Rhett Lashlee has gone on to have one of the best careers of any Gus Malzahn-era Auburn Tigers play-callers. According to ESPN's Bill Connelly, the SMU Mustangs head coach graded out as the No. 2 head coach of the 2020s.
Per Connelly, his coach rating "is derived 60% from a team's performance against that 20-year baseline (so, if your SP+ rating is 10.0 in a given season, and your school's 20-year average rating was 5.0, that's a +5.0) and 40% from the raw SP+ rating."
"Rhett Lashlee ranks second overall thanks to his stellar run at SMU. Even with a slight step backward in 2025, his Mustangs have ranked between 12th and 24th in SP+ for the past three seasons, a mammoth achievement for a school that hadn't pulled off a top-25 rating since 1984 and had averaged an 88.0 ranking since returning from the death penalty in 1989. Seeing him in second might feel shocking, but it shouldn't," Connelly wrote of Lashlee.
The Indiana Hoosiers' Curt Cignetti was the only head coach who finished ahead of Lashlee in Connelly's rankings. Other notable rankings included the Georgia Bulldogs' Kirby Smart at No. 4, despite winning two titles, the Alabama Crimson Tide's Nick Saban, who won a championship in 2020, and Alabama defensive coordinator and former South Alabama Jaguars head coach Kane Wommack.
Rhett Lashlee eventual return to the SEC feels inevitable
SMU's spending power is somewhat limitless if enough donors invest into the program. Still, a bigger job in the SEC feels like an inevitability at some point down the line if the Mustangs don't make a deep CFP run within the next two years.
The Arkansas Razorbacks tried to reel the Springdale native back to the Natural State this past hiring cycle before settling on Ryan Silverfield. Arkansas may not be the opportunity that can draw him away from SMU, but maybe the Texas Longhorns or Texas A&M Aggies would be. If Mario Cristobal ever gets an NFL offer he can't turn down, maybe the Miami Hurricanes would become an option.
Either way, Lashlee is a future SEC head coach waiting to happen whenever he feels ready to move on from the 'Stangs.