SMU Locks Down Rhett Lashlee With Contract Extension and Big Raise

Stephen Douglas | Oct 31, 2025

SMU gave Rhett Lashlee a contract extension for the second straight season. / Jerome Miron-Imagn Images

Rhett Lashlee isn't going anywhere. The SMU head coach is signing a two-year contract extension with the school and getting a raise that will make him "one of the top-10 highest-paid coaches in the country" according to Ross Dellenger of Yahoo! Sports.

The new deal will keep Lashlee with SMU through the 2032 season, per ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg.

Considering the fact that Lashlee just signed an extension with SMU last November, you have to assume that one of the schools looking for a big name to replace someone like say, James Franklin at Penn State or Brian Kelly at LSU, must have given Lashlee a call. The Mustangs did whatever it took to keep him in Texas.

If Lashlee is going to be one of the top 10 highest-paid coaches in the country, that means he's going to make more than the $9 million that Ole Miss's Lane Kiffin, Missouri's Eliah Drinkwitz, Tennessee's Josh Heupel and Kentucky's Mark Stoops are being paid.

Lashlee took over as head coach at SMU in 2022. The Mustangs went 11-3 in his second and third seasons with the school making its first appearance in the expanded College Football Playoff in 2024 in their first season in the ACC.

The two highest-paid coaches in the conference before Lashlee's latest extension were Bill Belichick at North Carolina ($10.1 million) and Dabo Swinney at Clemson ($11.4 million).

SMU is off to a 5-3 start this season, but 34-15 overall through four seasons under Lashlee. With overall results like that, it's no wonder the school's leadership has decided he's the perfect fit. And now he's locked down through 2032.

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