a pair of touchdown passes for Pittsburgh in the last four minutes.
–Field Level Media
