Cal faces SMU for their fourth matchup, and third since joining the ACC. Given the ACC travel rules ensuring that SMU plays Cal and Stanford every year, this feels like a pseudo-rivalry game (coincidentally, SMU leads the series 2-1 over both Cal and Stanford), but it would be nice if Cal could keep it competitive enough to feel like a rivalry game. Cal’s surprise upset last year aside (which kept SMU out of the ACC championship game), SMU has been nationally ranked in every ACC matchup with Cal so far (#9 in 2024, #21 in 2025, and #23 this year in 2026), and Cal has, well, not.
Cal is playing this year’s matchup at SMU, which luckily will be a little more pleasant than the hellfire conditions SMU played in earlier this season.
SMU head coach Rhett Lashlee currently has a 43-17 record at SMU (0.717), including an AAC championship, ACC championship game appearance, and CFP appearance, but SMU has yet to break through to the next level, despite SMU perennially being one of the best teams in the conference, as the ACC Network reminded us on every ACC matchup to start the season:
Cal appears in both the SMU “2” and FSU “3” here, along with Wake Forest (that’s what you get when you hire a former Pac-12 coach). This success is obviously due to Lashlee’s laid-back and chill demeanor.
This year, SMU ran a Heisman campaign for quarterback Kevin Jennings, “The King of Dallas.” He’s still vaguely in contention with +22500 odds at the time of this writing.
SMU also still holds the 3rd best odds of winning the ACC at +1000, behind Miami (-425) and Wake Forest (+700).
That is to say, Vegas oddsmakers think SMU is roughly on par with Wake Forest, which isn’t a great look after last week.
Let’s take a closer look.
Quarterback
This is the third year in a row that I get to cover QB Kevin Jennings (see here: 2024, 2025), as he enters his fourth season as a starter, since leading SMU to an AAC Championship as the starter in 2023 (right before SMU joined the ACC). His record as a starter since:
2023: 1-1
2024: 9-2 (Losses: Clemson in ACC Championship, Penn State in the CFP)
2025: 9-4 (Losses: Baylor, TCU, Wake Forest, … Cal)
2026: 5-1 (Losses: Louisville)
Because I’ve already covered Jennings so many times, I almost want to just regurgitate what I’ve said in previous years, with minor updates. Kevin Jennings’s biggest weakness in 2025 was his bum ankle, which severely limited his mobility (he went from 354 rushing yards in 2024 to 54 rushing yards in 2025), and took away a critical element of his game. Although Jennings looks to pass more and run it less, he still has the ability to run the ball, and he uses that threat to open up the pass game (much like WF QB Gio Lopez did last week as Wake Forest tore through Cal). To quote from my previous articles:
Jennings is a true dual-threat quarterback who excels in and out of the pocket, both on his feet and through the air. In fact, he excels at using either to avoid the blitz, which is one of his strengths.
Jennings excels at throwing on the run, but unlike other mobile quarterbacks, Jennings still does a good job of stepping into his throws when throwing from the pocket. Jennings has the arm strength, but he also shows good touch and anticipation by regularly hitting his receivers in stride (particularly on timing routes).
Another of Jennings’s specialties is his ability to avoid a sack and extend plays. He’s mobile, athletic, and difficult to tackle, and he uses that ability to find open receivers when most dual-threat quarterbacks would take off on the ground.
Jennings may face durability concerns at the next level, but he’s still an excellent college quarterback. He’s extremely athletic (like he can legitimately do a 360 dunk in basketball), he can throw from any angle, from the pocket or on the run, and he has that immeasurable improvisational ability to create plays when nothing is there.
Jennings is a high upside quarterback because of his mobility and throwing ability, and his ability to create explosive plays. NFL scouts will probably want to see him improve his footwork and fundamentals (stop throwing off the back foot, etc) and rely less on the Manziel-esque improv plays.
