Transfer Express: Behind SMU football's return to national relevance

Sonny Dykes didn't know what to expect. How could he? After countless hours spent studying, researching, and vetting new players, he entered fall camp with more than 60 new faces on his SMU roster compared to a year ago.

"You don't really know how all those pieces are going to fit together," Dykes said in a phone interview. "You don't know how the chemistry of the team is going to be affected."

By the third week of fall camp, though, Dykes had an idea. He liked how his offense could win one day and his defense could come back and win the next day. He liked the way the returning players and newcomers competed for playing time. The hodgepodge roster combined experience with talent. When the Mustangs took the field for their season opener at Arkansas State, they started six FBS transfers alongside six returning seniors.

They won that difficult road game 37-30 to begin the season. At that point, Dykes thought, this team could be pretty good.

Historically good? That would have been hard to predict.

For the first time in 33 years, SMU is ranked (15th in the most recent Associated Press Top 25). And for the first time since the NCAA imposed the so-called death penalty on the program in 1987, the Mustangs are nationally relevant.

The Mustangs improved to 8-0 last week against Houston. This week, they travel to No. 24 Memphis, where the program will be highlighted as ESPN's College GameDay hosts its show from Beale Street. As one of two undefeated Group of 5 teams, SMU is in the driver's seat for a New Year's Six bowl berth - perhaps in the Cotton Bowl at AT&T Stadium, 23 miles from SMU's Dallas campus. A win Saturday would also give SMU a two-game lead in the AAC West.

The most remarkable part is how fast it has all come together for Dykes' program in his second season at the helm. SMU was 5-7 a year ago. And despite its presence in Dallas-Fort Worth, a football recruiter's haven, the program entered 2019 with just five winning seasons in the last 30 years.

This year's team took advantage of its location in an unconventional way by utilizing the transfer portal to bring local players back home. SMU's starting quarterback (Shane Buechele), leading receiver (Reggie Roberson), and top two tacklers (Richard McBryde and Patrick Nelson) are all transfers. Buechele and Roberson grew up in the area.

The first step, though, was hiring Dykes, a 49-year-old Texas native and the son of longtime Texas Tech head coach Spike Dykes. He took the job last year after Chad Morris (14-23 in three seasons) left for Arkansas. Sonny was coming off a four-year run at California (19-30), but the deep connection he felt to SMU made him a natural fit.

Growing up, Dykes was a fan of the Mustangs. In 1982, for his 13th birthday, Dykes asked his dad to take him to the Texas Tech-SMU game (Spike coached Midland Lee High School at the time, south of Lubbock). Father and son were in the building for an absolute classic. SMU, ranked No. 2 at the time, won 34-27 when Bobby Leach picked up a loose lateral on a kick return and returned it 91 yards with 4 seconds left.

"I just kind of grew up an SMU fan, loved the program - the Pony Express days and those guys were fun to watch," Dykes said.

SMU missed out on a bowl game by one win last season, losing to Memphis and Tulsa in consecutive weeks to end its year. In addition to signing a recruiting class of 19 players, Dykes set out to strengthen the team's depth - and solve its weaknesses - by pursuing transfers who wanted to come to Dallas.

Dykes said SMU has two advantages when it comes to the transfer market: the number of players from the area who want to play close to home and SMU's well-regarded master's degree program. According to 247Sports, SMU added 16 transfers this offseason.

The big name, of course, was Buechele. SMU lost its all-time leader in passing yards when Ben Hicks graduated and rejoined Morris at Arkansas after last season. Dykes identified Buechele as his top choice as a transfer quarterback.

A former four-star recruit from Arlington, Buechele was seen as a savior of sorts at Texas after leading the Longhorns over Notre Dame in his first career start in 2016. Three years and one coaching change later, though, he ended the 2018 season as Sam Ehlinger's backup and decided to find a new home for his final two seasons of eligibility.

Dykes recruited Buechele while still at Cal. He also coached against him when Buechele was a freshman (Cal won 50-43).

"I just loved the way he handled being the starting quarterback at Texas," Dykes said. "That's a tough thing to do as a true freshman. He just accepted that role remarkably well, had a lot of success doing it. His skill set fit our offense and our personnel really well. I think the most important thing was I knew what kind of person he was and what kind of leader he was. The more we recruited him, the more we got to know him, the more that sold us. He was just the perfect guy. He could provide the leadership and maturity that our program needed."

Through eight games, Buechele's 2,325 passing yards rank ninth in the country. Two weeks ago, he threw six touchdown passes in a win over Temple. Dating back to his time at Texas, he enters Saturday having won 11 consecutive starts.

But Buechele isn't the only transfer driving the Mustangs. McBryde, the leading tackler, was a four-star recruit who spent four seasons at Auburn. He was a backup in 2016 and 2017, but he missed last season because of a herniated disc.

SMU took a chance on him, and he has seven or more tackles in five consecutive games.

FBS transfers on SMU's depth chart

Roberson, the receiver, transferred from West Virginia in the summer of 2018 to be closer to home. His 803 receiving yards in 2019 - at a blistering 18.7 yards per catch - rank eighth nationally. He complements James Proche (61 catches, 692 yards), who signed with SMU out of high school, quite well.

Nelson, who began his career at Illinois, is second to Ohio State's Chase Young in sacks with 10.

Ten FBS transfers dot SMU's depth chart for Saturday's game against Memphis on the offense and defense, with seven listed as projected starters. Four of the 10 were four-star recruits out of high school. That's another way SMU benefits from the transfer portal.

"We're going to build our program around high school players, but at the same time, it allows us to address some needs in specific places … and it allows us to get some kids who we might not otherwise be able to get," Dykes said. "We've got some kids that transferred in that were some of the top players at their position in the country coming out of high school that we probably couldn't get on the front end that we're able to get on the back end.

"If we can develop them and bring them along, we have a chance to really have some unique athletes in our program. There is that balancing act that you have to do between building the program with young kids and at the same time being able to add some real difference-makers when you have the opportunity."

At this point in the season, each victory sets a new milestone for the Mustangs' post-death-penalty period. After the NCAA canceled SMU's football program in 1987 - which, in turn, caused SMU to cancel its 1988 season - it rebooted in 1989 as a shell of its former self. The Mustangs won eight games just twice in the last 30 years (2009 and 2011). They haven't won more than that since 1984.

SMU drew attention early this season for the flashy "Dallas" uniforms the team wore when it defeated TCU, located in Fort Worth, for the first time in eight years. As its run has continued, the Mustangs have embraced becoming one of college football's darlings in 2019.

"It's really gratifying for your players," Dykes said.

"I think it's so important for young people to get recognized and to get appreciated. I'm excited for it - really, for them.

"When you coach for 25 years like I have been, I've been really smart many times, I've been really dumb many times. I've been a terrible coach, I've been a good coach. A lot of it just depends on what kind of team you have," Dykes said. "I don't get caught up in all that stuff. I don't care one way or another. … I'm OK without a lot of recognition, but our players, it's really important to them. It is. It means a lot to them."

Mark Cooper is theScore's NCAA writer.