Rhett Lashlee Smu

Sure look, here's the thing about Rhett Lashlee and his SMU Mustangs: the man took a programme that most Americans couldn't find on a map and marched it straight into the ACC, won the bleedin' conference's regular season in his first year, and made the College Football Playoff committee choke on their cornflakes. For a nation of culchies raised on the noble art of Gaelic football, it's the closest thing to watching a junior B hurling team waltz into Croke Park and give Kilkenny a right hiding. The man is a genius, and his team is pure craic to watch — every single Saturday.

Designing the Offence Like a Master Set Builder

Set and exhibit designers sketching out an elaborate stage plan, much like an offensive coordinator drawing up a playbook

Lashlee is, at his core, a designer. Give him a blank sheet of paper and a fistful of markers and he'll draw you an offence that'd make a Broadway set builder weep with envy. Every single play is a piece of scenery: the run game is the sturdy backdrop, the play-action is the trapdoor, and the deep ball is the chandelier that comes crashing down just when the opposition thinks it's safe. SMU's attack under Lashlee is like a theatrical production where the band never stops playing and the orchestra pit is on fire — in a good way. He took a Group of Five outfit and turned it into a show the big boys now stay up late studying, for fear of being shown up in front of their own crowd. It's meticulous, it's fearless, and it's working an absolute treat.

All the World's a Stage, and the Mustangs Are the Headline Act

Elaborate theatrical stage design bathed in dramatic lights, a nod to the spectacle SMU brings to every ACC showdown

And sure, wasn't the ACC Championship against Clemson the finest stage of all? Dallas might not be the West End, but Lashlee's Mustangs lit that field up like a panto on opening night. The scoreboard glowed like a Christmas tree on Grafton Street, and for a good while it looked like the Tigers were heading home with their tails between their legs. It didn't end the way the SMU faithful wanted — the football gods can be right hoor's sometimes — but by Jaysus, the performance was box office from start to finish.

Here's what has the rest of the ACC worried sick: Lashlee isn't going anywhere, and neither is that playbook. He's been recruiting like a man possessed, the quarterback room is stacked to the rafters, and the culture he's built in Dallas is among the best in the country. The man talks about football the way a poet talks about a sunset, only with more spread formations and fewer sonnets. If you haven't jumped on the SMU bandwagon yet, do yourself a favour: find a stream, pour yourself a proper cuppa, and watch a team that plays like it's having the time of its life. It's grand, it's bold, and it's only just getting started.