Everyone is having fun when SMU plays defense this season. That includes the players celebrating turnovers at Club Takeaway and the fans watching their team hold opponents under 22 points a game.

Everyone except defensive coordinator Scott Symons, that is.

“Calling plays on Saturdays is four hours of gut-wrenching hell,” Symons said. 

It’s a responsibility that winds Symons up into a ball of nerves so tight he has to pull an all-nighter eating pizza on the couch watching SportsCenter after a game before he can rest. His players put so much effort all week into performing on Saturday night, and up in the booth, it’s his job to ensure they’re placed in the best position to succeed so their efforts aren’t in vain.

The pressure he puts on himself makes his preparation elite. Symons is a military history buff, claiming to have seen every documentary on World War II at least 10 times. He even did six weeks of Marine Officer boot camp after graduating college. And while he’s not a drill sergeant personality-wise, his game plans resemble those of a general. If his players wind up in a situation that hasn’t been covered, he’s failed. 

Symons’ tacticianship is leading the Mustang Industrial Complex at SMU. In seven of the 10 years pre-Symons, the Mustangs ranked in the triple-digits nationally in scoring defense. The armament started last year in the American Athletic Conference when they ranked 11th in the nation allowing 17.8 points per game. But SMU’s now warring with college football superpowers in the ACC and winning.

Before the 2024 season, no program jumping from G5 to P4 competition had ever gone 2-0 in conference play. SMU is now 5-0 and controls its own destiny to the ACC Championship Game, largely thanks to a defense ranking first in the conference in rushing yards allowed per game.

“At SMU, we’ve been known as an offensive school,” head coach Rhett Lashlee said after beating Pitt. “And, a lot of times, that doesn’t come with toughness. Now, we really believe that we’re a tough team on offense, but our defensive guys, starting last year, changed the culture of SMU football from a defensive standpoint.”

Lashlee hired Symons from Liberty because Symons had figured out how to coach a top-20 national defense despite Hugh Freeze’s up-tempo offense forcing the unit to play 80-to-90 snaps. But that first season on the Hilltop resembled his first season at Liberty - a trying time.

Symons arrived in December with a lot of pride in winning in his hometown, Dallas-Fort Worth, but no time to recruit before the first season. The Mustangs surrendered 33.8 points per game, giving up 63 against Houston.

“The mountain top is never that great if the climb is not that hard,” Symons said.

The two concrete aspects of the defense that changed to create the abstract ‘tough’ culture are defensive line recruiting and turnover creation. 

Symons has had success everywhere - from Division II Harding University to FCS West Georgia to Liberty - due to a dominant defensive line. And a dominant defensive line is only possible if a coach can rotate multiple platoons. Symons says a defensive lineman playing 58 snaps is physically harder than a defensive back playing 70. The staff had to recruit enough players to allow each to play 50.

Isaiah Smith, who leads the Mustangs with 4.5 sacks, is the only player remaining who was recruited by previous head coach Sonny Dykes. Symons added Second Team All-Texas defensive end Elijah Roberts (Miami) and Cam Robertson (North Texas) before the 2023 season. But he overhauled the position group this offseason, adding eight defensive linemen from P4 schools ahead of the ACC schedule.

This is not a group of mercenaries, however. Jahfari Harvey, who played at Miami while Lashlee was the offensive coordinator, leads SMU with seven tackles for loss and had the field goal block that allowed an overtime win over Duke. Starters Roberts and Jared Harrison-Hunte were also at Miami with Lashlee. Linebacker Ahmad Walker was a freshman starter at Liberty under Symons.

The process proved successful on October 5, against No. 22-ranked Louisville. SMU stuffed Louisville on a third-and-1 run to force fourth down in the red zone. Louisville could have kicked a field goal to take a three-point lead. Instead, it tried to flex on the ACC newcomer with another run. No gain. SMU ball.

“It felt like a, ‘Hey, we’re the ACC runner-up, we’re going to run it again on you,’ kind of moment,” Symons said after the game. “Our guys bowed up and showed them who's boss in that game.”

Not only is the SMU defense preventing points, but they’re also scoring themselves. The Mustangs are tied for second in the nation with four defensive touchdowns, and scored three non-offensive touchdowns in a 66-42 win over TCU. 

Every Friday night before the game, Symons will show a compilation of plays where the opposing quarterback is loose with the football. The mission, however, doesn’t stop when SMU gets the turnover. 

“We tell them, ‘You’re not allowed to go out of bounds unless it’s an end-of-game scenario,’” Symons said. “I tell them they can cross the field. You’re not robots. They have five guys that shouldn’t be able to tackle you on the field. And the sixth, the quarterback, most of the time doesn’t want to tackle you.”

Prime example: Linebacker Kobe Wilson’s 82-yard pick-six in the ACC opener against Florida State, which Lashlee called the best football play he’s ever seen.

Defense is fun on the Hilltop again, even if Symons isn't having any from the coaches' booth. That's why SMU is contending for an ACC Championship.