After humble start at W&M, Smith is on the rise at Tech
Ex-walk-on player has come a long way as a coach
Just a skinny kid in cleats, Ryan Smith went to a freshman tryout he’d been invited to attend at William & Mary. He didn’t have a scholarship offer from any school and he wasn’t granted preferential treatment by the Tribe’s coaching staff.
He was as far off the radar as a football player could get. A true no-star recruit in every sense.
“He just showed up,” former W&M coach Jimmye Laycock said. “He just showed up, worked out and tried out. I can’t remember anything about it, to be honest with you, but I imagine we looked at him and thought, ‘Well, he must have something going for him.’ He wasn’t a guy who was recruited.”
As promising as Smith’s career in the game appears to be now as Virginia Tech’s cornerbacks coach and passing game coordinator, a future in football couldn’t have seemed any more far-fetched a dozen years ago for the guy from King George who popped up at W&M’s practice fields one day after playing at Blue Ridge School in St. George.
Ultimately gaining the right to do little more than wear a practice uniform out of that tryout, he played
in one game his first two seasons as a walk-on defensive back, and had to decide if he wanted to keep playing after he broke his foot before his redshirt sophomore season.
He did keep playing, and he eventually caught Laycock’s attention.
As a senior in 2013, Smith started all 12 of W&M’s games at cornerback, earning Colonial Athletic Association Academic All-Conference honors for a second straight year.
“He was a guy who just kept doing what he was supposed to do and working at things,” Laycock said. “It was kind of a trademark of our program to get good, solid people, then have them work like crazy to get better, and the next thing you know, you’ve got some pretty good players. That was Ryan’s case.”
Smith’s path in coaching wasn’t unlike his journey as a college player. Toiling as a graduate assistant in the 2014 season under coach Larry Coker at the University of Texas-San Antonio, and in the ’15 and ’16 seasons under coach James Franklin at Penn State, Smith once again earned his way from the ground floor.
Humble beginnings, for sure, but those roots meant Smith could claim his own branch in Laycock’s extraordinary coaching tree of guys who either played for him or cut their teeth in coaching under him.
Among coaches who have all learned under Laycock: Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike Tomlin, Buffalo Bills coach Sean McDermott, Bills offensive coordinator Brian Daboll, Dallas Cowboys defensive coordinator and former Atlanta Falcons coach Dan Quinn, Indianapolis Colts defensive backs coach Alan Williams and current W&M coach Mike London.
“He’s always focused on the process and doing things the right way, and I think you’ll hear that from everyone who’s come through the program that’s now coaching,” Smith said of Laycock. “I’ve heard McDermott talk about it. I’ve heard Tomlin talk about it — of Laycock’s emphasis on doing things the right way, never being above the program, always selling the program, always doing things with the program in mind and just being diligent and hard-working at your job.”
After getting his first full-time coaching gigs at the Football Championship Subdivision level, where he was Elon’s secondary coach in 2017 and ’18 and James Madison’s safeties coach in 2019, Virginia Tech coach Justin Fuente hired him in January 2020 — two months before the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
Early last July, Smith thought he was going to have the ACC’s most accomplished set of starting cornerbacks playing for him in his first season with the Hokies.
By the end of July, Caleb Farley, a likely first-round pick in next month’s NFL draft, had opted out of the season. Returning starter Jermaine Waller ended up dealing with injuries and played in just three games.
As challenging as just coaching his own position ended up being, Smith was also thrust into the spotlight as Tech’s interim defensive play-caller in his debut on the Hokies’ coaching staff. Defensive coordinator Justin Hamilton was forced to quarantine before Tech’s opener against North Carolina State after testing positive for the coronavirus.
Preparing ahead of time for the possibility of quarantine-induced coaching-staff attrition, Fuente had Smith train as the first in line to step in as the defensive play-caller should Hamilton be unavailable. Smith was ready.
“Coach Fuente called me down in the (team) hotel, the Hotel Roanoke, and we weren’t even thinking about the 8 o’clock game (against N.C. State),” said Smith, who helped lead Tech to a 45-24 win.
“We were thinking about the 9 a.m. defensive meetings, and from there we were thinking about the next meeting, then the walkthrough, then getting to the stadium. It was just one little thing, process by process, and that’s how we attacked everything this year.”
After Tech’s 5-6 season, Fuente added the newly created passing game coordinator description to Smith’s job title. Smith said the role will have him serving as Hamilton’s “voice for him on game day and during the week in the game-planning parts of things and in practice.”
“(Smith) deserves this opportunity,” Fuente said.
“It’s been well earned. I think it’s fantastic compliment to him and how we all feel about him and his potential.”
NORFOLK — Norfolk State guards and Hampton Roads natives Devante Carter and Joe Bryant have been named to All-MEAC teams, the league announced Friday.
Carter, a senior from Newport News, made the second team. Bryant, a junior who played at Norfolk’s Lake Taylor High, was on the third team.
Coppin State senior guard Anthony Tarke was named both MEAC Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year. His brother, Nendah Tarke, was Rookie of the Year, marking the first time in MEAC history brothers have swept the conference honors.
NSU women’s standouts Jalynn Holmes and Mangela Ngandjui were named to the All-MEAC second team. Ngandjui was also voted to the five-player MEAC All-Defensive Team.
Florida A&M’s Robert McCullum received men’s Coach of the Year honors.
The 6-foot-3 Carter, who played for Woodside High before a postgraduate year in Florida, leads the Spartans and is fourth in the MEAC with 15.9 points per game. The 6-1 Bryant is averaging 10.2.
Joining Tarke on the
All-MEAC first team are teammate DeJuan Clayton, Morgan State’s Troy Baxter, North Carolina Central’s C.J. Keyser and Florida A&M’s MJ Randolph.
Howard’s Jayla Thornton was voted Women’s Player of the Year.
The MEAC tournament begins Thursday and runs through Saturday at Scope.
CAA honors
William & Mary’s Connor Kochera not only made the All-Rookie team, he also was named the Colonial Athletic Association Rookie of the Year in balloting revealed Friday.
James Madison senior Matt Lewis was the Player of the Year, and Hofstra senior Jalen Ray, a Hampton High graduate, joined him on the first team. Mark Byington, in his first season guiding JMU, was named the Coach of the Year.
Kochera was the fourth Tribe player named a CAA Rookie of the Year in men’s basketball and the first since Omar Prewitt seven years ago.
The Tribe’s Luke Loewe made the second team and the All-Defensive team. W&M’s Mehkel Harvey joined him on the All-Defensive squad.