As the SMU football season gets closer there is plenty of work to be done before stepping on the field as a member of the ACC.

That's exactly what the Mustangs are doing right now, going to work during fall camp. Along with the work there is a different feel to this year's camp than previous ones. 

Maybe it has something to do with winning the first outright conference title in over 40 years. Maybe it has something to do with returning a strong corps of returners while adding another strong recruiting class. Maybe it has something to do with the program returning to a power conference.

"In a good way, yeah It feels different, but not like everybody's kind of tight," SMU head coach Rhett Lashlee said. "I think our guys are like they've always been, they're loose and confident. We're going to find out where we stand. We don't know, but I like our guys and I'm excited to get to watch them compete with the schedule."

Whatever that exact feeling is might be hard to put into words. But the Mustangs aren't afraid about what is coming.

"I know, personally, I for sure have an increased sense of urgency, absolutely," senior receiver Jake Bailey said. "From the team, I think everybody's in that same type of boat. It's not so much, it's no fear. It's not being scared of new competition. It is giving them the respect they deserve. Realizing and understanding that these are real athletes and teams that you know are going to give us a game week-in and week-out and we have to be tough enough and have that competitive stamina to be able to keep doing that week-in and week-out."

There is a level of excitement and a bigger sense of urgency, but it's not fear or worry.

"I don't feel like there's like this cloud hanging over us and it's like, 'Oh man,'" Lashlee said. "A lot of these guys have confidence. They have confidence from what we accomplished last year. You accomplish confidence, we did that. Yeah, we've got a new challenge in front of us. We haven't done anything yet, it's a brand new team. A lot of these guys are older guys, whether they've been here the whole time or transferred in, they've been on those stages. I think they're more just excited that we get to play that type of competition and compete with those guys and see where we measure up."

At the end of the day, the game doesn't change. No matter the competition, where the game is played or what conference patch is on the jersey won't alter the way fall camp is approached by anyone.

"Division II and Division III and Power 4 is still football," SMU defensive coordinator Scott Symons said. "I don't think that the process changes. The opponents change and the level of speed and physicality changes, but the preparation and kind of the methodology that we want to go through each year is going to be relatively consistent."

The Mustangs have another advantage when it comes to joining the power ranks, players that have been there before. There are 43 players on the SMU roster who have spent time with a power program, including 11 who have played in the ACC — 13 if you include Notre Dame and fellow newcomer Stanford. 

That's something other teams who made the move into power conference ranks didn't have.

"The majority of those guys that have transferred in here, almost all came from either the ACC or power conferences," Lashlee said. "They've either played in those stages, been in those stages with the atmospheres, the physicality, the week-in, week-out of the grind."

That's a move a player like Jonathan McGill made when he joined SMU last season even though he didn't know it at the time. The former Stanford captain is back playing in a power conference and will be joined by his former team.

"I think a lot of us on the team just have that edge," McGill said. "Whether that's you felt like you weren't recruited at a high level, for guys that came here straight out of high school, that didn't feel like they were recruited at a high level, 'P5' level. Other guys that were playing at another school and transferred over. All the guys we got from Miami, I know that they're playing with that edge. I feel like we've got guys on our team from all different aspects and perspectives. I think stepping into the new league is, obviously, something that we have courage about and something we have confidence about."

The Mustangs also boast a veteran group of players who have played tough competition over the years with SMU.

"The guys that we have that are older guys that have been here, our quarterbacks, the Roderick Daniels, the Isaiah Nwokobias," Lashlee said. "Those guys that have always been here are older, they've gone on the road and won in Ft. Worth and they've played in Oklahoma and they played at Maryland and they've done all those things. I don't think they're going to have any kind of anxiousness about that. I think they're excited."

As they should be. This is the kind of opportunity players who came to SMU out of high school or even through the portal, before this offseason, could only hope for.

"I hope so. It should be heightened because there's a large expectation," Symons said. "When you look and see where they've got us picked in the conference and what the expectation is, and there should be a high expectation we've got a good football team. But we've got to go out there and we've got to prove it. We've got to prove it by how we practice and how we practice every day. If we don't do that we'll get our butt beat by anybody on our schedule."

One of those players is Bailey. He played at one of the best high schools in the country, but didn't have high-level offers. He began his career at then-Conference USA Rice before joining then-AAC SMU.

Now he has that chance in his final season of college football.

"That's the dream, you know what I'm saying, it's the dream," Bailey said. "I wanted to be a college football player, big-time football player, NFL player when I got this age and I'm doing what I want to do. Big games, big crowds, big lights, it's the dream. So I'm blessed to be able to do it."