This is SMU’s first season in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
DALLAS — Moments like bringing along his son for training are what former NFL Carolina Panthers player Dante Wesley can’t get back.
“He was always interested in sports growing up,” said Wesley. “I could just remember him walking down the same hallways and sitting in my locker.”
Although he can’t relive them, he can recreate them as he now helps his son go through athletic training. “It’s very exciting,” said Wesley.
It is exciting because for the first time, his son, Dante Wesley II, will return to his dad’s old stomping grounds as an SMU football player.
“This is like a surreal moment just to have him here,” said Wesley.
The university sent off the team as they head to Charlotte, North Carolina to take on Clemson at Bank of America Stadium Saturday.
“These guys have been practicing hard. They’ve been playing hard all year,” said Wesley.
He knows it. The school knows it too.
“We’re definitely going to make it to the playoffs. Like definitely rooting for them,” said SMU Track & Field athlete Camryn McPhaul.
“Make sure we put the world on notice and let them know that, you know SMU is here,” said Lamar Bynum, an SMU soccer player.
It’s the Mustangs’ first season in the Atlantic Coast Conference and they have already found themselves competing for a title.
“We’re a massive program that went through some stuff in the eighties,” said Bynum.
SMU was rocked by scandal in the 80s after a WFAA investigation resulted in the death penalty and years of sanctions. Now, the football program is going to a championship game.
It’s amazing not just for the team, fans, and school, but also for Wesley who will be cheering on his son. “I’m really happy for him,” said Wesley. “He’ll have this part in his life that he can, he can look back on and say, man, I’ve been there before.”