SMU’s Rhett Lashlee shares similar sentiments to Penn State’s James Franklin on transfer portal

The weather in Dallas doesn’t come close to mirroring what’s in store for No. 11 seed SMU on Saturday when it travels to sixth-seeded Penn State’s Beaver Stadium for a first-round College Football Playoff matchup (noon, TNT/Max). But with temperatures expected to be in the 20s by kickoff, SMU coach Rhett Lashlee is approaching the game with an NFL mindset.

The road to the Super Bowl typically goes through places like Arrowhead Stadium (home of the Kansas City Chiefs), Buffalo, and Lambeau Field (Green Bay Packers), Lashlee said. And he’s emphasizing that to his players in preparation for the weather being a factor on Saturday.

“Here’s the deal: they’re playing in the same weather we are. They got to play in it just like we do,” Lashlee said Tuesday during a news conference. “I don’t think they played a game on Dec. 21 at home before, either. So I don’t think the weather is a big deal. I know our guys do, and I know their guys do aspire to play in the NFL. They aspire to play championship playoff football, which we’re getting to do right now. … The weather is only going to be an issue if we allow it to be an issue.”

» READ MORE: Penn State’s prep for SMU shaken a bit by quarterback developments

In addition to downplaying the weather, the 41-year-old Lashlee did not mince words regarding college football’s transfer portal and its effect on teams like SMU and Penn State.

On Monday, Penn State coach James Franklin questioned the motives of college football’s decision-makers, asking, “Who is really running college football and making the best decisions for our student-athletes?” The inquiry was in reference to his backup quarterback, Beau Pribula, recently entering the portal. Franklin suggested that college football should have its own commissioner as a way to combat having the transfer portal open in the middle of the college football postseason.

Lashlee shared similar sentiments on the subject and offered a solution.

“There’s no other sport at all that has free agency in the season,” Lashlee said. “You hear the story about [Penn State’s] backup quarterback saying, ‘I don’t have a choice.’ That’s wrong. That’s unacceptable. That’s not OK. He shouldn’t have to make that decision. Preston [Stone, SMU’s backup quarterback] here is doing the same thing now. He has chosen to stay with us, and we’re working with him, but it’s still a juggling act for him. Oh, and let’s not forget, they’re [taking] finals right now.

“Let’s call it like it is. People are bombarding our roster, trying to pick people off our roster. We’re trying to focus on the playoff. … Don’t have a transfer portal in December. Go to the spring.”

» READ MORE: TNT analysts Champ Bailey and Takeo Spikes believe Penn State will defend its home turf vs. SMU

The third-year Mustangs coach added that with moving the transfer portal to the spring, college football could adopt the NFL scheduling model of “having OTAs after the portal window closes, as they do after the [NFL] draft.”

SMU’s defensive plan will start and end with keeping multiple sets of eyes on Penn State’s Tyler Warren, the John Mackey Award winner as college football’s top tight end. The 6-foot-6, 261-pound Warren is Penn State’s leading receiver and has set several program records along the way.

On Monday, Nittany Lions offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki called Warren a “unicorn” and continues to envision his second-team AP All-American tight end in multiple ways.

“Our imagination is basically our limitation when working with him, and moving forward, that’s kind of how it will be as well,” he said.

Lashlee expects Warren “to still get his [catches],” despite the game plan that SMU employs.

“He’s a matchup problem,” he said. “If you play man, he’s definitely a matchup problem. If you play zone, he’s still a matchup problem probably because he’s so big. Whether you have one guy, two guys on him, [Penn State does] a really good job of moving him around. He plays a bunch of different places. … We hope that we can keep him from [touchdowns and explosive plays], but he’s special. There’s a reason he won the Mackey Award. He’s got a big-time NFL career ahead of him, so we’ve definitely got to be aware of where he is.”

The Mustangs also are preparing for Penn State’s rushing attack, which is led by backfield duo Kaytron Allen and Nicholas Singleton. While Lashlee was Miami’s offensive coordinator, he remembers recruiting Allen and called the Norfolk, Va., native a “big, physical back.”

Saturday’s matchup will feature SMU’s fourth-ranked rushing defense against Penn State’s 19th-ranked rushing offense. The Nittany Lions rushed for 292 yards against Oregon in the Big Ten championship game. Allen and Singleton accounted for 229 of those yards.

» READ MORE: What awaits Penn State in its playoff test with SMU? Here’s the rundown on the high-scoring Mustangs.

“Both of those guys have done a really nice job for [Penn State], and they complement each other with that one-two punch,” Lashlee said. “They end up running the same couple of run plays over and over. It’s just they window-dress it and get to it a bunch of different ways. And so whether they shift in motion or give you unique pictures to still run inside zone or counter or stretch or whatever the run plays are, to them, they’re running the same plays over and over again, but to the defense, they’re presenting different pictures.”