What was he Thinking?

The No. 3 has significance for Romello Brinson. It also carries an urgency for the upcoming 2024 season.

SMU’s senior receiver enters his final year of competition trusting that a determined and tireless offseason provided the body type and upgrade in skill level to evolve into an elite receiver. Receivers coach Rob Likens believes Brinson has the makings to become one.

Will it be enough to develop into the alpha that has been talked about on The Hilltop going back to 2023? Well, that’s going to be determined as the story for these Mustangs begins to be told Aug. 24 in Reno, NV.

The emotional connection to that jersey number goes back to Brinson’s youth in Miami.

“One of my coach’s friends back in Miami. He wore No. 3,’’ Brinson said. “I knew him when we were playing at a boys and girls club. He passed away. I played with it at Miami. It just means a lot to me.”

Finality can motivate or spook an athlete simultaneously. This is it for Brinson. The end game for the work he put in between May and July must lead to productivity. It could also lead to him playing on Sundays in 2025.

SMU enjoyed the college football rarity of 2023 when seven different receivers collected 24 or more receptions for at least 370 yards. Keeping that group connected played a part in the Mustangs first conference championship in nearly 40 years.

To Likens and head coach Rhett Lashlee and players on this roster, there is still the belief this system can sustain success as the Mustangs prepare to play their first year in the ACC.

“We have six guys returning and combined, they have 6,500 reps of playing college football. I’ve never been around that before,’’ Likens said. “To me, I’ve always felt if I can get guy two guys with 50 reps that give their best, then all their reps should be high quality, high level. There’s not a guy out there tired because he’s loafing. He has to do it.’’

However, the stakes are higher for this program in its return to the big leagues. The excitement around Brinson and Jordan Hudson seems to be a bit more prominent.

If either or both emerge as those alphas and the rest of the corps complement, SMU’s passing game will validate what quarterback Preston Stone said at media days – the Mustangs will have the conference’s best receiving group.

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SMU has witnessed its share of alphas in past years between Rashee Rice, Danny Gray and James Proche’. I can’t include Reggie Roberson with his unfortunate injury history.

With Rice, Gray and Proche’, each possessed the intangibles that define the alpha. He wanted the ball all the time, especially when it was on the line. He looked forward to it. Pressure was a privilege.

“Anybody can catch a ball that’s in their cylinder, and it’s thrown on time, and they’re wide open and hits them in their chest,’’ Likens said. “What separates you from everybody else to make those wild catches, to make those ESPN highlight catches is when the ball is not thrown well at all.

“It’s either underthrown or overthrown. It’s thrown inside when it’s supposed to be outside and vice versa. But you make the quarterback right. Not only do you do that consistently, you enjoy doing that.”

Then it’s about bravado. A receiver wants to show everybody he can do it. Develop that kind of history and that receiver becomes that much more difficult to defend.

I asked Likens if the 2023 balance kept someone from emerging. He didn’t believe it did. It was a collection of guys who were coming from other programs and trying to get on the field and stay on the field. That was all the incentive they needed. Likens has seen this before. He enjoyed the luxury of several receivers playing well at Cal during the Jared Goff years.

But at any level of football, you eventually need that one to be the one. Championship teams are championship teams because they have one.

In the years I covered Baylor in the 2010s I saw it, especially with those Big 12 championship teams in 2013 and 2014. To name a few, Biletnikoff winner Corey Coleman and KD Cannon along with Terrance Williams (you’ll remember him with the Cowboys) and Kendall Wright shined. Wright and Coleman were NFL first-round draft picks.

Their 1,000-yard seasons told some of the story. All faced challenging secondaries led by Oklahoma and Texas. But those receivers embraced that challenge and produced. Williams’ career was defined by a last-second catch to beat Oklahoma in 2011. From there, he was just different. Coleman was different. Cannon was different.

And in my view, this is what SMU needs from either Brinson or Hudson or possibly both starting Sept. 6 against BYU through Thanksgiving weekend against Cal. Nothing against the likes of Moochie Dixon, Key’shawn Smith, Jake Bailey or Roderick Daniels. You just need that dude.

*****

The talk about Brinson is different now than what it was when he arrived at SMU. While there was a last-minute dalliance with Penn State, SMU brought Brinson in somewhat as an add-on for 2023. He was just a guy it seemed.

His history at Miami revealed disappointment. Talented. Couldn’t put it all together. A total of 14 catches for 189 yards in two seasons.

Brinson awoke somewhat in 2023 with 28-431 and two touchdown receptions that included a 74-yard strike against Tulsa, Still, he wasn’t being talked up. It still centered on Hudson.

To reach elite status, a receiver must master three levels of playing the position. According to Likens, the first sounds easy but isn’t. A receiver has to know what to do. If a receiver can’t surpass that level, then he can’t play fast, Liken said.

The second is how to do it. For instance, take a receiver who has a post curl rout. Instead of his mind racing with, “What do I have? Oh, I got a post curl.”, the receiver should be thinking instead of locating the defensive back and how he’s going to run that rout.

The third is simply playing fast. The first two levels are no longer in the thinking process when the receiver comes to the line of scrimmage. He’s more concerned about separation and getting the defensive back’s hips to turn the wrong way.

It can be a matter of if or when. With most receivers, it will remain if.

Likens knows of two experiences where the timing varied. With Rice, Likens said it took the Kansas City Chiefs 2023 2nd-round draft choice a few days.

At Miami with former Oklahoma and DFW product Charleston Rambo, it started poorly in the spring of 2021. Rambo couldn’t conquer the first level, Likens said.

However, growth in fall camp changed the narrative. Rambo started to clear those first two levels. By the middle of the season, Rambo took off and mastered the third. He set the single season program record for receptions (79) and receiving yards (1,172) and mixed in seven touchdowns. Rambo is now in the Canadian Football League with Montreal.

“It takes time,’’ Likens said. “You can actually see it with receivers. I can watch them and how long it takes them get lined up after the play is called and can tell what level they’re at.”

This is why there is excitement around Brinson who is now up to 190 pounds and just looks physically bigger. Test results – 11.3 in the broad jump and 38.5 in the vertical – created intrigue. But Likens believes Brinson has reached that final level. No. 3 has reached No. 3.

“I’m capable of a lot this year,’’ Brinson said. “Mainly, I want to take some of the quicker routes, hitches, screens and show that I can break tackles and get out of the tackle easily. I know I can be a deep threat when I need to be a deep threat. I can sit it down and play small. Whatever the case may be and take the little short routs and making it into a big play.”

SMU’s path toward ACC respectability will be through attrition, especially along the fronts. Yet the anticipation tied to Brinson will be a thing to watch. Should he and/or Hudson separate and become those dudes, the other receivers will prosper.

“I feel stronger and faster,’’ Brinson said. “The competition in our receiver group was amazing. Putting on the weight to feel bigger and stronger. Take on some of the blocks with the safety, linebacker, whatever the case may be.

“…I know I belonged with the guys I played with and faced against. I faced a lot of guys at Miami who are in the league right now. I love competition. I did the work this offseason.”

Another No. 3 hopes to enjoy the view.

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