I would put 10 wins and the W over Utah as the greatest accomplishments overall, but I think an underrated achievement of this team was the W over SMU. The Mustangs are going to play for the ACC championship game with a good shot of winning, and even if they lose they will probably make the field of 12 as an at-large. If they win the ACC, all conference smack talk over the offseason will inevitably start with the fact that their champion lost to the #3 team in the Big XII. Even better if they make a run for the playoff — every time their record is discussed people have to bring up the loss to BYU.
I also don't buy the narrative being pushed by some that we played them before Jennings was estabilished as their starting QB. Preston Stone played exactly two drives and Jennings played the rest of the game. Did he play better than Stone? Inarguably yes, but he also scored exactly 0 touchdowns in 3 quarters. I absolutely do not buy that if he had been the starter from the beginning then they would have won the game.
Finishing 7-2 in conference play was a solid achievement, if not great. Beating one of the toughest opponents the Big XII had scheduled in the non-con should be viewed as exceptional.