OrTre Smith, back from COVID opt-out and finally healthy, has big goals for senior year
OrTre Smith arrived at South Carolina with high hopes and expectations, but injuries have held the senior wide receiver from accomplishing many of them.
Now, he’s got a list of personal goals for his final season. At the top of the list? Stay healthy.
“I have flashes in my head on what I could do if I was really 100% healthy,” Smith said Friday. “I know what I could do but you guys haven’t seen it. I had a little flash my freshman year. Me personally, I could be the best that could ever do it if I stay healthy, get in shape and get my body right.”
Trying to get to 100% is the reason is part of the reason why Smith missed all of this past season. In September, he announced he would opt out of the season amid COVID-19 — the NCAA let all student-athletes opt out over COVID concerns, and it didn’t cause them to lose a year of eligibility.
Because he opted out, Smith wasn’t allowed access to USC’s facilities and nutrition program. So, he bought a membership to Crunch Fitness in Columbia, made frequent stops to Chipotle and also cooked his own meals.
“COVID was a bummer but I looked at it as a second chance to get things back in order,” Smith said.
Smith wasn’t the only Gamecocks receiver who opted out of last season. Fellow receiver Randrecous Davis, who like Smith has been bothered with injuries throughout his career, used the COVID year to get ready for a big senior season.
The two receivers have become close over the last few years because of the obstacles they have encountered. Davis opted out last year after having rod placed in his leg to help deal with a stress fracture.
Davis also missed the 2019 season after suffering a high ankle sprain.
“OrTre is my guy,” Davis said. “We have been through the same amount of injuries. We can lean on each other because we have been through changes together.”
Smith’s injuries started before he even arrived in Columbia. The four-star was ranked by 247Sports as the 19th-best receiver in the country coming out of Wando High School in 2016. But he missed his senior season with an ankle injury and that limited him early in spring practice.
As a freshman, Smith made 10 starts and had 30 catches, third most on the team. His sophomore season in 2018, though, was cut short by a knee injury caused by a genetic issue. The effects of that injury lingered into 2019, Smith said, although he played most of the year.
Smith had a TD catch against Florida and started the season finale against Clemson.
“They had to move my whole knee cap over, because I guess it was going in a different direction than it was supposed to go,” Smith said. “It was frustrating. Because as a receiver, all you do is run routes and make cuts. I couldn’t run like I wanted to run and play like I wanted to play. … I still played even though I couldn’t produce as much, it was tough.”
Throughout the ups and downs, Smith said he never thought about quitting football even though no one would have blamed him. Now, he is hoping that perseverance pays off this season.
“I’m striving to be the best I can and just contribute to the team as much as I can,” Smith said. “We got some talented receivers but my goal is to help this team as much as I can.”
This story was originally published March 27, 2021 at 8:42 AM.
