ASU tailback growing into role

TODD TRAUB
ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE

JONESBORO -- Once Danny Smith had a hard time seeing.
Now he is just hard to see.
Smith, Arkansas State's backup tailback, was well on his way to a life of study and not much else when he discovered football. A confessed bookworm, Smith wore heavy glasses, loved computers and wasn't impressing his family with his athletic achievements.
"The big thing was, they thought I was going to be a big nerd," Smith said. "I was born cross-eyed, I had to wear these big glasses. I was into my books, growing up, real hard. So they thought I was going to be a big nerd and I blossomed into sports. It was kind of funny to my folks at first because they never thought I'd be so good at sports."
Smith has learned how to make an impression outside the computer lab with his agility and 4.34 speed in the 40-yard dash. At least when someone can get a good look at him.
"We had a hard time looking at him on tape because he kept running off the screen on video," said Richmond Coach Jim Reid, whose team will be trying to stop Smith on Saturday when ASU plays host to the Spiders at Indian Stadium.
Smith, 5-9, 165, is the smaller, more elusive counterpart to junior Jonathan Adams, ASU's power tailback who gained a record (since broken) 6,714 yards in his high school career at Osceola.
"As the season has progressed they have complemented each other well," ASU Coach Joe Hollis said. "They both approach the game with a level of mental toughness that I appreciate."
Hollis said he feels like he has recreated the situation he had last year, when Adams, 6-0, 214, played behind starter Lamont Zachery, ASU's fourth-leading career rusher with 2,640 yards.
"Our tailback position has us rushing the football about 25 times a ballgame," Hollis said. "Jonathan gets 75 percent of those. That ratio, if we can keep both healthy, probably will not change a lot."
When Smith took the plunge into athletics, he did it in a big way. He ran track, played soccer and was a pitcher/shortstop/catcher in baseball until he began to narrow the field to just football in junior high.
Smith was a four-year starter at Cleveland (Miss.) East Side High School where he gained 4,959 career yards and scored 52 touchdowns and was a two-time team and county MVP. At Mississippi Delta Junior College, Smith started both years and gained 1,149 yards and scored 16 touchdowns as a sophomore and was an all-state selection.
Tired of life in the Mississippi delta, Smith narrowed his recruiting choices to Wyoming and ASU, and opted for the Indians because he wanted to be close enough to his family that they could see him play.
He ditched his glasses for contacts years ago, but Smith is still studious. He switched his major to computer science because ASU doesn't offer a computer engineering program.
If you're computer literate, Smith said, you have the keys to the world.
"Anything that deals with computers," he said of his future career plans. "As far as networking, or programming, analyst. All of it. All in one."
Smith is ASU's second-leading rusher with 104 yards and 1 touchdown. He got his most significant playing time Saturday at Texas Christian, when Adams was pulled early in the third quarter after gaining 93 yards.
Smith played the rest of the game and finished with 21 yards. He also fumbled to set up TCU's final touchdown in the 52-3 loss, but Hollis dismissed the turnover as the result of a good tackle and praised Smith for his rapid development and grasp of ASU's system since spring practice.
"I would say that right now Danny's way ahead of schedule," Hollis said. "I hope there's still that same growth, that we've got some fortunate things to look forward to."

This article was published on Friday, September 29, 2000

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