NFL
By: Levy Johnigan
Every year when college football starts, we spend hours debating the top teams and players; it is a HUGE part of what makes the game great. One of the biggest debates is who wins the Heisman, and it for the most part he same blue-blood schools year after year. But this year in Dallas, there is a quarterback who has done more for his program than almost anyone: SMU’s Kevin Jennings.
The redshirt senior has the stats and career to back up this claim. He has 26 starts under his belt, helped SMU move into the ACC, played in a CFP game, and led the program’s first bowl win since 2012 after the Holiday Bowl victory. I wouldn’t call him flashy; I would say he is efficient, with good passing yardage and touchdown totals, and he will be the first to say he is determined to work on the turnovers.
That is the biggest reason he is stuck behind names like Arch Manning, Jermiah Smith, and the rest. To be a true Heisman dark horse, you don’t win with hype; you do it by stacking W’s. And he has something else that is dying slowly in college sports: loyalty.
That has built something special at SMU. School after school has tried to steal him, and he always says no. His coach, Rhett Lashlee, said, “He cemented his legacy as one of the greatest to ever play here at one of the most pivotal times in our history.”
The university took notice and did something I can recall has never been done before. It named a building after him while STILL in uniform. This past July we saw the Kevin Jennings Recovery Center, a performance center space inside the football complex. Two donors, Ann and Malcom Holland, funded it. Think about Texas Tech and Patrick Mahomes, Nebraska and Ndamukong Suh, who all waited for this honor but not Jennings.
He will be getting treatment in a building NAMED after him; how cool is that? He wanted to leave a thank you to the school that gave him so much, as well as the next generation of players. He has turned down bigger stages to finish what he started and not run at the first sign of hard times. Jennings will own all the SMU passing records when he hangs it up.
The oddsmakers may not see it, but for Kevin Jennings it’s not really about a trophy. This is a quarterback who picked his school over his own brand, and a program that decided to honor him before he finally chapter is written.