I mean, yeah, that’s a pretty good summary, and not a whole lot has changed since then. Jennings still does a great job extending plays with his legs:
Jennings can dance in the pocket all day if he decides:
Jennings does a good job of handling pressure and the blitz, and uses his escapability to make a nice play:
Here Jennings survives an all-out blitz and back-pedals for a lot longer than probably necessary to make this throw:
Jennings is extremely confident in his arm, and is not afraid to force throws into tight coverage. Here he fits a throw into a tiny window between defenders:
And he shows nice touch on his throws (also notice that the run game threat is what got this receiver open as the corner bites down on the fake):
Here’s another ridiculous throw by Jennings, off-balance, off-platform, and still perfect placement on the throw (and why I still consider it a highlight even if the receiver didn’t complete the catch):
SMU hasn’t leaned as heavily on the QB run game as they did in 2024, but they will still remind a team that it is there:
And of course, if you don’t account for Jennings at all, expect him to take off:
Jennings’s legs allow him to turn in positive gains even when he doesn’t have anyone open:
But most commonly, it’s just the threat of Jennings taking off that frees up his receivers for big plays:
Here the defense again bites down on the run fake, leaving both the corner and the safety way out of position for another big gain:
I think one of Jennings’s weaknesses this year was his tendency to play hero-ball when SMU fell behind, and he did too much to try to make things happen:
Another thing is (although I reported in a previous year that he can make throws rolling to his left), I’ve noticed him missing on a lot of throws when flushed out to his left this year. This I assume was a checkdown, but he misses on this throw:
Again Jennings rolls left and throws an ill-advised throw across his body into traffic, which probably should have been intercepted:
I also think Jennings can get overconfident in his throws, and a lot of his negative plays are Jennings forcing throws into coverage:
And again, I don’t know if this is an underthrow or overthrow (not clear on the intended receiver), but there’s a certain level of “throw it up and hope someone comes down with it” here:
Here the safety knows that Jennings is probably looking for the big play (back to hero-ball in a tight game), and reads Jennings the whole way:
I’m sure the hit affected this throw, but it also didn’t need to be thrown:
The backup QB, redshirt freshman Ty Hawkins, also has some shades of Jennings as well:
Also in the QB room is the 5th year senior Charlie Fiser (who has thrown 6 passes in his career) and true freshman Cole Leinart, Matt Leinart’s son.
Running back
SMU’s lead rusher is a player Cal fans should already know well: it’s Cal transfer RB Kendrick Raphael. You may also remember that he scored the game-winning touchdown that kept SMU out of the ACC championship game last year as well. He’s unsurprisingly having another productive season this year, and he’s currently on pace for a 1,000-yard season. Although Raphael isn’t exactly a homerun hitter, he’s just extremely reliably running through tacklers and turning 0-yard gains into 3-yard, 4-yard, etc gains. Raphael rarely goes down on first contact and often finds a way to turn something out of nothing. Raphael is a patient runner, adept at breaking tackles, and great at finding his running lane to consistently churn out positive yardage:
Although I feel like Raphael excels at a lot of inside runs, he can still break a run outside:
Raphael is decisive when finding his running lane:
And although Raphael seems more fit for short yardage situations, he can still turn in a big run with good blocks:
Raphael is not really big on making moves in open space (opting to run through tackles), but here is one example of Raphael dodging a tackler:
Here Raphael runs into a wall, but he always keeps his legs moving and looking for space:
I find that Raphael is generally a patient run with good vision, anticipating how his blocks will develop to find his lane:
Here Raphael makes a nice cut:
Behind Raphael is RB Dramekco Green, who has actually found a lot more success this season in the passing game (at the time of this writing, Green has 111 yards rushing and 111 yards receiving). Most of his big plays have seemingly come in the pass game, however. Here Green runs a nice wheel route:
And here Green again gets open on the wheel, but also makes a nice adjustment to an underthrow by Jennings:
And here Green shows some of his elusiveness in open space:
Behind these two is Derrick McFall, who is listed on the SMU roster as “WR/RB”, but I believe I’ve seen him take a lot more snaps at RB. Here he shows off some of his speed and elusiveness:
Here McFall sneaks out of the backfield for a big pass play:
And here McFall again makes use of his speed on this run to the outside:
A lot of the SMU run game will be QB Kevin Jennings scrambles and RB Kendrick Raphael power runs, as SMU will lean on the run game to keep drives moving.
