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

college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...

coach who is the

head coach A head coach, senior coach, or manager is a professional responsible for training and developing athletes within a sports team. This role often has a higher public profile and salary than other coaching positions. In some sports, such as associat ...

Southern Methodist University Southern Methodist University (SMU) is a Private university, private research university in Dallas, Texas, United States, with a satellite campus in Taos County, New Mexico. SMU was founded on April 17, 1911, by the Methodist Episcopal Church, ...

. He previously served as the

offensive coordinator An offensive coordinator (OC) is a Coach (sport), coach responsible for a gridiron football team's offense (American football), offense. Generally, the offensive coordinator, defensive coordinator and special teams coordinator represent the second ...

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, associate and assistant coach, and the offensive and defensive coordina ...

Auburn University Auburn University (AU or Auburn) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Auburn, Alabama, United States. With more than 26,800 undergraduate students, over 6,100 post-graduate students, and a tota ...

from 2013 to 2016 and

and

at the

University of Miami The University of Miami (UM, UMiami, Miami, U of M, and The U) is a private university, private research university in Coral Gables, Florida, United States. , the university enrolled 19,852 students in two colleges and ten schools across over ...

from 2020 to 2021. Lashlee played

at the

University of Arkansas The University of Arkansas (U of A, UArk, or UA) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Fayetteville, Arkansas, United States. It is the Flagship campus, flagship campus of the University of Arkan ...

as a

quarterback The quarterback (QB) is a position in gridiron football who are members of the offensive side of the ball and mostly line up directly behind the Lineman (football), offensive line. In modern American football, the quarterback is usually consider ...

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

Springdale, Arkansas Springdale is a city in Washington County, Arkansas, Washington and Benton County, Arkansas, Benton counties in the U.S. state of Arkansas. The city had a population of 84,161 at the 2020 census, making it the List of cities and towns in Arkan ...

, the University of Arkansas,

Samford University Samford University is a Private university, private Christian university in Homewood, Alabama, United States. It was founded by Baptist Church, Baptists in 1841 as Howard College and located until 1887 in Marion, Alabama. It is governed by an in ...

Arkansas State University Arkansas State University (A-State or ASU) is a public university, public research university in Jonesboro, Arkansas, United States. It is the flagship campus of the Arkansas State University System and the second-largest university in the st ...

University of Connecticut The University of Connecticut (UConn) is a public land-grant research university system with its main campus in Storrs, Connecticut, United States. It was founded in 1881 as the Storrs Agricultural School, named after two benefactors. In 1893, ...

, SMU, and the University of Miami.

Playing career

High school

Lashlee attended

Shiloh Christian School Shiloh Christian School is a private school, private Baptist 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 ...

, where he played quarterback under head coach

Gus Malzahn Arthur Gustav Malzahn III (; born October 28, 1965) is an American college football coach who is the offensive coordinator at Florida State. He was the head coach at the University of Central Florida ( UCF) from 2021 to 2024, Auburn University fr ...

. 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. * 171 career touchdown passes (#4 nationally) * 672 passing yards in a game (#12 nationally) Regarded as a three-star recruit by Rivals.com, Lashlee was ranked as the No. 19 pro-style quarterback in a 2002 class that also featured Ben Olson, Trent Edwards,

Drew Stanton Drew Emeric Stanton (born May 7, 1984) is an American former professional football player who was a quarterback for 14 seasons in the National Football League (NFL). He was selected by the Detroit Lions in the second round of the 2007 NFL draft ...

, and Matt Moore.

College

Lashlee played

for the

Arkansas Razorbacks The Arkansas Razorbacks, also known as the Hogs, are the College athletics in the United States, intercollegiate athletics teams representing the University of Arkansas, located in Fayetteville, Arkansas, Fayetteville. The University of Arkans ...

. 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 Springdale High School. 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 Ozarks. It includes four of the ten largest cities in the state: Fayetteville, Arkansas, Fayetteville, Springdale, Arkansas, Springdale, Rogers, Arkansas, Rogers, ...

. 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 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, 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

(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 university, private research university in Fort Worth, Texas, United States. It was established in 1873 by brothers Addison Clark, Addison and Randolph Clark as the AddRan Male & Female College. It i ...

(TCU).

Personal life

Lashlee is a

Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...

. He is married to Lauren Lashlee (née Lee), and they have four children together.

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 Sportspeople from Springdale, Arkansas Coaches of American football from Arkansas Players of American football from Arkansas