From Union County to Columbia, it’s Shi Smith’s time to shine for the Gamecocks
Steve Taneyhill sounded almost tickled about it.
It was 25 years ago when the brash and swaggering Gamecocks quarterback found himself on the cover of Athlon Magazine’s college football season preview. This year, Shi Smith, the speedy kid he knew in middle school, coached in high school and then became a Gamecock was there on the Athlon cover in his No. 13 jersey.
“It’s a neat thing that finally I got a player at Carolina and he’s an awful good one,” said Taneyhill, who coached Smith in his early years at Union County High School in the Upstate.
The 2020 season promises to be a different one for Smith. He’s the team’s top option at wide receiver with USC stars Deebo Samuel and Bryan Edwards now in the NFL.
Smith, known for his quiet personality away from football, has succeeded on the field without too much fanfare. Now more falls on the senior. Now it’s time for him to be the star.
He’s taking that distinction with the approach his former coaches said he’s long had. He doesn’t pay it too much mind and gets to work.
“I’m kind of not like one of the loud leaders,” Smith said. “I lead by example, like by making plays and stuff like that, so it’s no pressure.”
Quiet off the field, explosive on it
Taneyhill had already seen some great players in his time. He’d seen the prodigious talent around him when he was a South Carolina quarterback. He’d seen future NFL talent when he coached private school ball in Greenwood and saw state championship-level talent when he was at Chesterfield High School.
And the sight of an eighth-grader named Shi Smith still sticks with him.
“He was at quarterback and basically, just tuck it and take off and no one could catch him,” Taneyhill said. “And then, when he got us in ninth grade we thought we’d try him at free safety to start. And during that summer it quickly turned to wide out and obviously became a starter.”
By the time Smith was finished with ninth grade, he had a scholarship offer from South Carolina, one delivered by then-Gamecocks assistant Shawn Elliott on the final day of school at Union County.
Putting Smith on a high school football field was an act of unleashing a polymath of positions. After the move to offense, the Yellow Jackets staff wasn’t content to keep him at one pass-caching position.
“He played quarterback some in some sets and played inside receiver, outside receiver, tailback,” Taneyhill said. “Then we moved him around.”
What stood out to his coaches all during his journey was a level of toughness. He’s not the biggest guy now, but back then the smaller receiver showed no fear taking hits or delivering them against the Gaffneys or Spartanburgs of the world.
In 2015, Smith was one of the most productive players in the state as a junior with 54 passes for 1,337 yards and 17 touchdowns.
He played his senior season at Union County for Bradley Adams. The coach first remembers Smith for his kind personality, always willing to give someone a ride or offer someone guidance.
“My biggest memory is just always having a heart to help others,” Adams said. “He’s always, always willing to go above and beyond to help someone else around him.”
Union legends to look up to
Scott Sherbert occasionally pulled Smith out of class at Union High for short stretches, but he did it to keep the precocious athlete with so much potential on track.
Sherbert, the head coach at Sims Middle School when Smith was coming through, gathered voices, ones from men who had used Yellow Jackets football to propel their lives forward.
“Some of our former players, if they came by, I’d try to get Shi out of class, or maybe if it was at lunchtime ... just and let some of these guys talk to him,” Sherbert said. “Some of the guys that have been where I see he’s possibly got the potential to go.”
They spoke to him about what it took off the field, what it took socially. Sherbert remembered names like Troy Epps, who played at Florida; Rashaad Jackson, who played at Clemson; and former South Carolina Mr. Football Roscoe Crosby, who battled some of his own demons in life.
Asked about it, Smith pointed to a simple reality.
“It’s not many guys that come out of Union,” Smith said. “The guys that did, they are older. I look up to them.”
Smith’s own journey took him to the University of South Carolina, where former Upstate star athlete Deebo Samuel was making a name for himself.
