While revenge had been mentioned, that wasn't the focus of the SMU football team on Saturday at Clemson.

Instead, the Mustangs wanted to go out and prove they had learned lessons and grown since last year's ACC championship game. The 35-24 victory in Death Valley did just that.

"Revenge wasn't a big deal to me," SMU head coach Rhett Lashlee said after the win. "... It's a big win because we're 3-0 in the league now, and we've beaten the team that's won eight of the last 10 times in this league at their home place. It doesn't matter how or why we did it. That's a big step for our program."

SMU did it with belief.

"All we talked about all week was, 'Believe.' Just believe," Lashlee said. "Believe in yourself, believe in each other, the guys around you. I mean this the right way, believe you're the better team. There's so many powerful things you can do if you believe, but you've got to believe it first, and it can't be something you kind of believe. You've got to believe it. I think the way our guys played, they believed it."

'Believe' was the rallying cry for the Mustangs this week. They needed to take last year's ACC championship game loss and College Football Playoff loss and believe they could turn games like those in environments like those into wins.

Led by quarterback Kevin Jennings and a defense that never let up, SMU proved that the moment isn't too big.

"You go back to last year, and we're playing at Penn State, and we didn't play very well," Lashlee said. "But every step in this process for Kevin and for our program is growth. Now, here we are on this stage in this environment, and when it got to 29-24 and they turned the lights out on us and the place is going crazy, you didn't see guys shrink in the moment. You saw guys step to the moment because they had been there before. The old saying, 'Act like you've been there before,' I said it last year, you can't do it until you've done it. Well, last year we've been there — both the (ACC) championship game and the playoff game — and that prepared us and especially Kevin for (Saturday). He didn't flinch, he didn't blink, and, as a matter of fact, he shined."

Things didn't start great for the SMU offense. Jennings was sacked to end the first drive and came up favoring his ankle. The Mustangs went three-and-out on the next drive.

But on the first play of the third drive, Jennings delivered a perfect pass to Jordan Hudson, who caught it and finished the 70-yard play in the end zone, giving SMU a lead it would never give up.

"On that play, it was supposed to be a roll out," Jennings said. "I was supposed to keep rolling, but my ankle kind of gave up right there, so I just popped up, saw JHud had him beat and put it up there for him to make a play. I trust my guys to make a play, and I know they trust me."

His coaches weren't surprised either. Whether it was the pass to Hudson in the first quarter, the touchdown pass to Matthew Hibner early in the fourth quarter, or the game-sealing touchdown drive to put the game away, Jennings delivered.

"He didn't once say, 'Hey, my ankle.' He said. 'Run me. Let's go,'" Lashlee said. "He kept making big plays. The play he made to Matt Hibner for that touchdown — they all-out blitzed seven people, and we only had five to block them. It's as good of a throw and a catch as you'll see at any level of football in any situation. Then, obviously, the last drive, he just kept making play after play after play to put the game away for us."

The defense came through, too. 

Clemson had the ball eight times in the first half. The Mustangs forced five punts — four on three-and-outs — got a turnover on a Brandon Miyazono strip sack recovered by Jahkai Lang and got another fourth-down stop.

SMU got another two three-and-outs in the second half too.

"The belief part, especially on defense, we had a whole — not like a whole shift of mindset, but we've got to go out there and expect to get a three-and-out every time," Miyazono said. "When we expect a three-and-out, we play our best ball, 100%. All of that goes back to believing and what Coach Lashlee says, 'If we all believe in what we've got and trust the guy next to us, the sky's the limit for us.'"

Hudson put together one of his best performances, tying a career high with seven catches and setting a career high with 131 yards. He knows SMU has been overlooked and has had its success questioned.

The Mustangs have kept the belief going in the locker room.

"Just coming from the little school, people not believing in us as much as we would want them to believe," Hudson said. "But we tuned all the outside noise out and really dug in within ourselves and our teammates and really believed in each other."

And when the game was on the line, that belief was rewarded. Belief in the freshman kicker Sam Keltner to deliver three field goals — one 51-yarder and two from 48 yards — to take a 19-7 lead into halftime.

Then, when Clemson would get close. SMU answered. It was a two-point game midway through the third quarter, but the Mustangs answered with a Derrick McFall 35-yard touchdown just over a minute later.

It was a six-point game at the end of the third quarter before the Jennings-to-Hibner connection made it a 12-point game. And when Clemson pulled back within five with 6:44 remaining, the Mustangs took 5:41 off the clock, going 75 yards in 13 plays capped off by the Chris Johnson Jr. touchdown.

"That's something we've been stressing this whole year, obviously, just finishing," Jennings said. "Being able to finish a game, take over the game, and finish in the fourth quarter. We had that in the back of our minds going into that drive. We were able to execute at a high level, and players made plays, and that's what it's all about."

Now that the Mustangs have done it for multiple weeks, including in a hostile environment, there is belief that they can keep doing it the rest of the season.

"I think (Saturday) you saw it really come together," Lashlee said. "Over the last two weeks, they've always liked each other, but it's one thing to like each other and another thing to play together and for each other. I think you saw them playing together, for each other. The way they celebrated with each other was really fun to see."