Receivers
QB Kevin Jennings favorite target this year is SMU’s leading returning receiver, the slot receiver Yamir Knight. With Jordan Hudson and Romello Brinson lost to graduation, Knight has becoming Jennings’s primary receiver, leading the team in receiving yards and catches (with almost twice as many as the next leading receiver). Knight has been a reliable security blanket for Jennings, catching most everything thrown his way:
Here Knight does a good job of high-pointing the football and making the catch on a ball thrown a bit high:
And here I doubt Knight was even the intended target, but it just shows what a security blanket Knight has been, catching anything that falls his way:
The 5’8” 185 lbs receiver Knight is speedy, and will get involved in the run game on jet sweeps:
SMU will look to get Knight the ball in space:
Just to show how dangerous Knight can be in space, here he is returning a punt:
Another one of Jennings’s top targets this season is the tight end, Florida State transfer TE Randy Pittman Jr. The big-bodied tight end has stood out for his receiving ability and for his ability to create yards after the catch (primarily by running tacklers over):
Pittman Jr has a knack for picking up extra yards after contact:
And Pittman Jr does a good job of keeping his legs churning and falling forward to pick up extra yards:
However, Pittman Jr is still genuinely a receiving threat in the passing game as he is a talented receiver:
Here Pittman Jr runs a nice route and makes a nice catch on the low throw for the score:
SMU will also use Pittman Jr as a receiver on screen plays, and there’s not a lot of teams that will design screen passes specifically for their tight ends:
Another dangerous receiving threat is the other tight end, the Texas A&M transfer TE Theo Melin Öhrström. Melin Öhrström was a 4-star recruit coming out of Sweden (unsurprisingly, the #1 recruit in the “State” of Sweden. Also the only recruit listed from Sweden… but also the #1 recruit internationally), where he:
attended the RIG Football Academy in Uppsala, Sweden, a 30-student program aimed at developing players for the Swedish National American Football Team which participates in the European Championship of American Football and the IFAF World Championship of American Football.
I guess there’s always a market for enormous humans, wherever they are in the world (like this Danish guy I found while looking into Melin Öhrström’s background).
Melin Öhrström is definitely more of a receiving TE:
Here Melin Öhrström runs a nice route to get open in the endzone:
True sophomore WR-X Jalen Cooper has been a deep threat receiver for Jennings, often finding himself open deep down the field:
But Cooper has also shown the ability to create yards on shorter throws as well:
Also at the X-receiver position is Alabama transfer WR Jalen Hale. Hale has also been a deep threat receiver, and shown some pretty nice hands as well:
Hale also has plenty of speed and size to be a strong YAC receiver:
Here Hale again shows some of that speed and YAC ability:
At the Z-position is a bigger receiver, the 6’2” 208 lbs. Yannick Smith, a transfer from ECU. Smith has the size, athleticism, and ability to make plays after the catch:
But as someone who took up football late, he’s considered somewhat of a raw talent. His route running is a little raw and he can sometimes struggle to get separation, but his athleticism is what allow him to still make plays:
I don’t know if we’ll see him, but the freshman TE Zach Turner also showed some nice hands, and may be a factor in the future:
Jennings will have plenty of weapons all over the field.
Conclusion
I don’t have a ton of hope for this game, particularly after last week when we saw Wake Forest run through Cal using the gameplan I thought SMU would run this week. The Cal defense is going to need to learn from their mistakes in a hurry to prevent this one from turning into a blowout. I know Cal surprised SMU last year, but that was against a hobbled QB Kevin Jennings, and he seems to be 100% so far this season. If you have any ideas how to stop this offense, please forward them to the Cal coaching staff, because I don’t have a clue. Cal needs to shut down the run game (both Jennings and Kendrick), and cover receivers for an inordinately long time as Jennings buys time in the pocket, and maybe if SMU falls behind, Jennings will make some ill-advised throws into tight coverage. Alternatively, the threat of Jennings’s run game gets receivers wide open alone in their own zip code, and we see a 10+ yard per play average again this week (or whatever WF’s final number was, I zoned out after the first 4 TDs).
As always,
Go Bears.
You can find my full clips here.
Our team on the field is struggling but the team at WFC is doing great work. Thanks for this preview
Great write up. But OMG, just like I feared. I simply do not see how Cal can avoid being absolutely killed by another extremely mobile, dual threat QB with a complementary running game brought to us by a Cal football alum and a WR corps that is extremely good at getting separation and catching the ball. And they’ve got that monster of a guy from Sweden who is 6’6” and 250lbs. When he gets his hands on the ball, how is the Cal defense going to stop him? Road spikes? I’m sorry to have to keep repeating myself, but even JKS with all his skills isn’t going to save us from this onslaught. Prediction: SMU bench will see a lot of late game playing time.