The story of Ben Hicks and SMU is a long and complicated tale.

To start, it’s strange that the four-star quarterback even wound up at SMU in the first place. Hicks, a member of the prestigious Elite 11 QB Camp (2014), chose the Mustangs over several football powerhouses, including Michigan and Florida.

Back in early 2015, Hicks signed with SMU after initially committing to the University of Houston. He was the first quarterback to sign under Chad Morris, the former Clemson offensive coordinator who took the SMU job before the 2015 season.

“It’s a great school,” Hicks said after signing. “But the deciding factor for me was just the comfort I felt with the coaching staff, personality wise it was just a great fit for me and my family..”

Fast forward to the 2016 season, where the Mustangs were coming off of two disastrous seasons. SMU was so bad, in fact, that former Mustangs’ running back Eric Dickerson called for the school to just “kill the program”.

As the 2016 season wore on, it seemed like maybe Dickerson had a point. They were 2–4 to open the year, highlighted by a 33–3 demolition in the “Battle for the Iron Skillet” at the hands of TCU. However, when the Mustangs welcomed №11 Houston to Gerald Ford Stadium on October 22nd, 2016, everything changed.

The game, which was broadcast nationally on ESPN2, turned out to be the coming out party for Ben Hicks — then a freshman making just his sixth start.

Hicks exploded for SMU, a team who was only 5–25 in their last 30 games. He ran for a score to start the game, then tossed two quick touchdowns to put the Mustangs up 21–0 on Houston. To say the national audience was shocked would be an understatement. After all, they entered the game as 22.5-point underdogs.

When the final whistle blew, Hicks had combined to contribute four touchdowns to SMU’s 38–16 shellacking of Houston, outplaying quarterback Greg Ward Jr., the then-Heisman candidate for the Cougars.

The win over Houston was SMU’s first win of a team ranked 11th-or-higher since 1982.

At the time, Mustangs’ head coach Chad Morris was understandably hopeful in an interview with ESPN.

“It just takes one (win) to start a revolution,” he boasted. “It just takes one win to put some wind in our sails.”

While it hasn’t been quite like the early-1980's, he was right about the revolution, albeit a tempered one. In the Mustangs’ next few games, they won two road games against American Athletic Conference opponents, finishing the season with their best record since 2013.

However, the real revolution has come this season with Hicks in his second year under center. The Mustangs have opened the season 4–1, with their only loss coming in the “Battle of the Iron Skillet” game. Except this loss to TCU wasn’t a 33–3 trouncing, they actually kept it relatively close and scored 36 points.

On Saturday, the Mustangs opened AAC play with a 49–28 demolition of UConn at home. It was the fourth time they scored more than 44 points, and the fifth time they scored more than 36. Overall, the team ranks in the Top-5 of all FBS teams in points scored with 48.5 per game.

Hicks, of course, has been the driving factor behind their success, tossing four touchdowns in their win over UConn. The impressive showing now puts him at 1,275 yards in five games, with 14 touchdowns and just three interceptions. He’s also added one rushing touchdown.

The Mustangs’ schedule will get difficult from here on out, but with the system Morris has brought over from Clemson, they can hang points on anyone — especially with Hicks captaining the ship.

If Hicks can keep putting up big numbers moving forward, along with his pedigree as a plus-pro-style quarterback, he may not only be a household name in college, but in the NFL, as well.