Way-too-early 2026 opponent preview: A brief, impactful history for Virginia and SMU

The NCAA changed significantly when Cal, Stanford and SMU joined the ACC in 2024. But in just a few years, the Mustangs have made their impact in a Power Four conference.

Virginia has built a short yet meaningful history with SMU. It continues in 2026.

The 2026 matchup — a massive game

At the moment, the three frontrunners in the ACC are clearly Miami, SMU, and Virginia. The gap between the Hurricanes and the rest of that crew could be sizable, which makes the Cavaliers-Mustangs game in Dallas, Texas, an incredibly important ACC matchup.

This game marks the start of the second half of the season for Virginia. Before this pivotal contest, the Cavaliers host NC State and Norfolk State, face West Virginia on a neutral site, host Delaware, travel to Florida State, and play one more home game against Syracuse. The Cavaliers will aim to finish that stretch at 5-1 or 6-0.

A win or loss at SMU could be the difference between Virginia reaching the ACC Championship game, and missing out on a chance to earn a College Football Playoff spot. The Cavaliers will hope to earn a win in their first game at Gerald J. Ford Stadium, which is their second-ever battle against the Mustangs.

The first one did not go so well.

Last time out, No. 13 SMU won 33-7 at Scott Stadium. The Mustangs sacked Anthony Colandrea nine times and held Virginia to 173 total yards. Kevin Jennings threw for a career-best 323 yards along with two touchdowns. The Cavaliers were shut out for three quarters. Of the ugly defeats they suffered in 2024, though, this one was particularly important.

The 2024 blowout, more consequential than it seems

From a distance, it would be easy to look at the loss SMU handed the Cavaliers in 2024 as nothing more than a meaningless blowout. However, that is not an apt description. For the Mustangs, that win clinched an appearance in the ACC Championship game. For Virginia, that defeat kept the Cavaliers at five wins — just one short of a bowl game. The Cavaliers then lost to Virginia Tech and missed out on a bowl game.

If SMU was upset by Virginia, it still would have reached Charlotte, N.C. — the Mustangs went 8-0 in ACC play that year. However, if the Cavaliers authored a shocking victory, they would have reached bowl eligibility. Perhaps 2024 would have been known as “the breakthrough year” instead of 2025. Maybe Virginia would have held on to Malachi Fields, Colandrea and other eventual transfers.

The Mustangs went on to lose the ACC title to Clemson, but reached the CFP anyway as the No. 11 seed. They lost 38-10 at No. 6 seed Penn State in the first round. Regardless of the result, reaching the CFP was a remarkable achievement by Coach Rhett Lashlee and his program.

The SMU rundown

In 2025, the Mustangs had the ACC’s third-best offense and fourth-best defense. However, they did not make it to Charlotte because they lost a bizarre five-way tie for second place in the conference. SMU would not have been in that scenario had it not been for a shocking, last-second upset loss at Cal during the final week of the regular season.

The loss at Cal opened the door for Duke to earn a spot in the conference title game, even though the Blue Devils had the fewest overall wins of the five-way tie. The ACC tiebreaker does not consider the overall record of teams.

Now, in 2026, Jennings is still the starting quarterback, joined by NC State transfer Kendrick Raphael in the backfield at running back. Other than Raphael, the Mustangs' offense features abundant continuity. The defense is a different story.

Defensively, SMU is expected to start more newcomers than returners. Most of those transfer additions are mid-major starters, or unheralded reserves from Power Four programs. The Mustangs are hoping they can replicate a strong performance on that side of the ball in 2025. They will need a strong defensive effort to defeat Virginia.

Epilogue: An interlude on the soccer pitch

One more note, less related to football — SMU won its first ACC title in any sport this year, which came in men’s soccer. They won the championship over Virginia. I was covering that championship game between the Cavaliers and Mustangs, and asked Coach Kevin Hudson about his program’s achievement. Here is what he said:

“I still think there’s this connotation within the media or within the league that [the Mustangs] are outsiders and we don’t belong. I mean, from football, to basketball, to volleyball, to men’s soccer, like you get down the list, we freaking belong. And, yeah, it's our second year [in the ACC]. But we finished fourth in the league last year, and we lost in the Elite Eight. You know, we finished seventh in the league this year.

We win the tournament. It'll be somewhere in the top eight, for sure, hopefully in the top four the NCAA tournament. Like this whole like connotation from everybody that like, ‘Man, you guys are really out kicking your coverage’ is bulls**t. We deserve it. This program has been a top 10 program for 50 years. So, long before I was the head coach, long before I played at SMU, the history and tradition of this program is wonderful. There are so many really good players and people who have done awesome things that have come through. Yeah, we deserve it. We deserve to be in the moment.

This program deserves to be here. We didn't wear ACC on our sleeve [before joining the league]. But it's not like, ‘hey, we joined the ACC now we can play with these guys.’ We beat these guys three years ago, and we did it, you know. So yeah, I'm proud of us, proud of the moment. I'm proud of the guys. But yeah, I hope we get to the day that people aren't like, ‘man, congratulations. SMU, they joined the ACC. They're playing above their weight.’

Come on, man. The whole university, the momentum of the University, the athletic department, the resources that are being poured in [matter]. This is the expectation. We want to win titles. We're not here because we want to compete and see what we can do in the ACC. We've proven we can do it, and now we want to win trophies.”

Obviously, men’s soccer and football are different sports, but the sentiment expressed by Hudson is shared by other programs, including Lashlee’s football team. SMU is out to demonstrate that it is not “one of the little guys.”

In its quest to do so, it snatched a men’s soccer ACC title away from the Cavaliers. I have seldom seen a coach go on a tangent as passionate as the one Hudson did to a postgame press conference of two reporters inside a room that felt like Harry Potter’s bedroom under the stairs.

The football sequel could be a fiery one.

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