​He has tried to tell everyone all offseason, taken every opportunity to spread the word of Kevin Jennings and leave no doubt.“He needs to be talked about more,” SMU coach Rhett Lashlee says.So here we go.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementJennings, SMU’s senior quarterback, has the No. 1 winning percentage (73 percent) of all returning quarterbacks in the power conferences.He has the third-most wins of all power conference returning quarterbacks.He’s top 10 in passing touchdowns, passing yards and total offense of power conference returning quarterbacks.PROGRAM RANKINGS: Big Ten | SEC | ACC | Big 12PATH TO PLAYOFF: Sign up for our college football newsletterBy the end of September, he will break nearly every SMU passing record, and has a loaded team that two years ago forced itself back into the national conversation after long ago being left for dead — with a whole lot of booster cash and the elite play of Jennings — primed to reach its second College Football Playoff in three years.Want to know why Lashlee has spent all offseason touting his quarterback on social media, why SMU started a Heisman Trophy campaign in July — the first true campaign since the Pony Express in the 1980s?AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementBecause this player, this team, is about to leave no doubt where it stands in the national conversation. “We proved last year we we weren’t a one hit wonder,” Lashlee said. “We have staying power. We’ve got to do it again this year. We’ve got to do it enough times for people to believe it, and for it to become who we are.”SMU quarterback Kevin Jennings (7) throws the ball during his team’s game against Louisville at Gerald J. Ford Stadium.That begins and ends with Jennings, and a dive into the deep end he has embraced since he packed up his things and moved across the Metroplex to the swanky campus in Highland Park.Maybe that’s why Jennings — not the most talkative player in college football over the last three seasons — is all-in with Lashlee on the media blitz. Time to let everyone know who he is, beyond his electric play on the field.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementHe drives the engine, he moves the sticks. Shoot, he stayed when he could’ve left after last season and found a brighter pastures like so many other of his quarterback brethren.STEPPING UP: Make-or-break seasons for six elite college football QBs starting overSo he may as well talk about it and soak in spotlight when SMU arrives Friday at ACC media days.A Heisman campaign isn’t pressure. Nor is living up to a billionaire alum paying for SMU’s ticket into the ACC.It’s not a coach who has developed elite quarterbacks over the last two decades as a longtime assistant and then finally head coach at SMU, telling anyone who will listen for seven months this offseason that Jennings is as good any of them. As good as anyone in college football in 2026AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementAs good as Arch Manning or Dante Moore o