It’s not easy going from a blue-blood college football program to a new blood, but former Durango High School football star Joshua Bates made the right decision with his move last offseason.
Coming out of high school, Bates was one of the best football recruits in Colorado and one of the best centers in the country after being a two-time CHSAA Class 3A All-State First Team selection with the Demons. He signed to play at The University of Oklahoma, a historic blue blood program with seven national championships, which currently plays in The Southeastern Conference.
But Bates never found his footing as a Sooner. He played in five games over two years at Oklahoma as the program struggled to meet expectations. Bates needed a fresh start and more playing time, so he entered the transfer portal after the 2024 season and committed to Southern Methodist University.
In 2025, Bates got his playing time and broke out as a starter at the Power 4 level. He started all 13 games for a SMU program that went 9-4 overall and 6-2 in the Atlantic Coast Conference. Over the two seasons SMU has been in the ACC, the Mustangs have 20 wins, which is only second to Miami in the conference, transforming SMU into a new blood as Mustangs head coach Rhett Lashlee has phrased it.
This season, SMU is expected to compete at the top of the ACC and vie for a spot in the College Football Playoff. Bates, a redshirt junior, is a big part of that as the team’s starting center, and he knows if the team wins, he’ll have a shot at the Rimington Award for the nation’s best center.
“I feel good,” Bates said. “Offensively, we’ve got a lot of guys returning. We’ve got Kevin Jennings returning, who’s our quarterback. He’s going to be a Heisman candidate this year, and he does just a great job every aspect of the game … We’re feeling really good. This is the best group I’ve been a part of heading into fall camp in the college football I’ve played, so I’m excited … SMU just keeps climbing. I’m glad to be a part of it.”
Bates enjoyed his time at Oklahoma, but he feels at home at SMU with its smaller student body than Oklahoma, which means smaller classes and more personable relationships. It reminded Bates of growing up in Durango.
The former Durango star’s comfort at SMU was seen on the field last year. He was a big part in SMU finishing 12th in Division I and second in the ACC with 283.1 passing yards per game, along with fifth in the ACC with 416.9 offensive yards per game.
A big reason Bates is comfortable at SMU is because of his relationship with Jennings, his quarterback. The relationship between the center and quarterback is one of the most important on the football field. Jennings, a fifth-year senior, is one of the most productive quarterbacks in the country and one of the best in the ACC. He’s been at SMU his entire career and finished last season with 26 passing touchdowns, 13 interceptions and 3,641 passing yards.
Jennings is the most personable quarterback Bates has played with. He’s personable, hangs out with Bates and the guys off the field and cares about his teammates. Bates marvels at Jennings’ ability to escape out of the pocket and buy time behind Bates. When Jennings does that, it makes the offensive line have to improvise to keep their man from getting to Jennings. It’s more work, but Bates and the rest of the offensive line love seeing Jennings turn into Superman.
Lashlee is another guy who makes Bates feel at home. He feels confident Lashlee can lead the Mustangs to an ACC title. It was an adjustment for Bates to leave the Oklahoma system for the SMU system. The Mustangs’ offensive line is expected to be more athletic and open up more for a lot of outside zone looks.
“Coach Lashlee is a great offensive mind, but he’s also very efficient … he’s a guy that you can talk to him for 10 minutes, and it permeates out of his skin: He loves football,” Bates said. “He loves to win. The competitive atmosphere at SMU is incredible. We compete in everything we do … and I love that.”
It’s especially important for Bates to feel at home with his teammates and his coaches because of how much of an outlier SMU is in the ACC. Modern conference layouts don’t make much sense geographically, so Bates and his Mustangs teammates had conference games at Boston College and California last year.
But Bates is used to the travel, since he grew up playing in Durango with his closest game being four hours away. Those long flights create bonds between teammates, and five-hour delays in the Boston airport don’t hurt either.
At 6-foot-3-inches and 310 pounds, Bates describes himself as an instinctual player who sees things before others, which usually puts him in a good position. Bates thinks he moves well laterally, understands leverage and is consistent. He wants to improve on how physical he is this year by improving his endurance. Bates has been working on his muscle and lung capacity in the offseason.
The Mustangs’ center’s improved endurance could be the difference between going 9-4 again or going 11-1. The difference between those records last year was quite small for SMU. Three of its four losses were by three points or less. This year, the schedule lines up for SMU. The Mustangs don’t have to play Miami or Clemson in the regular season. SMU’s toughest game is at Notre Dame, and its toughest conference game is at Louisville.
“This year we’ve done a lot better of a job of kind of understanding what it takes to get within those one to three points,” Bates said. “You go back to our season. We make two field goals, and we are 10-2, going into the playoffs … This year we’ve got completely back to the basics and kind of reiterated what you have to do to win at this level and in this league … Everyone’s really good. That’s how college football’s always been.”
Regardless of how Bates and SMU’s season goes this year, he’s established himself as one of the best football players to come out of Durango High School in recent memory. He shares the Division I stage with fellow Demons like Ben Finneseth, who’s a leader at the University of Colorado Boulder and Owen Cheatham, who will be a freshman at Florida Atlantic University. Not to mention Carver Willis, who will be a rookie on the San Francisco 49ers this fall.
“To come out of a mountain town, especially as football players, you’re competing with guys out of Texas and California,” Bates said. “There’s a high density of football players. Doing it out of Durango and achieving something like that out of Durango is special. It shows what the community is about, and it shows what the football program is about … I’m proud to be a part of Durango, growing up in it, and I know those guys are as well.”