When evaluating Deion Smith’s recent play, it’s the little things about the fifth-year junior running back that stand out the most to those who watch him with the sharpest gaze.
He’s running more decisively whenever he gets the ball. His day-in-day-out consistency has improved. More than anything else, there’s the palpable rush of confidence that builds with each productive carry.
“You see the pep in his step,” said Buffs running backs coach Darian Hagan, a man who knows a thing or two about making plays with his legs. “He knows what he’s doing. He knows the plays. He knows what we’re asking of him.”
What has been an otherwise ignominious two-week stretch for the Colorado offense has at the very least provided a promising peek at Smith. The Houston native has been perhaps the lone bright spot for the Buffs on that side of the ball in losses to Air Force and Minnesota, rushing a combined 21 times for 129 yards (an average of 6.1 yards per touch) and a touchdown in that pair of games. Against the Golden Gophers last week, he ran for a career-high 70 yards and did so on just 10 carries.
Smith alone won’t make an impotent unit a competent one, but his emergence over the past two games shows that college football’s third-worst scoring offense at least has something encouraging to offer.
“I just want to be productive every time I touch the ball,” Smith said following Tuesday’s practice. “I want to figure out how to get my offense going and create a spark.”
Such a breakout didn’t entirely come out of nowhere. Last season, Smith was the team’s third-leading rusher, though that designation was achieved with a modest 208 yards on 53 attempts – an average of just 3.9 yards per carry – and 2 touchdowns. On the team’s season-opening depth chart, he was listed right alongside Alex Fontenot for the top spot at tailback.
How he got to this point was seldom easy.
A three-star recruit coming out of high school, Smith redshirted his freshman season in 2018. After being a bit player on offense and special teams in 2019 – with the highlight being a 41-yard showing on 7 carries against Oregon – whatever hopes Smith had for his redshirt sophomore season were dashed before they could even take form. During a summer workout in 2020, he tore his ACL, the second time he had suffered such an injury in a three-year stretch, and he missed the entire season.
“It was tough,” Smith said. “The hardest part about it is being isolated and being away from your team. The biggest thing is that you want to be out here doing the things that the rest of these guys are doing. It's a little mentally draining and sad whenever you can't just be out here sweating with the guys and hurting with them. That was the hardest part. Physically, of course, it's tough to get yourself back to where you were before, but the hardest part is mental. It's a lot on you at one time -- you miss doing the things that you love.”
The process of rehabbing himself physically to return to the field in 2021 was strenuous enough, but with that came an added mental challenge. It’s one that, two years later, he has handled well.
“You just hope they don’t get tentative and start second-guessing the technique that we're teaching,” Hagan said. “For instance, some guys get shy when they get tackled by the ankles or row tackled. You try to coach them out of that fear, but a guy like Deion, he's gotten smart. He knows his body well. You see him every time he gets tackled, he rolls with it like a damn alligator.”
Merely getting back on the field and carrying the ball again wasn’t enough for Smith. Understandably, he longed for more. He bulked up a bit after a diligent offseason in the weight room. He worked on becoming more decisive and getting up the field in quicker bursts. He focused on polishing what he described as his “true game” – utilizing his speed and making opponents miss him in space.
It has shown on the field of late. He has the Buffs’ lone touchdown run of the season, a 25-yard scamper against Air Force that briefly put Colorado back in a game it had been trailing by 20. His rushing total against Minnesota wasn’t inflated by one long run, but a relatively steady output. Of his 10 rushing attempts, three went for at least 13 yards, two of which – runs of 13 and 17 yards – set up the Buffs’ only touchdown of the day.
“He's doing everything we ask of him and more,” Hagan said. “He's going above and beyond. He’s fighting for extra yards. Last year, I thought at times he got tackled way too easily. This year, he's not. Going into spring ball, we addressed that we wanted more physicality from him. He's doing that. It’s on his mind constantly.”
What’s on Smith’s mind more than anything, even his individual accolades, is his team and the pitfalls it has encountered three games into its season.
If an offense that has shuffled between quarterbacks throughout the season and was without its most experienced ball-carrier last week in Fontenot aspires to be something more than what it has been to this point, it will need Smith’s early successes to carry over for the rest of the season. In that sense, his personal and team goals aren’t all that isolated.
“Even though these numbers are growing and I'm starting to be more productive each week, it still isn't enough because I want my team to win and I want us to be more productive on the offensive side of the ball,” Smith said. “That builds confidence, but also, the biggest thing is just trying to get a win. That's gonna be the biggest confidence-builder there is.”
