When the SMU Mustangs gathered Tuesday for their first optional conditioning workout of the summer, quarterback Kyle Padron was a changed man.

Padron's passer rating of 159.9 in his freshman season was the fifth-best in the country last season (photo by Travis Johnston).

When he arrived a year ago, he was a gangly freshman, trying to learn from his new teammates and show that he belonged on the field with a college team. Despite coming from a program at Carroll High School in Southlake, Texas, that relies on intensive offseason training, Padron said the sweatfests he endured with his new team were taxing, to say the least.

What a difference a year makes.

In the last 12 months, Padron took over the starting quarterback job, won five of his six starts, posted the fifth-highest passer rating in the country (159.9) and was named Most Valuable Player in the Ponies’ 45-10 trampling of Nevada in the Sheraton Hawaii Bowl — a game in which he set a new SMU single-game record with 460 passing yards.

Not a bad year.

But when he took over the quarterback position last year, Padron remained the humble freshman, constantly deferring credit for his success to his coaches and teammates, and seeming almost surprised when media asked him for interviews. As polite as he is, that attitude doesn’t appear likely to change.

But there does seem to be a change in his demeanor around his teammates. An hour before most of his teammates showed up to run Tuesday, Padron was on the field with the receivers, throwing to them for nearly an hour. They weren’t running at top speed, and there was no defense on the field, but they were out there with their soon-to-be-sophomore passer. From the sideline, it was evident that when Padron spoke — even to older players like Aldrick Robinson, who will be a senior this fall, and Terrance Wilkerson, who will be a junior — the receivers listened.

The Ponies’ rout of Nevada in Honolulu, he said, has gone a long way toward increasing the desire of players to go through the torture that is the voluntary work in the summer.

Padron capped off his freshman season by passing for a school-record 460 yards and earning MVP honors in SMU's rout of Nevada in the Hawaii Bowl (photo by Travis Johnston).

“That is a big motivation,” he said. “Last year, we were out here working hard, and our goal was to get to Hawaii … and we did. This year, we’re looking at the Conference USA Championship Game.”

Padron acknowledged that while the Ponies lost a relatively small senior class, they also lost an exceptionally talented cast of veterans, including wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders, linebacker Chase Kennemer, cornerback Bryan McCann, safety Rock Dennis and center Mitch Enright … not to mention junior running back Shawnbrey McNeal, who left a year early for the NFL. Nevertheless, Padron said, the C-USA title game remains a realistic goal.

“Definitely — I think so,” he said. “We lost some really big-time players. But other teams lost players, too, and the guys we have back — we believe in what the coaches are teaching. We know that the coaches know what it takes to win. When you see Al (Robinson) out here working hard, you know we’re pushing.”

The ever-modest Padron insisted that the Ponies are not yet “his” team, but admitted that as he has grown — he has added almost 25 pounds to his 6-foot-4-inch frame in the last year, now tipping the scales at around 220 — he also has begun growing into his role as a team leader. The fact that a sophomore-to-be would challenge an older teammate, as he did by citing Robinson’s improved effort, might not sit well on some teams, but it is that level of acceptance between players that Padron said is vital to the team’s continued improvement.

“Al will be the first to tell you he hasn’t always worked hard,” Padron said. “But he saw the way Emmanuel worked, and it paid off. Emmanuel became a third-round draft choice in the NFL. Al saw that, and you could see his intensity pick up. He can be the next SMU receiver drafted, and he should be.”

The 220-pound Padron has added nearly 25 pounds since last summer (photo by Travis Johnston).

The beauty of the freedom Padron has to talk about his teammates is that he expects them to do the same when critiquing his performance.

“I still have a lot to learn, and a lot to improve on,” he said. “I have a little say, I guess, but when I make a mistake — which I will — I expect them to call me out, too. It doesn’t matter what class we are, or how many games we have started. We’re all teammates and we all support each other. We have to be able to point out things that need improvement, and we can.”

But in the meantime, Padron and his teammates are getting down to work. He and roommate/wide receiver Ryan Walker, with whom he played at Carroll, still put down their share of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, but part of his burlier build, Padron said, can be attributed to the pair’s efforts to eat better food. To that end, the duo has begun cooking on a George Foreman Grill. “A lot of chicken,” Padron said, “and Ryan is trying to get me to eat talapia — I’m still pretty new to that stuff.”

Part of Padron’s success also has to be attributed to his competitive nature. In the team’s optional conditioning workouts this week, he ran with the linebackers and continually pushed himself to the front of the pack “so I can have bragging rights on J.G. (Ja’Gared Davis),” said Padron, before admitting that Davis has considerably more speed. “He knows he can outrun me, and I know he can outrun me. But if we push each other now, during the summer, we’ll be a better team next season.”