INSTANT IMPACT
Smith has overcome setbacks, is key to OSU’S defensive resurgence
TAfter missing three games earlier this season with an injury, defensive end Tyreke Smith has returned to his role as a disruptive force on the Ohio State defense. yreke Smith’s parents thought it had to be a joke.
Michelle and Randy Smith played college basketball. They know how hard it is to earn a scholarship offer.
Tyreke was a sophomore basketball player at Cleveland Heights High School and good enough to have gotten offers from Midamerican Conference schools. He’d been urged to give football a second shot after not playing the sport since the fourth grade.
He began football workouts on a Monday.
“That Wednesday he came home and said, ‘I got an offer,’ ” Randy Smith recalled. “I’m like, ‘An offer for what?’ ”
Toledo had offered a football scholarship based on the athleticism he’d shown in those first workouts.
“He was out there in basketball shoes, running and catching passes on a volleyball court,” Michelle said. “You couldn’t make this up. The next day, I’m like, ‘I’m not believing this.’ ”
She changed her mind when she went to the workout and a Syracuse football coach told her he would offer Tyreke a scholarship that night.
“It took off like gangbusters from that, literally before he ever played a down,” Michelle said. “It was crazy.”
“I got probably 10 other offers before I even played a down of high school football,” Tyreke said.
The promise those coaches saw in Smith has been realized at Ohio State. It hasn’t always been a smooth path. Injuries have interrupted his progress. A positive COVID-19 test kept him out of last year’s College Football Playoff championship game.
This year, he missed three games with an unspecified injury. But last week, Smith was instrumental in Ohio State’s victory over Penn State. In the second quarter, he and fellow defensive end Zach Harrison sacked quarterback Sean Clifford and stripped the ball, which Jerron Cage returned for a touchdown. In the fourth quarter, Smith’s pressure on Clifford forced an underthrow that Cameron Brown intercepted to set up a Buckeyes score. “We took that as something personal when it came to school. We weren’t just athletes. We were student-athletes, and my parents wanted to make sure we were well-educated, not only in your sport, but off the field and off the court.”
“Knowing all the hard work I put in — the grind — to help my team and have a big impact on the win, it just felt amazing,” Smith said. “My mindset is to keep on doing it and be consistent and keep giving the team the impact I did Saturday.”
Smith is the youngest of Randy and Michelle’s four kids. All are athletes. But the Smith parents were adamant that their kids be more than that. Randy is vice president of sales for a beverage company. Michelle is a retired nurse. They moved to Florida in March and are starting a car-wash business.
Smith, a sport industry major, is a three-time OSU scholar-athlete and two-time Academic All-big Ten honoree. He is on track to graduate in December.
“They put that hard-work mentality in me,” he said of his parents. “Nothing is given. You’ve always got to earn something. They coached me and my brother (Malik) from a young age in AAU basketball. They were always on us from the jump, not just in sports but in school as well.
“We took that as something personal when it came to school. We weren’t just athletes. We were student-athletes, and my parents wanted to make sure we were well-educated, not only in your sport, but off the field and off the court.”
Smith was born in Cleveland but the family moved to California when he was a baby. He played football for a few years until the fourth grade, but Michelle said that he stuck to basketball after he sustained concussions after improper coaching.
The family moved back to Cleveland before Tyreke started high school. He was coaxed into showing up for football workouts by family friend Lonnie Atkins and Cleveland Heights assistant coach Kahari Hicks. From those first workouts, Smith’s explosive speed was obvious.
Buckeyes defensive line coach Larry Johnson worked with Smith when he came to an Ohio State camp that year.
“Never played football (but) was in front of the line, eager to go,” Johnson recalled. “I said, ‘Man, this guy goes nonstop.’ He was a basketball player and had athleticism. You saw that. We spent time teaching technique and stance, and you knew you just couldn’t go wrong with a guy with the athleticism he had.”
Playing high school ball for the first
time as a junior, Smith quickly blew up into a four-star prospect. Ohio State and Penn State were his top two. In fact, Randy Smith said his son silently committed to Penn State at one point before changing his mind after taking a visit.
Smith’s bond with Johnson was probably the biggest factor that swayed him to Ohio State. That connection has continued to grow. Smith may have been raw because of his inexperience, but Johnson loved how he gave maximum effort at all times and maintained a positive attitude despite adversity.
At the end of last season, Smith was in the midst of a breakthrough. In the College Football Playoff semifinal against Clemson, Smith had a sack and forced fumble and was continually a disruptive presence.
But the Monday before the title game against Alabama, Smith was sitting in the parking lot of the Woody Hayes Athletic Center when he got a call from the training staff that he had tested positive for COVID-19.
“I’m like, dang, it had to happen to me,” Smith said. “But I tried to be positive through it all. That’s always my thing. I’m in a position not a lot of people are in today so I always try to look at the best aspect of the situation.”
His parents weren’t surprised by how he handled it.
“Very rarely do you catch him in a bad mood,” his father said. “He’s always in an upbeat mood.”
Johnson said Smith has a “big personality” that people gravitate to.
Smith, 21, returned for his senior year determined to go out with a splash. The injury that kept him out for three games slowed him, but he showed against Penn State how much of a difference-maker he can be.
“I’m just trying to go out there and give everything I have in my last goaround,” he said. “I just want to end it on a good note, not think negative or what could have been or have any regrets. I just want to go out there with my brothers and ball. That’s all I’m trying to do every time I get on the field — try to get the win and have fun.”
Next year, the NFL awaits. For some players, a pro career is Plan A and Plan B.
“If Ty would call me today and say, ‘Mom, I’m done playing football,’ I would not have a problem with it at this point,” Michelle said. “I always tell him that football doesn’t define you. If he never played a snap again, he would be very successful in life. He’s well-liked, he’s smart. He’s got opportunities in terms of what he wants to do post-nfl.”