DALLAS (AP) — 2025 record: 9-4
The Mustangs should again be contenders in the Atlantic Coast Conference. SMU and its hometown quarterback Kevin Jennings immediately made their presence known in the AAC, going to the College Football Playoff in their league debut two seasons ago and coming up just short of another conference championship game last year. They have 20 wins in that span; the only ACC team with more is Miami, last season’s national runner-up that lost at SMU in the regular season.
“Fortunately, we were able to make a good first impression,” coach Rhett Lashlee said. “Last year was important that we backed it up.”
There are some changes around Jennings going into his final season. And the early part of the schedule could very well determine the fate of their championship expectations and the QB’s Heisman Trophy campaign. They open in prime time at Florida State on Labor Day, and go to Louisville two weeks later.
“We’ve got to win games, we’ve got to play well. I think we’ve got a good team around him,” Lashlee said. “He’s going to play well. He’s proven that for two years.”
Jennings is 19-7 as SMU’s starter, including a win in his first start in the 2023 American Athletic Conference championship game. His 7,709 yards and 55 touchdowns passing are well within reach of the school’s career records of 9,081 yards and 72 TDs. He completed 300 of 454 passes (66.1%) for 3,641 yards and 26 TDs last season with 13 interceptions. He could run more too after limited last season by a lingering ankle issue.
The top two rushers and four of the top five receivers from last season are gone, but senior WR Yamir Knight (54 catches, 637 yards and five TDs) returns with some quality additions. Transfer RB Kendrick Raphael ran for 943 yards and 13 TDs last season for Cal, with 111 yards and a 2-yard TD in the final minute of the Bears’ 38-35 win over SMU in the regular-season finale that kept the Mustangs out of the ACC title game. Receivers Yannick Smith (ECU) and Jalen Hale (Alabama) were added from the portal, and 26-year-old freshman Jordyn Adams was a five-star receiving recruit before being a first-round MLB draft pick in 2018. He is adjusting to football again after eight seasons of professional baseball, including 38 big league games.
SMU ranked 133rd out of 134 FBS teams last season giving up 283 yards passing per game, and allowed 26 TDs through the air in 13 games. The Mustangs would get a huge boost if All-ACC safety Ahmaad Moses is able to come back for a fifth season after surgery.
DB Jarvis Lee (transfer from USF), RB Kendrick Raphael (transfer from Cal), WR Yannick Smith (transfer from East Carolina), CB Jayvon Thomas (Texas A&M), DB Jimmy Wyrick (transfer from UTSA).
RB TJ Harden, WR Jordan Hudson, RB Chris Johnson Jr. (transferred to Clemson), TE RJ Maryland, DB Isaiah Nwokobia.
At Florida State (Sept. 7), at Louisville (Sept. 19), at Notre Dame (Nov 21).
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FILE - SMU head coach Rhett Lashlee looks on from the sideline during the first half of the Holiday Bowl NCAA college football game against Arizona, Jan. 2, 2026, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Denis Poroy, File)
FILE - SMU quarterback Kevin Jennings (7) warms up before a NCAA college football game against California, Nov. 29, 2025, in Berkeley, Calif. (AP Photo/Justine Willard, File)
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian anti-corruption agencies announced Wednesday that they are investigating senior officials in President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's office, a day after the country’s recently fired defense minister called for national elections despite the ongoing fight against Russia’s invasion.
The political drama was an unwelcome distraction for Zelenskyy as Ukraine’s war with its bigger neighbor stretches into its fifth year.
Investigators are conducting an operation to expose a criminal organization allegedly led by a sitting and a former lawmaker, involving senior officials from the presidential office and other individuals, according to a joint statement from Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office.
Further details would be released later, the agencies said in a joint statement.
The revelation brought another test of Zelenskyy’s political resilience as he remains dogged by high-level graft investigations.
Last year, his chief of staff Andriy Yermak resigned and was later named as a suspect in a major graft probe involving a luxury construction project in the biggest threat to Zelenskyy’s government since Russia’s invasion in February 2022.
Also last year, a major embezzlement and kickbacks scandal involving the state-owned nuclear power company brought the resignations of Ukraine’s justice and energy ministers.
The European Union has identified deep-seated corruption as one of the major hurdles to Ukraine's desired membership of the block.
Zelenskyy is already under pressure over his firing last month of Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, one of the longest-standing members of his team and a close ally since he helped Zelenskyy win the 2019 presidential election.