Smith’s Yellow Jackets and Samuel’s Chapman Panthers faced off twice while they were in high school. There was a tight loss in Smith’s freshman year and a high-scoring win three seasons later.
Samuel’s exploits are widely known, developing into a star in Columbia, going high in the NFL Draft and playing in a Super Bowl as a rookie. But he also took a liking to Smith, building a friendship with the up-and-comer.
It was during Smith’s National Signing Day ceremony that Samuel called, excited and offering encouragement.
“I think Deebo kind of took him under his wing,” Sherbert said. “Shi has always pushed himself hard and trained hard and tried hard. But I think you can go to big city like they’re a big Division I school like that you can get lost. And I really think him with that relationship with Deebo really helped him”
What’s next for Shi Smith?
Sherbert wrestled with how exactly to characterize Smith’s attitude when it came to chasing early playing time in college. It wasn’t cocky or overconfident, but more matter-of-fact. He thought he was good enough to play on the next level, and he approached practice as one should and he pursued a starting job.
Joining a team that had been woefully short on wide receiver depth the year before, he earned that starting spot.
Each year, Taneyhill, now a bar owner in Columbia, tries to get out and watch a USC practice or two. The pandemic made it harder this year, but even back then he thought what was asked of Smith in the Union Country scheme prepared him in a way for what he was stepping into at the University of South Carolina.
“The offense in college couldn’t have been that much different from all the things he had to learn,” Taneyhill said. “You’ve got to learn a lot to play inside receiver and play outside receiver.”
Smith was a starter in the slot as a freshman — in Will Muschamp’s second season as Gamecocks coach — and was moderately productive as the team lost Samuel for the year. When Samuel returned in 2018, Smith blossomed into a dynamic playmaker with 45 catches for 673 and four touchdowns. His numbers slipped a bit last season, as QB ups and downs and some injuries slowed him.
And that’s brought Smith to Year 4, a senior season.
“It flies by,” Smith said. “You (can’t) take a moment for granted.”
Taneyhill at times wondered if Smith would be used as more of a consistent deep threat at some point in his career and perhaps used in a way similar to the versatile Samuel. New offensive coordinator Mike Bobo said it might be hard to use Smith as a factor in the run game because he’s needed down the field.
And this summer’s extended training camp was a chance for a little extra growth late in Smith’s college career.
“Obviously, you can see he has ability,” Bobo said. “But he’s got to refine his game and become great at doing the little things. He needs to become a consistent player.”
The tone wasn’t harsh, but maybe a bit stern in a public setting. Then Smith turned around and was the team’s player of the day at back-to-back practices as nagging issues have kept him out at times through camp.
“He definitely has the play-making ability to be a difference-maker for this offense and in this league,” Bobo said.
He’ll get his chances, and even as his role changes, he’s not changing too much. He’s still that quiet personality, joking he’s been OK during the coronavirus pandemic because he is fine staying in his room and doesn’t like people too much anyway. Taneyhill said he’s always kept to himself to a degree, but he will open up to those close to him.
Smith on Tuesday joked that he’d recently heard from Taneyhill, who offered some good-natured ribbing.
“He was getting on me about Muschamp saying Luke [Doty] was the fastest on the team,” Smith said.
Smith enters this year in a different position. He’ll have the chance to return for a fifth year if he likes — owing to the pandemic and NCAA relief on eligibility. He implied that if things work out as he hopes, he’ll move on to that potential NFL career Sherbert hopes he has in him.
For now, he’s the player on the magazine cover and the successful college player getting more of the attention. Taneyhill said his own son wears No. 13 after Smith. When they go to USC games, the younger Taneyhill, a receiver, likes to wait afterward to see Smith.
Years after those lunchtime conversations with older players, Smith, still in the midst of his own journey, is the one being looked up to.
“It seems like it’s flown by, to me,” Sherbert said. “For me, it seems like, how in the world is this here this quick? It seems like he just left here.”
This story was originally published September 24, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
