Former Arkansas football player named Head Coach at SMU
A former Arkansas football player was announced as the new head football coach at Southern Methodist University in the American Athletic Conference, according to a report from The Athletic.
Rhett Lashlee, who walked on as a quarterback for Arkansas in the early 2000s will be taking over for the freshly vacant position at SMU.
Lashlee, 38, takes over for Sonny Dykes who served as coach of SMU from 2017-2021. Dykes has accepted a head coaching position with Texas Christian University in the Big 12.
Former Arkansas football walk-on named head coach at SMU
A native of Springdale, Ark., Lashlee played QB at Springdale High School under then-head coach Gus Malzahn.
Lashlee played for the Hogs for one season in 2003 as a walk-on, recording one pass attempt against Tulsa early in the season.
He became a Quarterbacks Coach at his high school alma mater from 2004-2005. He then made the trek over to Fayetteville to be a Graduate Assistant for the Hogs for the 2006 season while Malzahn was an Offensive Coordinator under Houston Nutt.
Lashlee followed Malzahn to Arkansas State in 2012 to be his Offensive Coordinator and Quarterbacks coach and then to Auburn when Malzahn became their head football coach. Lashlee was the Auburn Offensive Coordinator and QB Coach from 2013-2016.
Lashlee spent time as Offensive Coordinator for UConn (2017), SMU (2018-2019) and Miami (2020-21).
The young coach has been building his resume and has spent time under coaches Houston Nutt, Gus Malzahn, Sonny Dykes and Manny Diaz.
Lashlee will likely continue running the up-tempo, spread-offense that he’s been known for and learned from Gus Malzahn.
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