SMU quarterback Kevin Jennings completes a behind-the-back pass in the first quarter against Stanford
SMU quarterback Kevin Jennings put a new spin on the shovel pass on Saturday against Stanford.
Midway through the first quarter, Jennings faked a sweep handoff before throwing the ball behind his back to Mustangs tight end RJ Maryland, who raced forward for a 9-yard gain.
Before the snap, Maryland was lined up as the starting quarterback. Instead of blocking, Maryland slid into the middle of the court, where it got a deft pass from Jennings, who looked like a point guard blacking out his teammate.
advertisement
A stalling penalty on the next play derailed the drive, but it didn’t take away from Jennings’ impressive flick.
Jennings is in his second season as SMU’s full-time starter. Last year, he led the Mustangs to the ACC Championship game in SMU’s first season as a member of the conference. Although the Mustangs let the division title slip away from Clemson, they still made the 12-team College Football Playoff.
This time, the Mustangs had two losses through five games. But Jennings entered Saturday with 1,411 yards rushing this season, along with a touchdown-to-interception ratio of 13:6.
He completed 71.4% of his passes. His accuracy was equally good on the behind-the-back pass against Stanford.