DALLAS — Before they step on the field to take on the Penn State Nittany Lions in the College Football Playoff on Saturday, the Southern Methodist University Mustangs football team has to get through finals first. 

“It has to be very hard on them I think one of the reasons that our athletes are so persistent and they are so successful is that they have to juggle very early two very rigorous kinds of schedules,” said Stephanie Knight, the dean of the Simmons School of Education and Human Development.  

One school on campus boasts more than a third of the Mustangs football team roster: the Simmons School Of Education And Human Development, including players like Kevin Jennings and Jahfari Harvey.

“We are so fortunate to have 36 football players in our college in our school now,” said Knight.

Although Knight is on the “Pony Express” now, not too long ago she used to root for the opposing team. 

Before she took the job at SMU, she was an associate dean at Penn State. 

“I did have a few pangs of regret because I was leaving the Big 10 and football days at Penn State was really something to be a part of, ” said Knight. “Then this year, to have us in a Power 5 conference and to have us playing Penn State University for a playoff, I could never have predicted it and I couldn’t be more excited.”

It’s been a wild ride for the Mustangs this season. Joining the ACC was no easy feat but they never let their studies take a back seat. 

“They are incredibly strong off the field, in addition to on the field. They take their school very seriously. They’re leaders in the classroom,” said Dr. Kate Montgomery, the Department Chair for the Department of Human-Centered Interdisciplinary Studies within the Simmons School. 

Montgomery teaches several football players and sees firsthand how they put the leadership, teamwork and organizational skills they’ve learned from football to use in the classroom. 

“Some of them I remember teaching a year ago, and it was before ACC. And then when ACC was announced, I watched them progress through all the crazy changes of ACC and then finish strong,” said Montgomery.

And what a way to finish, several Mustang football players scheduled to graduate this Saturday will have to miss graduation: the playoff game is at the same time as the ceremony.

“Our three graduates who will be missing graduation, it’s for a good cause and we’ll celebrate them some way,” said Knight.

Maybe, on the field, after they beat Penn State.