The frustration of OrTre Smith, and the selfless outlook since knee surgery
South Carolina’s OrTre Smith has been a starting wide receiver in the SEC.
This happened. He made 10 starts in 2017 for an injured Deebo Samuel. He was solidly productive, a No. 3 or 4 target.
That was before a genetic knee condition flared up and ultimately cost him the 2018 season. He was expected to return in 2019, get back in the mix, and it hasn’t yet come to pass. For the Charleston-area product, that hasn’t been easy.
“I feel like, during offseason I got my weight down and everything, and it’s still kind of lingering,” said Smith, now a redshirt sophomore. “Certain stuff in my lower body that’s just lingered ... so just getting all of that healthy is like my focus right now so I can help the team where I can.”
That last part lets one in on a certain selflessness that blends with the irritation that comes with the slow progress.
South Carolina is still not settled on its No. 3 pass catcher. Sometimes it’s Josh Vann, a former four-star who started the season in the role and has shown pop in moments but not consistency. Sometimes it’s Chavis Dawkins, a steady veteran who does everything on the margins but makes relatively few plays. Sometimes it’s freshman Xavier Legette.
And sometimes it’s Smith, maybe the most talented of them all. But he’s not letting the fact he’s not the solidified top option there make him at all bitter toward the others getting the snaps.
“Sometimes it’s frustrating,” Smith said of the wait to get back to full health. “But like I said, the overall goal is to win. So like, if I’m not 100% then whoever is 100% is, you know, they need to play.”
For the season, Smith has six catches for 49 yards, including a touchdown when the game against Florida was out of hand. That’s tied for fourth in catches and fifth in yards among receivers, also falling behind two tailbacks and two tight ends in both categories.
And the pace of his recovery from surgery on a painful subluxing kneecap — meaning it temporarily dislocates — has been a hard watch for his coach as well.
“It’s about a six month recovery,” Gamecocks coach Will Muschamp said. “But, you know, you say it’s a six month recovery, but when you’re a skill player in the Southeastern Conference, to get back to your normal speed, it takes even more so. And we’ve sort of seen that with him. He’s worked extremely hard for it. It has been frustrating for him. It’s been frustrating for everybody.
“We need him back to this first year and how he played. He was a very productive football player for is. And he’s worked extremely hard to put himself in the type shape that he was before and play that high level.”
Smith had 30 catches for 326 yards as a freshman in 2017. In a receiving group with Shi Smith, Bryan Edwards and Hayden Hurst, he was a key cog, a steady presence.
He came to the Gamecocks a four-star prospect and the best recruit in the state. At 6-foot-4, 220 pounds, he towers over folks and was a productive player at Wando High School.
He spurned Clemson, his mother’s alma mater, and came to Columbia, then blossomed quickly.
Now he’s still working his way back. It’s been just more than a year since the injury. He still has the ability to play like he did as a freshman, but he’s still working to unlock it.
“I had my surgery October 5, I think, last year,” Smith said. “So right now like during the summer, it felt better like going into camp, going so it was aching a little bit. And I’m still working on it. It’s healed, so it’s getting back into things really.”
