Day 1 SMU Football practice notebook
SMU Football hit the practice field for the first time in fall camp ahead of the 2023 season on Wednesday. How’d the Mustangs look? We dive into the early takeaways on the team.
It wasn’t much, but it was a good first day of work for the program as Year 2 of the Rhett Lashlee era begins.
“The competitive piece is a little bit hard to measure,” Lashlee told reporters after practice. “We’ve redone our practice fields so the setup’s different. Everybody seems to know where to go, there seems to be organization. The tempo, I’d like to be better, but we’ll get all those kind of things cleaned up. Nobody got hurt. Everybody seemed to know what they were doing and I feel like, again, nothing happened today that tells me we’re not on track.”
Position changes for SMU
We were wondering what the loss of Thalen Robinson to medical retirement and addition of Notre Dame transfer Caleb Johnson would mean for former Top 100 prospect PJ Williams. The former Texas A&M offensive lineman was at right tackle in the spring, but with Johnson on board, he was playing behind Marcus Bryant at left tackle. Johnson was behind Hyrin White at right tackle on Day 1.
TCU transfer defensive back Kyron Chambers played cornerback for the Horned Frogs, but as we thought, did line up at safety during the team period. He’s got the size and athleticism to be a force out there.
While he’s still working out with the offensive line in drills, Stone Eby is trying his hand at H-Back, playing behind Elijah Chatman at that spot when SMU goes heavy.
Play-by-play
*** SMU quarterback Preston Stone opened the first play of fall camp with a bomb down the right sideline to Moochie Dixon. Dixon had another good catch deep on a play, continuing his strong play as he ran with the 1s some. Stone’s arm wasn’t overly sharp, but he did show improved arm strength on his deep passes.
*** Quarterback Kevin Henry-Jennings bounced back from a top 7-on-7 portion of practice to have a great team period and had two terrific throws to cap 7-on-7. He hit Key’Shawn Smith on a deep ball and had a receiver drop a deep ball on another throw.
*** Cornerback Jahari Rogers made a nice play on a pass intended for Dixon. SMU’s secondary was a bit stickier in coverage on Wednesday. The Mustangs added Keyshon Mills and Chambers to the mix this summer, only adding to the revamped look.
*** Roderick Daniels made a great catch over the middle from a low Stone pass. Slot Jake Bailey was hit on a similar crossing route later on, displaying his smooth route running.
*** Running back Camar Wheaton built on a strong summer, making some strong catches in traffic during practice. Wheaton added good weight and strength this summer and it showed on Day 1.
Additional notes:
*** Freshman defensive end Braeden Flowers was working off to the side with trainers doing some light work during practice. He didn’t have a non-contact jersey on, but wasn’t a full participant.
*** Freshman tight end Adam Moore is huge. He’s a big body that looks like he can physically help SMU right away. The majority of the freshmen worked on their own in a split-practice situation and we’ll have more on them this week in our Freshman Report.
*** Tight end Gage Haskin has accepted a job offer and is no longer on the team. He’ll be graduating from SMU and starting his career.
*** 2023 wide receiver signee Randy Reece is going to grey shirt as he recovers from injury and his clock will start in the spring. Lashlee said it worked out for everybody so he can recover and not start his clock.
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