Tyreke Smith’s phone rang before he could get out of his car. He had only just pulled into the lot of the Woody Hayes Athletic Center and began parking when an athletic trainer got ahold of him. They had some news to deliver him. The kind of news he had woken up thankful not to hear all season long.
He had tested positive for COVID-19.
Not even 72 hours had passed since Ohio State beat Clemson in the Sugar Bowl. It was the Monday to begin game-week preparation for the national championship versus Alabama set to kick off one week later. As he recalled his mother telling him, it was the “most unfortunate time” possible to come down with coronavirus.
“I'm like, for real? I'm like, man, nah. You can't be right. But it was, man,” Smith said. “I didn't want to get mad. I couldn't do nothing about it. It is what it was. I just told my teammates (to) go out there and play their best for me. I've just got to hold my head high.”
He spent the night of Jan. 11 in his Columbus apartment where he watched his team get torn apart by a ruthless Crimson Tide offensive attack. From more than 1,000 miles away, he saw the Buckeyes fall, 52-24, in Miami Gardens, Florida.
In Smith’s case, his next journey – this time as a senior in 2021 – started shortly thereafter.
“I've got another opportunity to go back and do the same thing with my teammates,” Smith said. “That's why I'm here. To do the whole thing again.”
And maybe do it a bit differently, as well.
For one, he’s back to actually win it all next season. Twice, Smith has experienced a College Football Playoff, and twice his Buckeyes have fallen short. His strip sack of Trevor Lawrence in this year’s semifinal when pitted against Clemson helped them come out victorious, but his teammates couldn’t finish the job a week and a half later when tasked with taking on Alabama.
Individually, Smith also has quite a bit of room to grow. Ever since he got to Ohio State in 2018, he has been touted as a gifted pass-rusher, and the hype has existed for good reason. At a well-put-together 6-foot-3 and 260 pounds, Smith has the physical gifts expected of somebody who came close to five-star status. His athleticism is unmissable, as is the exceptional speed at which he can jump off the ball at the snap.
Yet Smith hasn’t recorded more than three sacks in a single season at the collegiate level. Across his three years, he has accounted for five sacks, including two last season. Those aren’t the numbers typically associated with football’s best pass-rushers.
Smith has, however, managed to generate a quality amount of pressure. He simply hasn’t gotten home for sacks as much as one would expect. His pressure rate against Power Five offensive lines of 22 percent ranked second nationally, per Pro Football Focus. In the Indiana game alone, PFF recorded him pressuring Michael Penix seven times. That same game, he went sack-less – and tackle-less.
Highest pressure % against power five OLs last season:
— PFF Draft (@PFF_College) February 13, 2021
1. Nik Bonitto - 26%
2. Tyreke Smith - 22%
3. Azeez Ojulari - 21%
4. Ronnie Perkins - 19% pic.twitter.com/C8ZEhH44m2
So, how does Smith turn pressures into sacks? He thinks consistently doing the “little things” that those not in the meeting rooms might miss will make that sack total start to rise. In the mind of long-time defensive line coach Larry Johnson, it won’t take Smith doing anything significantly different.
“One thing I don't want to do is change what he's doing,” Johnson said. “He's going a great job rushing the quarterback, and we'll continue to do that. I don't try to panic about it because that could give the kid, ‘OK, I've got to go make a sack now,’ and then you have a kid jumping out of lanes or doing things that we shouldn't do in the defensive scheme. I think we'll see a big change going into this season. Really, just how it plays out, what we get and how teams are protecting us – that's what we have to study.”
Late in the 2020 season, Smith says he began to feel more comfortable with himself. He began to focus more on his technique, working with Johnson individually on all aspects of his game – his hands, get-off, hips and more. As he put it, “it started showing on the field.”
Physically, Smith was in a better place, too. He was in and out of games as a sophomore before playing all but the national championship during his junior year. This offseason, he importantly has remained healthy.
“I feel great,” Smith said. “This is the best I've ever felt. Fast. Physical-wise, I feel my strongest. It's up to me to keep my body right. I'm just trying to get out there and get better every day. I came back one last year to perfect my craft, try to give myself another chance and my team another chance with me. I'm not trying to waste my chance.”
Ohio State, at this moment, doesn’t have a premier pass-rusher to rely on. It does, however, feature a couple of defensive ends seemingly on the cusp of becoming just that. Zach Harrison and Tyreke Smith are at the forefront, with Jack Sawyer showing every indication that he’ll turn into one at some point during his time in Columbus.
If Smith can become the guy the Buckeyes rely on to get after quarterbacks and terrorize the backfield, the defense would greatly benefit.
For so long, he has seemed close to becoming that guy. In 2021, Smith will try to make the leap he has long sought.
“I think continuing to grow and obviously staying healthy and getting through the season, I think we'll see a special guy on the field,” Johnson said. “I think you'll see a different guy on the field in the sense of how he plays. He's certainly playing well in the spring right now, and I like to see him continuing to do that as we go forward.”
