SMU-Nevada Game Week Practice Highlights
The SMU Mustangs begin their first season in the ACC on Saturday with a 7 p.m. CT road game in Reno against the Nevada Wolf Pack. Coach Rhett Lashlee returns for his third year with an 18-9 record after he and the Mustangs left the AAC, winning the team’s first conference title since 1984.
SMU has played Nevada six times in team history, earning three wins, including the last meeting in the 2009 Sheraton Hawaii Bowl. The Wolf Pack finished the 2023 season with an overall record of 2-10. After a coaching change, they are now under the leadership of new head coach Jeff Choate, who took over the team after serving as co-defensive coordinator at the University of Texas.
The SMU-Nevada game will be broadcast and streamed on CBS Sports Network, with radio coverage on 96.7FM The Ticket.
How to see SMU in Nevada
When: Saturday, August 24, 2024, 7:00 p.m. CT
Location: Mackay Stadium in Reno, Nevada
Television: CBSSN
Radio: The Ticket – KTCK 96.7 FM/1310 AM
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Odds for SMU vs. Nevada (via BetMGM)
While it’s not expected to be one of the most competitive games of Week 0, the SMU-Nevada clash will still draw a lot of attention as the Mustangs make their big appearance in the ACC. Las Vegas odds point to a lopsided showing in Reno.
Distribution: SMU -24.5
Total: O/U 56.5
Moneyline: SMU -3000, Nevada +1300
Lashlee: “It’s about us”
The restructuring of the Nevada football program this offseason presents the Mustangs with the unique challenge of facing an almost completely unfamiliar task, so the team’s preparation for Week 0 has focused primarily on its own plans and strategies.
“The answer is simple: It’s about us,” Lashlee said this week. “We have to go out there and take care of ourselves and be excited to play. We have to be disciplined … You have a brand new head coach … two new coordinators (Matt Lubick, Kane Ioane) who didn’t coordinate pitches last year, and that’s how you try to piece it all together.”
A decisive win over Nevada would be a great start to the Mustangs’ ACC era, but Lashlee doesn’t want his team to look too far ahead. It’s going to be a long season, and it won’t get any easier after Week 0.
“When you get too far away from the present, you start thinking about the ACC,” Lashlee said. “We don’t play an ACC game until Sept. 28. You start thinking about the new facility we’re moving into next week … there’s a lot of excitement.”
“You feel the energy. But hopefully we’ve done a good job of just trying to focus on what we can control. We have to beat Nevada. If we don’t beat Nevada, moving to the new facility won’t be nearly as fun.”
SMU Nevada Game Notes
- SMU is one of only six FBS programs opening their season on Saturday, joining new ACC opponents Florida State and Georgia Tech, as well as New Mexico and Hawaii.
- The Mustangs have never before started a season as early as August 24th, nor have they ever played two games before the end of August.
- SMU enters the 2024 season without an AP ranking, but the team has received 33 Top 25 votes, ranking fourth among other teams that received votes outside the Top 25.
- Lashlee’s Mustangs have won their season openers by 24 points or more in each of his first two seasons as head coach. SMU has won its last five season openers.
- quarterback Preston Stone returns after leading the team to an 11-3 record last season. He threw for 3,197 yards with 28 touchdown passes and six interceptions, and scored four more points.
- Nevada will start as redshirt junior QB Brendon Lewis for the second year in a row. Lewis, who came from Colorado, threw for 1,313 yards and two touchdowns and ran for 495 yards and four touchdowns despite battling injuries last year.