Zelenskyy, seeking to reconcile tensions between the defense ministry's young and tech-savvy innovators and Ukraine's seasoned, Soviet-trained battlefield leaders, risked angering both sides by reshuffling his wartime leadership. He ousted both Fedorov, whose changes to military procurement aimed to stamp out corruption, and commander-in-chief Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi.
The move sparked days of street protests in support of Fedorov. For Zelenskyy, it was the second time in a year that a wartime decision triggered a strong public backlash, after he moved in mid-2025 to curb the powers of anti-corruption agencies.
Fedorov, in a video address posted to YouTube late Tuesday, called for elections to be held in Ukraine in a bombshell statement that appeared to directly confront Zelenskyy, who says a ballot can't be held under the martial law that is currently in place due to the war.
“We must find a legal, safe and realistic mechanism that will allow Ukraine to restore a full democratic process even amid a prolonged war,” Fedorov said.
He said Ukraine is facing a systemic crisis in how it is governed, arguing that the current system is oriented toward protecting itself and resisting change. He also condemned corruption among officials without naming anyone, saying it had weakened Ukraine’s ability to fight the war.
Zelenskyy’s office did not immediately comment on Fedorov’s address. It was not immediately clear whether Fedorov's appeal for a ballot would resonate with Ukrainians.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has balked at negotiating a peace deal directly with Zelenskyy, says the Ukrainian president is an illegitimate leader because his term expired in 2024.
Fedorov published his speech hours after Ukraine’s Parliament received Zelenskyy's formal nomination of Yevhenii Khmara as the new defense minister, a move that effectively closes the door to Fedorov's return to the post, which he has sought, any time soon.
Lawmakers were due to debate the president's candidate on Wednesday.
The political disarray comes after recent successes in the war for Ukraine. Using its innovative drone technology, it has repeatedly hit Russian oil facilities, causing fuel shortages. It has also shocked the Russian public by striking warehouses of Wildberries, Russia's biggest online retailer, and stalled front-line advances by Russia's bigger army.
But Zelenskyy has been unable to get traction in U.S.-led peace efforts, and Ukraine is at the mercy of Russia's ballistic missiles because more U.S.-made Patriot interceptors aren't available due to low international stockpiles.
In its latest strike on oil facilities, a drone hit an oil refinery in Ufa in Russia's Bashkortostan, its Gov. Radiy Khabirov was quoted as saying by Russian state news agency RIA Novosti.
The city of Ufa is located roughly 1,300 kilometers (800 miles) east of the border with Ukraine. There are three oil refineries in Ufa, and all three have been attacked before.
Russian air defenses overnight intercepted 453 Ukrainian drones over multiple Russian regions, as well as occupied Crimea and the Black Sea, the Defense Ministry in Moscow said Wednesday.
The Defense Ministry said Russian forces on Tuesday evening hit a bulk carrier in the Black Sea, southeast of Odesa, that was carrying military equipment. On Wednesday, the Russian military struck what it said were fuel and lubricant storage tanks for the Ukrainian armed forces in the southern port of Chornomorsk.
Meanwhile, in Ukraine, a Russian drone attacked a minibus in the southern Kherson region on Wednesday morning, killing four people, said Oleksandr Prokudin, head of the Kherson regional military administration.
Four women were also wounded in the strike and were hospitalized, he said.
Also, a Russian drone struck a civilian car in Kherson city, the region's capital, on Wednesday, killing a woman, said Oleksandr Prokudin, head of the Kherson regional military administration.
Amid the fighting, Russia and Ukraine each sent home 103 prisoners of war Wednesday, according to the Russian Defense Ministry.
Hatton reported from Lisbon, Portugal.
Follow the AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
People sing and hold up their cell phone flashlights during a rally to protest the dismissal of Mykhailo Fedorov as Ukraine's Defense Minister in Kyiv, late Sunday, Aug. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
People stand still for a minute of silence during a rally to protest against the dismissal of Mykhailo Fedorov as Ukraine's Defense Minister in Kyiv, Sunday, Aug. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
People march during a rally to protest the dismissal of Mykhailo Fedorov as Ukraine's Defense Minister in Kyiv, late Sunday, Aug. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
FILE - Ukraine's Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov speaks to journalists during a joint press conference with Sweden's Defense Minister Pal Jonson in Kyiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, July 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky, file)
