SMU heads east for a rematch of last season’s ACC title game, a 31–34 heartbreaker that still stings,  on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. CT at Memorial Stadium in Clemson, SC.

The Mustangs arrive 4–2 overall and 2–0 in league play after a 34–10 win over Stanford that looked as tidy as the score. Kevin Jennings kept humming at quarterback, going 22 of 30 for 242 yards and two touchdowns. Chris Johnson Jr. popped for a career-high 138 all-purpose yards with two scores, and linebacker Justin Medlock slammed the door with a 96-yard pick-6 in the fourth quarter.

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The trend lines are friendly. SMU has won 19 straight conference regular-season games dating to 2022, the nation’s longest active streak.

Rhett Lashlee’s group has nine touchdown drives in under two minutes this season and sits near the top nationally on defense in havoc stats: second in turnovers gained, third in defensive touchdowns, third in red zone defense at .640, and tenth in sacks with 19. Translation: this team flips fields and finishes.

Jennings is stacking hardware-level numbers. He ranks seventh nationally in passing touchdowns with 15, eleventh in completion rate at 71.7 percent, fourteenth in yards per game at 276.3, fifteenth in completions per game at 22.8, and sixteenth in total passing yards at 1,658. Romello Brinson gives him a true ACC problem on the outside, sitting third in the league in receiving yards per game at 80.7 and total yards at 484, plus top ten in catches and touchdowns.

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Clemson sits 3–3 and 2–2 in the ACC after a 41–10 win at Boston College. The Tigers remain physical and multiple on defense, so early communication and protection checks are premium. SMU is 29–3 under Lashlee when scoring 30 or more, and the Mustangs have spread it around with at least seven different receivers making a catch in 34 of the past 37 games.

Revenge angle. Conference stakes. Tempo edge. If SMU starts fast and keeps the takeaway train rolling, the Hilltop can turn last December’s almost into October’s statement.