Rhett Lashlee (born June 9, 1983) is an American

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

coach who is the

head coach A head coach, senior coach or manager is a professional at training and developing athletes. They typically hold a more public profile and are paid more than other coaches. In some sports, the head coach is instead called the "manager", as in assoc ...

at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. He previously served as the

offensive coordinator An offensive coordinator is a member of the coaching staff of an American football or Canadian football team who is in charge of the team's offense. Generally, along with the defensive coordinator and the special teams coordinator, this coach re ...

and

quarterbacks coach In American football, a position coach is a team official in charge of coaching a specific position group. Position coaches have more specialized duties than the head coach, assistant coach, and the offensive and defensive coordinators. Common ...

at the

University of Miami The University of Miami (UM, UMiami, Miami, U of M, and The U) is a private research university in Coral Gables, Florida. , the university enrolled 19,096 students in 12 colleges and schools across nearly 350 academic majors and programs, incl ...

from 2020 to 2021. Lashlee played

at the

University of Arkansas The University of Arkansas (U of A, UArk, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Fayetteville, Arkansas. It is the flagship campus of the University of Arkansas System and the largest university in the state. Founded as Arkansas ...

as a

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

from 2002 to 2004. Prior to his tenure at SMU, he held various assistant coaching positions at

Springdale High School Springdale High School is a public high school in Springdale, Arkansas, United States for students in grades ten through twelve. Springdale High School is one of three high schools administered by the Springdale School District, the others being H ...

Springdale, Arkansas Springdale is the List of cities and towns in Arkansas, fourth-largest city in Arkansas, United States. It is located in both Washington County, Arkansas, Washington and Benton County, Arkansas, Benton counties in Northwest Arkansas. Located on th ...

, the University of Arkansas,

Auburn University Auburn University (AU or Auburn) is a public land-grant research university in Auburn, Alabama. With more than 24,600 undergraduate students and a total enrollment of more than 30,000 with 1,330 faculty members, Auburn is the second largest uni ...

Samford University Samford University is a private Christian university in Homewood, Alabama. In 1841, the university was founded as Howard College by Baptists. Samford University describes itself as the 87th oldest institution of higher learning in the United Sta ...

Arkansas State University Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the Osage la ...

University of Connecticut The University of Connecticut (UConn) is a public land-grant research university in Storrs, Connecticut, a village in the town of Mansfield. The primary 4,400-acre (17.8 km2) campus is in Storrs, approximately a half hour's drive from Hart ...

, SMU and the University of Miami.

Playing career

High school

Lashlee attended

Shiloh Christian School Shiloh Christian School is a private Christian school in Springdale, Arkansas, United States. History Shiloh Christian School was founded in 1976 as a ministry of the First Baptist Church of Springdale, by Dennis Cottrell and Tom Ellis, under th ...

, where he played quarterback under head coach

Gus Malzahn Arthur Gustavo Malzahn III (; born October 28, 1965) is an American football coach. He is currently the head coach at the University of Central Florida (UCF Knights football, UCF). He was the head football coach at Auburn University from 2013 t ...

. Lashlee posted a state-record 40 career wins (40–3–2 as a starter) and he led his team to three straight state championship games, winning two titles. Lashlee holds a number of Arkansas high school records. * 858 career completions (#9 nationally) * 13,201 career passing yards (#6 nationally) * 171 career touchdown passes (#3 nationally) * 546 pass attempts in a season (#6 nationally) * 44 completions in a game (#8 nationally) * 71 pass attempts in a game (#7 nationally) * 672 passing yards in a game (#2 nationally) Regarded as a three-star recruit by

Rivals.com Rivals.com is a network of websites that focus mainly on college football and basketball recruiting in the United States. The network was started in 1998 and employs more than 300 personnel. History Rivals.com was founded in 1998 by Jim Heckma ...

, Lashlee was ranked as the No. 19 pro-style quarterback in a 2002 class that also featured

Ben Olson Benjamin James Olson (born February 28, 1983) is a former American football college quarterback. He played four injury-plagued seasons of college football at UCLA, starting 10 games (and appearing in four others) with the club. High school car ...

Trent Edwards Trent Addison Edwards (born October 30, 1983) is a former American football quarterback. He played college football at Stanford and was drafted by the Buffalo Bills in the third round of the 2007 NFL Draft. As a rookie, Edwards took over the sta ...

Drew Stanton Drew may refer to: __NOTOC__ Places ;In the United States * Drew, Georgia, an unincorporated community * Drew, Mississippi, a city * Drew, Missouri, an unincorporated community * Drew, Oregon, an unincorporated community * Drew County, Arkansas ...

, and Matt Moore.

