Rhett Lashlee touts Run Peruna Run as 'great opportunity' to support SMU student-athletes
SMU head coach Rhett Lashlee continues to gain more and more support in resources for his football program. As successful as the Mustangs have been under his direction, it's an ever-changing world in roster construction and having various ways to support the roster is critical.
With Run Peruna Run, SMU has a third-party option for fans to go to for NIL support of the student-athletes. Lashlee said it's all in effort to garner more resources to build championship rosters.
"There's the cap and then there's third party and it's not going anywhere," Lashlee said during spring practice. "The programs that want to go all in and max out the cap, they got a chance to compete. The ones that don't have no chance. Then there's another step. If you just max out the cap, you'll be middle of the pack. If you find creative ways to get your student-athletes more third-party opportunities the right way, through the right mediums, that's the programs that are really going above and beyond.
"That's the ones that are going to be perennial Top 15, Top 20 teams every year. Whether it's Run Peruna Run, that gives our entire fan base a chance to get involved."
Lashlee touted SMU's smaller, but powerful fan base and alumni base that can support the Mustangs as they strive for greatness.
"One of the most powerful things for any school, and for any athletics program, and for any football program is your alumni base. And they all have to be involved. Some schools have 50-60,000 students," Lashlee said. "Their alumni base is huge. They could have a lot of alumni giving them very little, and that's a lot of money to support their program. That's how they're good. Then you got some schools with smaller alumni bases, but very affluent alumni people and all in between, but the programs that you see are year in, year out successful, and have, quote, tradition, and have considered themselves, perennial Top 10, Top 25 teams. It's not just because they won. They've won because of the support they've had and the backing across the board. Not just of a few."
SMU's enjoyed plenty of success, including a College Football Playoff berth under Lashlee. To take aim at a National Championship, Lashlee challenged the fan base to support and noted Run Peruna Run as an opportunity to do that.
"The last three years we've become a Top 25 team. Probably will do it again this year. I don't know. We definitely expect to be there at the end of the year. If we're doing that on the field then what we need for the staying power, for us to be as good as we want to be, and our fan base wants us to be, and to win a national championship, we got to have everybody.
"It doesn't matter if you're giving millions of dollars or $100 a month or $10,000 or somewhere in between. Every little bit helps and I think there's different avenues to get involved. Run Peruna Run is a great opportunity for a large majority I think of our alumni base and our supporters to get plugged in and help our student athletes which in turn helps our program compete at the highest level.”
To explore memberships, go to RunPerunaRun.com/Join.