Former South Carolina receiver lands at FCS school, report says
Former South Carolina receiver OrTre Smith has found a new college football destination.
Smith has enrolled at North Carolina Central, an FCS school in Durham, N.C., for his final season of collegiate eligibility, SportsTalkSC reported in a tweet Monday. He entered the transfer portal in October after five years at USC.
The former four-star recruit out of Wando High School was rated the No. 1 player in South Carolina in the class of 2017 when he signed to play for then-head coach Will Muschamp, but health issues put a damper on much of his time in Columbia.
Smith concluded his freshman season as USC’s third-leading receiver in 2017 before a knee injury sidelined him for the majority of the 2018 season. The injury lingered into 2019, when he appeared in nine games and finished with nine catches for 69 yards and a touchdown. Smith opted out of the 2020 season due to COVID-19 concerns and had one catch in five games before entering the transfer portal in 2021.
Gamecocks head coach Shane Beamer, who coached Smith for half the season before he entered the transfer portal, shared details of the conversation they had when Smith decided to leave USC’s program last fall.
“It was a hard decision for OrTre to make that decision to leave,” Beamer said last October. “I have nothing but great things to say about him. I wish him nothing but luck. I told him that. ... It was an emotional meeting because I love the kid. I don’t want to see him go.”
Smith was the first of nine Gamecocks to elect for the transfer portal during or after the 2021 football season. He’s the fifth of that group to reportedly find a new football home.
GAMECOCKS IN THE TRANSFER PORTAL
Listed with their new college, where known
Dec. 15: Keveon Mullins, TE (transferred to Jackson State)
Dec. 15: Jason Brown, QB (transferred to Virginia Tech)
Dec. 12: Vincent Murphy, OL (transferred to Western Kentucky)
Dec. 12: Connor Jordan, QB
Dec. 8: Dominick Hill, DB (transferred to Temple)
Dec. 6: Jahmar Brown, LB/S
Nov. 30: Ger-Cari Caldwell, WR
Oct. 18: Rosendo Louis, LB
Oct. 4: OrTre Smith, WR (transferred to North Carolina Central)
This story was originally published January 31, 2022 at 4:06 PM.
