CHARLOTTE – Bill Armstrong threw on his black duster jacket and excused himself from the McCormick & Schmick’s in Uptown Charlotte, walked the half mile to the SMU team hotel at the Westin, loaded into a car with Mustang head coach Rhett Lashlee, his wife Lauren, and Director of Football Ops Josh Nash, and drove the three miles to a Cook Out on Freedom Drive to see their friend Carlesa. 

Armstrong left a steak dinner with former Pony Express members Craig James and Lance McIlhenny to pick up and deliver 100 hamburgers and 100 cheeseburgers – and a mint chocolate chip shake for Lauren – to the Mustang football team playing in the ACC Championship game the next day. A promise made. A promise kept.  

The catering fell through for Armstrong’s jet on July 22, 2024 as the SMU contingent that included Armstrong himself, the Lashlee’s, Nash, and the four players representing the newly Power Four Ponies at the yearly media day car wash headed toward the private hanger. They needed food. Quickly. Athletes like Elijah Roberts and Kevin Jennings need food. 

Nash found a Cook Out en route to the private airport where Air Armstrong was ready to whisk Lashlee back to Coaching School in San Antonio, a yearly pilgrimage for every football coach in Texas – high school and college. Lashlee drove the first SUV with his wife in the backseat and Armstrong in the passenger. Nash and the players were a car behind. Everyone ordered burgers. Lauren Lashlee out ordered everyone and added a mint chocolate chip shake. 

Carlesa was working the window at the Cook Out on Freedom Drive that afternoon and could tell these customers had a story. She began to ask Lashlee and Armstrong questions. They told her Lashlee was security for Armstrong, who was the head coach at SMU. She asked when they were coming back. 

What happened next became SMU lore. 

“December 7th,” Lashlee said assuredly. The date of the ACC championship game. 

“What happens December 7th?” Carlesa asked. 

“Other than Pearl Harbor?” Armstrong asked rhetorically. “We’ll be playing a football game.” 

Will you come back to see me?” 

“Carlesa, if we’re back here on December 7th,” Armstrong said, “the whole team will come back to see you.” 

Qualifying for the ACC championship in Year 1 as a Power Four member is one thing. Coordinating a 200-burger order on a Friday night with a few days’ notice is another.  Armstrong reached out to Nash to get the ball rolling. Turns out it's difficult convincing a fast-food chain that it is not a prank when a college football team from Dallas wants to order 200 burgers on a random Friday night in December.

Eventually Nash and Armstrong’s assistants reached corporate and directed them to the correct Cook Out franchise. And that led to Armstrong receiving Carlesa’s cell phone number. She immediately returned Armstrong’s call after his message reminding her of that promise he made in July. A promise no one believed would come true for an SMU squad picked 7th in the ACC. 

The arrangements were made and the $1,000 worth of burgers were purchased. But there was a hitch: The parking lot at the Cook Out on Freedom Drive wasn’t big enough for multiple charter busses packed with football players and staffers. Plus, where would everyone sit to eat? So, Armstrong, the Lashlee’s, and Nash played Uber Eats and picked up the burgers and said hello to the newest SMU fan. The Mustangs hooked her up with five free tickets to the game against Clemson.  

The 200 burgers were loaded into the back of the SMU rental car and brought back to the Westin for the players to eat as they enjoyed a laidback Friday night filled with Uno, cards, and video games. Armstrong told Nash to drop him off at McCormick & Schmick’s on the way back to the team hotel. He could still get a steak and drink wine with former greats and key figures to SMU’s athletic resurgence such as Richard Ware and Connie O’Neill.

Armstrong wasn’t always the Grand Pooba for SMU football. He graduated from SMU in 1982 with his wife Liz and a lifetime of memories. He said he walked by the student pool on campus during his visit and turned down Stanford to attend SMU. The area that pool sat is now home to the Armstrong Fieldhouse next to Ford Stadium. 

His daughter, Leigh, bucked sibling tradition and attended SMU. Armstrong had raised his family in Denver and assumed the next phase of his life would be centered in Nashville because his other kids went to Vanderbilt and began setting roots. His wife, Liz, is from New Orleans. Leigh’s enrollment at SMU brought Armstrong back to the campus he loved. And the scars were healed enough for him to help put SMU football back on the national stage.

The burgers were a small price to pay for something Armstrong says is 40 years in the making. The Pony Express is back – literally. For decades greats like James and McIlhenny and Eric Dickerson were casted into the shadows by college football and even factions of SMU. All three will be at Bank of America Stadium on Saturday night for the program’s biggest game since the early 1980’s. 

The new reality of NIL provides us with a fresh outlook at the past. It also allows Armstrong to make an impact on young men’s lives with money and networks and road maps to life after football in one of the biggest markets in America. It allows him a peek into a world some of the players are from that Armstrong would not see otherwise. 

“These guys have really helped me and gave me a lot of joy,” Armstrong said. “I’m enjoying the shit out of this, man. I forgot it could be this fun.”