4-star Gamecock admits he ‘messed up’ before freshman year. Now he’s in a better spot
It didn’t take long for Cam Smith to get the sense he’d have to wait his turn as a part of South Carolina’s football team.
The four-star defensive back was a decorated recruit and had shown well at his national all-star game. But after a semester in limbo because of enrollment issues, he found a situation that wasn’t in his favor.
“Going into the season, (defensive coordinator Travaris Robinson) had high hopes for me,” Smith said. “But going into camp, I was moving a little lazy. I wasn’t really looking urgent and stuff, like I really wanted to play. So I know that. I know I did that. So I know I messed up on that. So I gotta fix that.”
It’s a frank self-assessment of what led to a season in which he only played in three games and couldn’t break into a rotation that was short on bodies. At the start of 2019 camp, he realized things were simply much faster.
But the group still had Jaycee Horn and Israel Mukuamu anchoring the two corner positions. And Smith quickly understood the guys he’d have to jump over to see the field.
“I had a lot of good players in front of me,” Smith said. “I came in not mentally ready, not physically ready, so the development of the coaches and the weight room staff, that’s really got me ready now.”
He admitted it took him around a month last summer just to fully acclimate. And he still had the weight issue to overcome.
He came to campus at 168 pounds, he said. A year later, he’s up 19 to 187 and said he feels comfortable moving around at that weight.
Robinson said Smith is still working to improve his hands, but he’s shown quickness and speed. A few teammates were impressed by how far he’s come this offseason.
“He’s probably been the biggest takeaway for me since the beginning of the spring,” Horn said. “He’s playing real fast, real instinctive, and I feel like the game is slowing down.”
The veteran said he could see Smith figuring things out at times last year, but now he’s got more skills in his tool belt.
What Smith, or perhaps classmate John Dixon, can do at the corner spot will define how the Gamecocks coaches can mix things up. Smith is exclusively a corner at this point, but if he becomes a viable option that could allow Horn to bump inside to nickel at points or Mukuamu to possibly play some safety.
If he can overcome the issues that held him back last season and let his natural skills shine through, he could become a key part of the Gamecocks defense. And he’s still trying to learn and take what he can from those good players ahead of him.
“It gives me a good picture of what I should be,” Smith said, “what I should be looking like going into my junior year. Going into having to play, what I should look like — techniques and everything.”
This story was originally published March 5, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
