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SMU Mustangs men's soccer
SMU Mustangs men's soccer
Founded	1975; 50 years ago
University	Southern Methodist University
Head coach	Kevin Hudson (ninth season)
Conference	ACC
Location	Dallas, Texas
Stadium	Washburne Stadium ; (Capacity: 2,577)
Nickname	Mustangs
Colors	Red and blue;
	Home
	Home
NCAA Tournament College Cup
	2000, 2005
NCAA Tournament Quarterfinals
	1985, 1986, 1988, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1995, 1997, 2000, 2001, 2005, 2010, 2019, 2024
NCAA Tournament Round of 16
	1979, 1980, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1994, 1995, 1997, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2010, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2023, 2024
NCAA Tournament appearances
	1979, 1980, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2022, 2023, 2024
Conference Tournament championships
	1997, 1999, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2011, 2017, 2018, 2019
Conference Regular Season championships
	1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2010, 2012, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2023

The SMU Mustangs men's soccer team represents Southern Methodist University in men's college soccer. The team currently competes in the Atlantic Coast Conference. The Mustangs made their most recent appearance in the NCAA Tournament in 2024. In 2024 the Mustangs reached their fourteenth Elite Eight before falling to No.13 Seed Marshall 3–2.

The Mustangs have been one of the top men's collegiate sides in the NCAA since being founded in 1975, and are regularly featured in Top 25 polls. The Mustangs used to be coached by former FC Dallas and current Grand Canyon University coach Schellas Hyndman. Current FC Dallas coach Luchi Gonzalez played for the Mustangs from 1998 to 2001.

History

The SMU fielded their first soccer team in 1975, coached by Jim Benedek. The Mustangs finished the season with a 14–4–3 record. Benedek remained with the team until 1983.^[2]

During the 2006 season, the SMU men's soccer program was ranked No. 1 in the nation for four consecutive weeks. The team sat atop the four national polls with a record of 13-0-2 in the Adidas/NSCA poll, SoccerTimes.com poll, Soccer America Magazine poll, and the CollegeSoccerNews.com poll. Concurrently, the SMU women's soccer program cracked the top 25, at No. 22 in the Adidas/NSCA poll and No. 19 in the SoccerTimes.com poll.

On November 6, 2006, the SMU men's soccer team finished the regular season ranked No. 2 in the nation. Additionally, SMU won the C-USA title game, beating Kentucky 2–0 in Tulsa. This C-USA championship win is the sixth conference title for SMU since 1997.

The SMU men's soccer team finished the 2010 season with an overall record of 16-2-2. The Mustangs finished the season strong with a trip to the Elite Eight where they lost to University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in a penalty kick shootout.

In 2015, the Mustangs were led by first year head coach Kevin Hudson to the regular season American Athletic Conference title and reached the Round of 16 in the NCAA National Tournament where they were eliminated by Akron 2–1.

The Mustangs finished the 2017 season ranked No. 10 in the Top Drawer Soccer Rankings with an overall record of 17-3-1. They became the first program in American Athletic Conference history to claim the "double", winning both the regular season and conference tournament when they defeated the University of Central Florida 2–1 in Dallas. On January 20, 2018, SMU had two players selected in the 2018 MLS draft with Michael Nelson being selected by the Huston Dynamo with the 20th overall pick and Mauro Cichero being selected by FC Dallas with the 29th overall pick. SMU Defender Jordan Cano signed as a homegrown player for FC Dallas prior to the draft bringing the total to three players entering the MLS from the 2017 team.

In 2018, the Mustangs once again had a first round draft MLS Superdraft Selection as midfielder Emil Cuello was selected 19th overall by the LA Galaxy.

In 2019, the Mustangs claimed their third consecutive American Athletic Conference tournament title defeating Central Florida 1–0 in Orlando. This was the third consecutive year UCF and SMU meet in the AAC Tournament final as the Mustangs claimed their fifth conference title over the last three seasons. In 2017, the Mustangs reached the round of sixteen for the 18th time in program history. In 2017, they also became the first program in American Athletic Conference history to claim both the regular season and conference tournament championship, a feat they repeated in 2018 defeating Temple 2–1 in the final game of the regular season and defeating UCF in a shootout in Orlando in the AAC Tournament Final.