College

Lashlee played

for the

Arkansas Razorbacks The Arkansas Razorbacks, also known as the Hogs, are the intercollegiate athletics teams representing the University of Arkansas, located in Fayetteville. The University of Arkansas student body voted to change the name of the school mascot (ori ...

. Lashlee was a backup

to Matt Jones, from 2002 to 2004 for the Razorbacks. A shoulder injury ended his playing career. Lashlee graduated from the

in 2006.

Coaching career

Early career

Prior to 2017, Lashlee is from

coaching tree and worked under him for his entire career with the exception of his one year at

. From 2004 to 2005, Lashlee worked with the quarterbacks at

. Following the announcement of Malzahn's hire as

offensive coordinator in 2006, Lashlee was hired as an offensive graduate assistant. Following this season, Malzahn left to become the offensive coordinator of the

Tulsa Golden Hurricane football The Tulsa Golden Hurricane football program represents the University of Tulsa in college football at the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) level. Tulsa has competed in the American Athletic Conference (The American) since the 2014 ...

team. Although invited to join Malzahn's staff at Tulsa, Lashlee left coaching and remained in

Northwest Arkansas Northwest Arkansas (NWA) is a metropolitan area and region in Arkansas within the Ozark Mountains. It includes four of the ten largest cities in the state: Fayetteville, Springdale, Rogers, and Bentonville, the surrounding towns of Benton an ...

. Instead, Lashlee and his brother in law wrote, published, and marketed ''High School Sports The Magazine'' (later renamed ''Vype''), a publication based on high school sports in Arkansas. During the two years Lashlee was involved in the business, he made relationships with high school coaches throughout Arkansas and marketed his magazine to distributors. Lashlee volunteered as quarterbacks coach at

Har-Ber High School Har-Ber High School is a comprehensive public high school for grades ten through twelve serving the community of Springdale, Arkansas, United States. Har-Ber High School is the one of three high schools managed in Washington County by Springdale ...

when his schedule would allow. Malzahn was hired as the offensive coordinator at Auburn for the 2009 season. Following this announcement, Malzahn offered Lashlee to join his staff as a graduate assistant, returning Lashlee to coaching.

Samford

In 2011, Lashlee joined

as their offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. During his first and only season at Samford, Lashlee improved the team's offense in points per game (17 to 26), total offense (57 to 46 ranking nationally), and improved their record from 4–6 to 6–5 through the installation of a high tempo offense.

Arkansas State

In 2012, Lashlee was hired by

as their offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach following head coach Gus Malzahn after his departure from Auburn.

Auburn

On December 6, 2012, Lashlee was hired at

as their offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach following Gus Malzahn after his return to Auburn after one year at Arkansas State. In 2013, Lashlee was a finalist for the

Broyles Award The Broyles Award is an annual award given to honor the best assistant coach in college football. First awarded in 1996, it was named after former University of Arkansas men's athletic director Frank Broyles. The award is presented in Little R ...

, given annually to the nation's top college football assistant coach.

UConn

In 2017, Lashlee joined the

as their offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach.

SMU

On January 4, 2018, Lashlee was hired as the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at

Southern Methodist University , mottoeng = "The truth will make you free" , established = , type = Private research university , accreditation = SACS , academic_affiliations = , religious_affiliation = United Methodist Church , president = R. Gerald Turner , prov ...

(SMU).

Miami

On January 3, 2020, Lashlee was hired as the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at the

under head coach Manny Diaz.

SMU (second stint)

On November 30, 2021, Lashlee was named head coach at

(SMU), replacing

Sonny Dykes Daniel "Sonny" Dykes (born November 9, 1969) is an American football coach, and a former college baseball player. He is currently the head football coach at Texas Christian University (TCU), and previously served in the same role at Southern Meth ...

after his departure to become the head coach at

Texas Christian University Texas Christian University (TCU) is a private research university in Fort Worth, Texas. It was established in 1873 by brothers Addison and Randolph Clark as the Add-Ran Male & Female College. It is affiliated with the Christian Church (Disciples ...

(TCU). In his inaugural season, Lashlee became the first SMU head coach since Bobby Collins in 1982 to have a winning season and qualify for a bowl game.

Personal life

Rhett Lashlee is married to Lauren Lashlee (née Lee), and they have four children together: twin sons, Thomas and Hudson, and twin daughters, Rowyn and Scarlet.

Head coaching record

References

External links

SMU profile

Miami (FL) profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lashlee, Rhett 1983 births Living people American football quarterbacks Arkansas Razorbacks football players Arkansas State Red Wolves football coaches Auburn Tigers football coaches Miami Hurricanes football coaches Samford Bulldogs football coaches SMU Mustangs football coaches UConn Huskies football coaches High school football coaches in Arkansas People from Springdale, Arkansas Coaches of American football from Arkansas Players of American football from Arkansas