When SMU players walk from their locker room to the field before home games, former Mustangs watch them. The walls of the tunnel are decorated with the likenesses of former SMU greats who made their mark in the NFL, from a faded image of Doak Walker to a color shot of current Cowboy Cole Beasley.
Last winter it seemed likely another portrait would be added to the tunnel. Wide receiver Courtland Sutton had a decision to make: remain at SMU for his junior season or turn professional.
Sutton's parents were the primary council, going over the pros and cons of each option. Head coach Chad Morris provided Sutton with projections of where Sutton could land in the draft, anywhere from the first to the third round.
"I felt no pressure throughout the entire process," Sutton recalls. "There was not once that I felt that whatever way I made my decision I was going to disappoint somebody or make somebody upset."
He deliberated for six weeks before deciding to return to SMU on Jan. 11.
Compared to his decision to commit to SMU out of high school, six weeks seems like an eternity.
None predicted Sutton was a potential first-round pick when he was a senior at Brenham High School in 2014. In fact, few even thought he could play receiver in college. He was too slow and too poorly versed in the art of the position in their eyes.
Instead, schools saw him as a safety, his secondary position at Brenham. Texas A&M even considered him at outside linebacker.
"I really wanted to play receiver," Sutton said. "In high school I had a lot of guys tell me I just wouldn't be able to play receiver."
He didn't let positional concerns get in the way of a college scholarship, though. Sutton's heart was set on going to Colorado, a good school that would give him the chance to grow on his own outside of Texas.
His official visit to Boulder proved to be ill-fated. The coaching staff called him into an office and informed him that his scholarship offer was no longer on the table. Instead, he had to walk out of the office and tell his mother that Colorado wanted him to walk on.
"He called me and he was so down," Brenham head coach Glen West recounts. "He said, 'My mom had to spend her own money to go to Boulder only to find out they don't have a scholarship for me.' "
Sutton returned to Brenham 10 days before national signing day with BYU as his primary suitor. Three days later, then-SMU assistant Derrick Odum came to Brenham desperate for someone to fill a scholarship vacated by a last-minute decommitment.
West showed a copy of Sutton's senior reel to Odum. It was enough for SMU to offer Sutton and set an official visit to the Hilltop that weekend. He committed to June Jones' coaching staff then and there and waited three days until signing day to make his announcement.
"Nobody expected it," Sutton says. "I just believed in the opportunity to do something great. I didn't want to be that guy that fell into a system at a big school and was just another name and another number. I wanted to be able to make a name for myself."
During his redshirt season, Sutton kept in mind the recruiters' evaluations of him. He did not want to prove them wrong so much as he wanted to prove to himself that he could be a receiver.
Jones resigned that September and Morris replaced him as SMU's head coach. When first assessing the SMU roster, the former Clemson offensive coordinator barely paused at Sutton's name.
"When we got here, I knew he was tall and rangy and skinny and had some ability. Didn't really just jump off the page," Morris admits.
But then practices started and Morris texted West, a friend of his from the Texas high school football coaching world.
"Oh my gosh," he wrote. "How did we get this kid?"
Two seasons, 2,135 yards and 19 touchdowns later and Sutton's fingerprints are all over the program just as he intended. He could have left for NFL riches and fame and left Mustang fans with indelible memories of acrobatic feats.
But he says there is work left for him on campus. Sutton will graduate in December with a degree in sports management in three-and-a-half years. If there was one reason he chose not to leave school a year ago, it was so he did not need re-enroll in school after his playing career.
"No matter what happens, I can always say I have my degree from SMU and that's something nobody can take from me," Sutton says.
After two losing seasons, the junior wants to complete SMU's turnaround under Morris before turning pro.
"I would have missed out on what we're about to embark on right now," Sutton says. "The culture is solidified. I just knew that there was something special going on here and I wanted to be a part of what is going on right now."
So for at least one more year, Sutton will walk through the tunnel. Soon he will be on its walls, but not until his business at SMU is finished.
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