In 2020, the Mustangs had a player taken in the 1st round of the MLS Superdraft for the third consecutive year, as Garrett McLaughlin was selected 8th overall by the Houston Dynamo. Hermann Trophy winner and First-Team All American Eddie Munjoma was also signed to an MLS Homegrown contract by FC Dallas, while defender Phil Ponder was signed to a USL contract by North Texas SC. The Mustangs finished the 2020 campaign ranked at No. 5 in the TopDrawer Soccer Poll, No. 7 in the United Soccer Coaches Poll, and No. 3 in the NCAA RPI Index.

Stadium

Built in 1994, Westcott Field is the home venue for the SMU Mustangs men's and women's soccer team. The stadium seats 4,000. In the spring of 2020, SMU announced a $5 Million dollar gift was given by SMU Alums Heather and Ray W. Washburne for the creation of the Washburn Soccer and Track Stadium. The 1,800 seat and 2,500 overall capacity facility will provide the Mustangs with one of the best college soccer stadiums in the country.^[3]

Fans

Rivalries

While SMU is traditionally rivals with TCU, University of Texas at Austin, Texas A&M, Rice, University of Houston and UTEP, these fellow schools do not fund varsity soccer programs, thus hindering the rivalry on the soccer field for the Mustangs. SMU and TCU were rivals when TCU did field a team for many years. TCU's team was an NCAA Division 1 program up until the enforcement of Title IX in the late 1990s to early 2000s.

Due to the enforcement of Title IX, TCU lost their men's division 1 men's soccer program and it was converted to a club team only. TCU does continue to field a women's division 1 program. SMU and TCU played many battles throughout the years for the bragging rights of who was the stronger program in the Dallas/FT Worth metroplex. Generally, they would play one home and one away game against TCU per season. Some of the battles were very close but for the most part SMU was the stronger program due to the fact they had better funding for their soccer program (scholarship money) and thus were able to recruit higher level players. Currently, their main rivals in soccer due to geographic proximity are the Tulsa Golden Hurricane and Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls, Texas.

Current roster

As of 12 Sep 2024^[4]

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.


No.	Pos.	Nation	Player
1	GK	GER	Jordaine Jaeger
2	DF	USA	Brock Pope
3	DF	USA	Owen Zarnick
4	DF	USA	Cesar Ruvalcaba
5	DF	NOR	Yves Vaage
6	MF	ESP	Alex Salvo
7	DF	GER	Kyran Chambron
8	MF	ISR	Niv Berkovitz
10	FW	USA	Bailey Sparks
11	FW	SWE	Fredrik Skilberg
12	DF	USA	Lamar Bynum
13	MF	USA	Richard Garcia
14	DF	USA	Enzo Panozzo
15	DF	USA	Knobel Hunt
16	DF	USA	Mason Grimm
17	MF	USA	Jaylinn Mitchell
18	GK	USA	Martin Dominguez


No.	Pos.	Nation	Player
19	FW	USA	Milton Lopez
20	MF	USA	Nikola Djordjevic
21	MF	COL	Daniel Escorcia
22	MF	USA	Brendan Baird
23	DF	USA	Jeffrey Koch
24	FW	USA	Chris Deamon
25	MF	SWE	Hannes Ottoson
26	MF	USA	Ibrahim Keita
27	DF	USA	Ryan Clanton
28	FW	USA	Dominic Bartoni
29	GK	USA	Cameron Victor
30	FW	USA	Stephan Soghomonian
32	FW	USA	Oliver Knotek
33	DF	USA	Charlie Isphording
34	MF	USA	Christian Chandler
36	MF	USA	Noah Ervin
37	GK	USA	Chance Johnson

Coaches

Current staff

As of 15 Sep 2024^[4]

Position	Name
Head Coach	Kevin Hudson
Assist. Coach	Michael King
Asssist. Coach	Ross Fitzpatrick
Assist. Coach, GK	Jaime Ibarra-Perez

All-time head coaches

Statistics correct as of the end of the 2018 NCAA Division I men's soccer season

#	Name	Season(s)	GC	OW	OL	OT	O%	RCs	TCs
1	Jim Benedek	1975–1983	165	119	31	15	.767	6
2	Schellas Hyndman	1984–2007	504	368	96	40	.770	9	6
3	Tim McClements	2008–2014	130	68	46	16	.585	2	1
4	Kevin Hudson	2015–Present	77	66	22	10	.724

References

^ "SMU Licensing". SMUMustangs.com. June 8, 2016. Retrieved November 26, 2023.
^ 2024 Record Book on smumustangs.com
^ "Facilities: Westcott Field". Southern Methodist University Athletics. CBSSports.com College Network. Retrieved August 28, 2011.
^ ^a ^b Men's soccer rosters on smumustangs.com