DALLAS — SMU celebrated some history Saturday night, honoring Eric Dickerson and the 1982 “Pony Express” team that finished No. 2 in the country after beating Pitt and Dan Marino in the 1983 Cotton Bowl.
Then the Mustangs went out and made history.
SMU (8-1, 5-0 Atlantic Coast Conference) routed Pitt 48-25, becoming the first team to start 5-0 in their first season in a power conference. It marked the Mustangs’ first win over a team that was 7-0 or better since beating Arkansas in 1954 and the first home win in an AP-ranked matchup since beating Texas in 1949.
SMU, which scrambled to grab one of the last spots in realignment by offering the ACC a sweetheart deal to go without television revenue for nine years, now finds itself sitting atop the league’s standings after Clemson’s loss to Louisville, tied with Miami as the only two 5-0 teams in the conference.
“Our program belongs at this level and our program is capable of competing at a high level at this level, which we all believe,” SMU coach Rhett Lashlee said. “We had to go do it. We’re not done and we’ve not accomplished anything yet, but we put ourselves in a position in the middle of November where we’re competing for a conference championship in the ACC in our first year in the league.”