A game anywhere from 13 months to 30 years in the making lived up to the hope and the hype for the SMU football program.

In their first-ever ACC game, and first game as a power conference team since 1995, the Mustangs dominated defending conference champion Florida State 42-16 to claim the historic victory.

"Wow. Awesome. I just told the team, kind of, I'm in awe of them," SMU head coach Rhett Lashlee said. "I thought last week we set a standard for how we can play and we have to try to play to that standard. And I thought, maybe, they exceeded that (Saturday). Was a really good team win against the defending champs, who have a lot of really good players and are really well coached."

SMU was coming off a record-setting performance in winning back the Iron Skillet from TCU last week. But with all of the excitement surrounding the conference move and the fact that it was a conference game, Saturday's win was that much bigger.

"I don't know if I can speak for the whole program, because I'm only on Year 3, but this has to be one of the bigger moments for our program, right?" Lashlee said. "Look, last week was great, it's a rivalry game. This is different. We beat a national brand, the defending champs in our first-ever ACC game to to just at least validate we belong."

A heavy dose of Brashard Smith and Roderick Daniels Jr. on the opening drive led to an early score. Smith capped it off with a 13-yard run. Florida State answered to tie the game. 

But when Kevin Jennings hit a wide open Jordan Hudson on a 42-yard flea flicker, the Mustangs never looked back.

The lead was 14-9 at halftime, grew to 28-9 in the third quarter and SMU finished strong, outscoring Florida State 14-0 in the fourth quarter.

"A statement to the ACC, honestly," Jennings said. "You know, we were the underdogs coming and nobody believed in us. I mean, we came in and showed what we can do. … It means a lot to come in and get a dub against any team, but for the ACC and it's a home game, packed stadium. It means a lot for the city of Dallas."

After FSU scored on its opening drive, the SMU defense went to work. The following possessions ended with a punt, an interception by Jonathan McGill, another punt, a fourth-down stop inside the 5-yard line, the end of the first half, an interception by Ahmad Walker and another punt.

"Everything. It was dominant. That was a dominant defensive performance," Lashlee said. "They ran 60 plays, under 300 yards. They were 12-of-34, so they threw us 1/4 as many (passes) as they completed to themselves. And 75 yards (rushing), that's two weeks in a row. It just shows, and that's what we've been preaching, we have to run the ball and stop the run to be able to compete at this level. I think our defensive staff, I mean, Scott Symons and that staff deserve so much credit for the consistency and the confidence our guys are playing with."

It was the defense that finished the game off. And while it was making the routine plays, there was one play that was far from routine.

Kobe Wilson intercepted SMU's third pass of the game. He caught it at his own 18-yard line. When he got to the 50, he had an FSU player jump on his back, but Wilson shook him off and then jumped over a teammate to get to the 40.

Wilson was almost caught again around the 5. This time the FSU player also tried to rip the ball loose, but Wilson would not be denied, jumping into the end zone from the 3-yard line.

"Kobe Wilson's touchdown run may be the best defensive play I've ever seen, like the whole play," Lashlee said. "He was supposed to be tackled or even fumbled from behind like four different times and somehow scored. It was incredible."

It was Wilson who would break the rock in the locker room after the game, too.

"After I saw that run guys, that was all I needed to see," Lashlee said.

As far as what Wilson saw, a lot of field in front of him and a will to take it all the way.

"To be honest, man, I just saw green grass," Wilson said. "And then I saw a couple people coming at me, so I got scared. So it's like, I just let my instincts take over, knew my guys had me. I just somehow, I don't know how, I thought was gonna go down, but I ended up in the end zone. It was like a blink of an eye, (instincts) just took over."

Jennings set new career highs in both passing yards and touchdowns with 254 yards and three scores. Two of those went to RJ Maryland as he set the new school record for career touchdown receptions by a tight end with Nos. 15 and 16.

"It's great because there's a lot of great tight ends that have came here before me," Maryland said of breaking the record. "And so just being able to be at the top of that list, it's great."

It was the third multi-touchdown game of Maryland's career. And after catching eight passes for 162 yards and a score in the season opener, he had just five catches for 29 yards in the next three games combined.

But he stayed ready and his moment came on Saturday.

"We know RJ's a dog," Jennings said. "Teams are really game planning for him, so it felt really good to get him the ball and give him two touchdowns (Saturday). He's my former roommate, so I had to look out for him and get him some catches."

SMU won't be back in Ford Stadium for over a month. It travels to Louisville next week for an 11 a.m. CT contest on ESPN before a week off and then trips to Stanford and Duke. 

But the Mustangs left an impression on its home fans and let the rest of the conference know, they came to play.

"We want to be in this kind of conference and compete," Lashlee said. "We're about to find out because we're about to go to one of the best venues in our league to play and then we're going to go as far west as you can go and as far east as you can go back-to-back against three outstanding coaches. I know two of them very well and have a lot of respect for the other. But we're going to enjoy this.

"... It was a big moment. We're back on the stage. We're playing an ACC game against a national brand, the defending champs, and it's just really humbling to be able to validate that we belong and to come through when we needed to. (Saturday), again, it only counts as one, but we're gonna enjoy it till (Sunday)."