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Updated September 8, 2026. Labor Day’s college football finale was supposed to be a straightforward primetime ACC opener. Instead, No. 19 SMU and Florida State spent nearly two hours waiting through a power outage at Doak Campbell Stadium before finally producing one of Week 1’s strangest and most competitive finishes.
SMU escaped Tallahassee with a 27-24 win after Nick Reed’s late field goal, but the score only tells part of the story. The Mustangs moved the ball at a historic rate against an ACC opponent, Florida State stayed alive with its running game and takeaways, and the entire night unfolded under unusual game-day conditions.
Kevin Jennings carried SMU’s offense
SMU quarterback Kevin Jennings completed 26 of 36 passes for a career-high 430 yards and three touchdowns, according to SMU Athletics’ official postgame report.
Jennings hit Jalen Cooper for a 50-yard touchdown, connected with Florida State transfer Randy Pittman for a 10-yard score and later found Yannick Smith for a 79-yard touchdown. SMU finished with 585 total yards, the most the program has recorded against an ACC opponent.
That production matters because the Mustangs were not playing a clean game. Jennings threw two interceptions, and Florida State created enough disruption to keep the result undecided deep into the fourth quarter. SMU still converted eight of 14 third downs and produced the late scoring drive it needed.
The power outage turned the game into a true oddity
The teams were originally set to kick off shortly after 7:30 p.m. ET. The official SMU report says the game was pushed back to 9:15 p.m. because of a power outage at Doak Campbell Stadium.
That delay mattered beyond inconvenience. Both teams had to reset after warming up, the crowd sat through a long pause, and the game began under unusual operational conditions. A matchup already carrying early-season pressure became a test of concentration before the first meaningful snap.
For SportsyVibe’s Morning Vibe standard, that is exactly the kind of event worth preserving: not merely a final score, but a game whose circumstances changed the entire feel of the night.
Florida State stayed in it with the run game
Florida State running back Ousmane Kromah rushed 22 times for 116 yards and a touchdown. The Seminoles’ official recap noted that Kromah posted his second straight 100-yard rushing game to open the season.
Florida State finished with 199 rushing yards, but the passing game never matched SMU’s explosiveness. Ashton Daniels completed 12 of 23 passes for 125 yards and one touchdown, while SMU repeatedly created chunk plays through the air.
The Seminoles also struggled badly on third down, finishing 2-for-15. That inefficiency kept drives from becoming sustained answers to an SMU offense that was consistently gaining yardage.
Why the 27-24 result matters
For SMU, this was a ranked road win and a conference win in the season opener. The Mustangs leave Tallahassee 1-0 overall and 1-0 in the ACC, with a quarterback who immediately produced one of the biggest statistical games of his career.
For Florida State, the loss is more complicated. The Seminoles were competitive, ran the ball effectively and stayed within one possession, but they were outgained 585-330. A close scoreboard can hide a larger efficiency problem, especially when one side gives up repeated explosive passes and cannot consistently extend drives.
What changed after Labor Day?
- SMU has an immediate conference road win. That is valuable before the season settles into a normal rhythm.
- Jennings enters Week 2 with major momentum. A 430-yard, three-touchdown opener changes the offensive ceiling conversation.
- Florida State’s rushing attack looks useful. Kromah’s second straight 100-yard game gives the Seminoles something stable to build around.
- Third-down offense is an early Florida State warning sign. Finishing 2-for-15 makes it difficult to control a game against ranked competition.
- The power outage made the matchup one of Week 1’s defining oddities. It was a nationally televised conference game that had to restart mentally before it ever started physically.
What to watch next
SMU returns home to face UC Davis on September 12. Florida State has a bye before traveling to face No. 13 Alabama on September 19, a matchup that will quickly reveal whether the issues exposed by SMU were opening-week noise or a deeper problem.
For more from the opening weekend, see SportsyVibe’s Week 1 College Football Morning Vibe and the broader College Sports hub.
Sources: Final score, player statistics, team totals and postgame context were verified against official SMU Athletics and Florida State Athletics reports from September 7-8, 2026. SportsyVibe analysis and framing are original.
Featured image: Gene Gallin / Unsplash. Generic college-football imagery used under Unsplash licensing; not presented as photography from the SMU-Florida State game.