Rhett Lashlee's rise from OC to head coach culminated with SMU job

DALLAS – New SMU head coach Rhett Lashlee assumed his coaching career was over in 2007 when he turned down an offer from Gus Malzahn to become a graduate assistant and running backs coach at Tulsa. Lashlee, who played for Malzahn at Shiloh Christian School in Springdale, Ark., was a young man who trusted his gut. His gut told him that Tulsa wasn’t the right situation. 

“I told Gus I wasn’t coming, which was like ending my career,” Lashlee remembered in his new office a day after early signing period for the Mustangs. “I ended any opportunity I ever had (in coaching) because I just burned one of the only two connections I had in coaching. Anybody who wanted to do this would have run to that job. So, I needed a job.”