Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Smith aims to make an early impact
Between the packing, moving, waking up early for workouts and learning his way around campus, the past three weeks have been a blur for Keontra Smith.
But Wednesday morning, when the former Chaminade-Madonna All-America safety returned to Broward County to help lead young football players through drills at a camp with his new Hurricanes teammates and his new coach Manny Diaz, Smith couldn’t help but smile.
“This is an eye-opener, you know, seeing these kids,” Smith said. “I was in those same footsteps once.”
His journey has now brought him to Coral Gables, where Smith — one of the more highly touted members of Miami’s 2019 recruiting class — is hoping to find his way onto the field and make an impact. The Hurricanes are looking to bounce back from last year’s 7-6 season and again challenge for the ACC Coastal Division title.
During his short time on campus, he’s quickly learned it won’t be easy.
With the Hurricanes working their way through their offseason conditioning program, Smith has had to adapt to earlier wake-up calls than he was used to as a high school student. He’s had to adjust to the physical demands put on him and the rest of his teammates by strength and conditioning coach David Feeley. And he’s had to make sure he’s keeping up with his first college classes.
Time management has become a skill Smith knows he must master, but he’s gotten help on that front from one of his high school teammates, freshman cornerback Te’Cory Couch.
The two, who won a pair of state titles together at Chaminade, are now roommates at Miami. Navigating their first weeks of college together has, Smith said, made the process easier.
“We push each other,” said Smith, who had 115 tackles and eight sacks as a high school senior.
“We wake each other up. Sometimes, though, we wake each other up late.”
With the Hurricanes defensive backfield in rebuilding mode after the departures of veterans Jaquan Johnson, Sheldrick Redwine and Jhavonte Dean, Smith and Couch are hopeful they’ll be able to find their way onto the field together, much the way former high school teammates Johnson and Redwine did at Miami.
Smith — who says he often exchanges messages with Johnson, who has provided him with advice and encouragement — fully expects he’ll have to catch his coaches’ attention with strong special teams play before he can challenge for a role in the secondary.
He’s prepared for that, he said.
“I just want to get on the traveling team,” Smith said. “So I’m going to try to get on all the special teams first so I can travel and might get in and make some big plays as a freshman.
“[Safeties coach Ephraim Banda] tells me that all the time — if you want to play, you’ve got to get on special teams.”
Smith’s efforts, even early on, haven’t gone unnoticed.
When players have gotten together for seven-on-seven work during his brief time on campus, Smith has, more than once, lined up against veteran Hurricanes receiver Mike Harley. The two, who grew up in the same neighborhood and attended the same middle school, have challenged each other the same way they did when they were younger.
And Harley has again walked away impressed.
“You see the smile on my face, so you know that’s my young guy,” said Harley, a former standout at St. Thomas Aquinas. “When I saw him in the dining hall, that made me happy because that’s like another guy in my neighborhood that looks up to me, that’s following my footsteps. He’s another guy my from neighborhood that made it.
“A lot of guys in our neighborhood don’t make it … I see like a younger brother in my household that we grew up together out there, so it’s a blessing to see him. I’m just happy and I’m always telling him to work hard, ask questions and learn from [Hurricanes safety] Amari [Carter] and Derrick Smith and those guys.
“In a couple seven-on-sevens, I’ve seen [Keontra Smith] in the slot and I was talking smack to him to come press me. Even though that wasn’t his responsibility, he still competed with me. We stayed out there, did a couple one-on-ones. He got me; I got him.
“I’m just trying to get him ready so he can be able to play on Saturdays as a true freshman.”