Marques White recovered Virginia Tech’s fumble with 6:16 left in the second quarter. On SMU’s next snap, with the clock at 6:09, Kevin Jennings found Yamir Knight near the Hokies’ 15-yard line. Knight finished the 46-yard touchdown, and SMU had turned a defensive play into a 20-7 lead before Virginia Tech could answer.
That was the loudest of Knight’s three scoring contributions, but not necessarily the most instructive. In SMU’s 51-28 victory Friday at Gerald J. Ford Stadium in Dallas, the Mustangs got 103 yards from Knight on six catches. The yardage was substantial. The touchdowns were more revealing because each one solved a different offensive problem.
The first punished a turnover. White’s forced fumble gave SMU a short-lived opportunity to seize control, and Knight converted it immediately with a catch near the Virginia Tech 15 followed by the run to the end zone. The play covered 46 yards from pass to score, but its real value was how little the Mustangs asked of the possession after the takeaway.
One snap, seven points.
The middle touchdown required a different kind of finish. Christian Rhodes took a handoff at SMU’s 25 and ran 59 yards to the Virginia Tech 16 with 5:54 left in the third quarter. Dramekco Green then gained 3 yards, and Jennings went to Knight for a 13-yard touchdown with 4:26 remaining. That made the score 37-14.
Rhodes supplied the field-flipping play, but a long run does not put points on the scoreboard by itself. Green’s carry moved the ball closer, and Knight completed the possession before it became an incomplete answer to an exciting play. The touchdown covered less distance than his first, but completed the same essential job. Rhodes and Green had moved the offense close; Knight finished the possession.
The third score was the opposite of sudden. SMU began at its own 18 with 2:13 left in the third quarter and kept the possession alive for 15 plays over 8:04. The drive crossed the quarter break, survived the ordinary grind of a long series, and ended when Jennings hit Knight for 5 yards at 9:15 of the fourth.
The touchdown pushed SMU’s lead to 44-14.
That reception was not a splash play or a field-flipping run. It was the final piece of a possession that required SMU to keep gaining enough ground to stay on schedule. Knight’s role there was smaller in distance and larger in accumulation: after the Mustangs had done the work of moving 82 yards, he supplied the last five.
Jennings made all three situations possible while producing a night that was excellent without being spotless. He completed 24 of 32 passes for 350 yards and four touchdowns, and he added 17 rushing yards.
The interception with 5:31 left in the fourth quarter was his first since Sept. 26, and it gave Virginia Tech another chance during a quarter in which the Hokies scored twice before Jalen Cooper’s 50-yard touchdown restored SMU’s final margin.