FAYETTEVILLE — There are interviews and then there are conversations. You learn the difference after 50 years of talking to college football players.
It was a conversation on Saturday with Theodore Frederick Smith, Jr., on Saturday at the Arkansas football media day. Almost half of the one hour given to the media with the upperclassmen on the team ended up with Smith.
The fifth-year senior dazzled in that 30 minutes. His smile flashed often. He showed the ability to engage that has made him a huge hit with the youth of Washington County.
T.J. Smith as he’s known gives huge quantities of his spare time to serve youth at the Boys and Girls Club of Fayetteville and says yes every time the Book Hogs – as the student-athletes are known – visit area elementary schools. Helping kids is part of Smith’s very soul.
As for his name, it’s to differentiate from Theodore Frederick Smith, Sr., his father and “most influential person” in T.J.’s life.
“Well, he’s Fred Smith and so my mom said I’d be T.J., for Theodore, Jr., and that stuck,” Smith said. “She said T.F. is provocative. But leave that out.”
Sorry, T.J., that was just too rich to omit.
It’s not hard to get T.J. to talk about his parents. They must be awesome people, but that’s what they sent to Fayetteville. Once a saxophone playing musician, Smith has poured himself into every aspect of college life and will play as a senior as a graduate of the accounting department.
“I’ve got my degree,” he said. “I’m proud of that. But I’m really proud of my dad; he’s got three. He just got his doctorate in education.”
Fred Smith is principal at C.A. Gray Junior High in the Colquitt County district in Moultrie, Ga.
That’s where T.J. played his final two years of high school after giving up his first love, playing wing on the high school basketball team.
“I thought I was a basketball player,” T.J. said. “I had played AAU basketball growing up, not football. But I was maybe 6-2. Playing wing and post at 6-2 has no future. But I didn’t care. I loved it.”
One of the football coaches warned Smith of that sure thing after his sophomore year. Why didn’t he try out for the football team? His body type might make for a defensive end.
“So we made a wager: I’d play him in one-on-one on the basketball court and if he won, I’d go out for football and quit basketball,” Smith said. “If I won, I’d stay with basketball. That’s what I wanted to do.
“He beat me. The next thing I knew I was a football player. I hadn’t played football since little league.
“That’s crazy to think where I’d be now if I hadn’t lost that basketball game. I do remember this; that coach played his butt off to beat me, probably best he ever played.”
It’s hard to imagine Smith not playing his butt off, too. He is an extra effort guy.
Perhaps undersized a bit to play at defensive tackle at 279, coaches don’t seem to mind. There are bigger, but less experienced players who can’t beat him out. Smith knows they are coming for him, but he’s not ready to give up his spot.
There are talents like redshirt freshman Isaiah Nichols (6-2, 279) and junior Jonathan Marshall (6-3, 299) nipping at his heels, ready to spell both Sosa Agim and Smith on the two inside slots in the UA defensive line. There are studs in the freshmen class, too. Maybe bigger than the upperclassmen. But don't look for the biggest to be the baddest. Smith knows speed is the top asset in the John Chavis defense that lets tackles stunts and twist.
“I’m actually down about 14 pounds from the start of summer,” Smith said. “I’ve dropped 5 percent body fat. Gave up cheeseburgers. Love them, but I can’t have them anymore.
“I’m prepared to go to another level as far as speed and quickness. I’m feeling a lot better, stronger and a lot faster.”
Smith’s gains aren’t unusual for this team. Trumain Carroll’s efforts in the strength and conditioning program have paid massive dividends throughout the roster. It’s especially noticeable with the offensive and defensive linemen.
“You really see it with the O-line,” Smith said. “Those guys have worked their butts off.”
Actually, they have all gained bigger backsides, haunches that can move people on the football field. It’s the key to run blocking.
“You saw guys that didn’t take days off in the weight room,” Smith said. “The coaches wanted you to take Saturday off. But I didn’t want to do it. I came on Saturday with Jamario Bell. Then, you saw others coming on Saturday. I saw Colton Jackson in there every Saturday, then Ty Clary. They all came. Dorian Gerald was in there on Saturday.
“What you saw is leadership take off in the summer. It was player led leadership. It reminds me of that bunch of offensive linemen when I first got here like with guys like Denver Kirkland and Frank Ragnow on the O-line and Trey Flowers on defense.
“We are putting the pieces together this year with that kind of work. We have paid the price.”
There are some that are just so naturally gifted that it translated into massive gains in the weight room. Marshall fits that description.
“He’s the freakiest athlete I’ve ever seen,” Smith said. “He was freaky when he first got here, too, you guys (in the media) just didn’t know it. You are hearing about it now.
“Now, he’s starting to get the technique to go with that strength. I don’t know really how to tell about Marshall. That kid must have been like a science experiment that everything came out perfect. Wow.”
I asked about the change in culture.
“I think what you have now is just an absolute total buy-in to what the coaches have put out for us to do,” he said, explaining that head coach Chad Morris is loved and respected.
“It took us a little while to make the change. It does take time. I don’t know how else to say this, but it wasn’t like we hated the previous coaches. We didn’t. We came here to play for them so when they left it was a shock.
“It was a tough year. You lose someone you are close to, you take some time to adjust. It’s just normal.
“They were out the door and there was a new way. Change is tough.”
Smith is part of the senior leadership council. Interestingly, there was no committee last year. Seniors didn’t know what was being asked for from coaches so there was no point in having a council.
It reminds of when Bobby Petrino arrived at Arkansas after the Houston Nutt era ended. Petrino told players not to lead, but to follow their coaches. He said it would take time before they knew the system in order to become leaders.
“I get that,” Smith said. “That’s exactly what last year was like for us. We had to watch our coaches and figure it out. We know it now and this group of seniors can lead.
“We meet with Coach Morris. He asks us questions. What do we need? What do we want? We get to make decisions. That wasn’t happening last year. Every staff is different and you don’t have buy in until you know the new way. We know the way now.
“But what we know is that the things we want are the things that Coach Morris has been telling us all along. We know it now. We can tell him when something isn’t right.”
One of the right things is the return of the home uniform look to 2007, the jerseys with Arkansas across the chest.
“Love it,” Smith said. “I’m a simple guy and this is perfect. We all love them. We are so excited to get these jerseys. You ask our team, they all like them.”
There is excitement in the building. But there was a different feeling last November at the end of a 2-10 season.
“It was tough, but we had to quit feeling sorry for ourselves and go to work,” he said. “That’s when growth started to occur. We rededicated ourselves to football.”
Smith has always been a leader by example, but he took on a more vocal leadership as the offseason program began. He kicked it to another level in the summer.
“I guess I was just lead by example,” he said. “But I’ve become more vocal. I’m going to be right there when I see something that needs to be taken care of or a helping hand is required.”
Leadership probably comes natural. He had seen his father lead in school administration all of his life, including time as a basketball coach.
“He never coached me on the field or court,” Smith said. “But my dad did coach me in other ways. His way was tough love. But he knew how to give you the other side, too.
“He was so hard on me, but he’s such a great communicator that he was able to demonstrate the love that was needed, too.
“It’s funny but he and I have the same missions in life. We want to help the under privileged kids.
“I saw him go to the kids that needed the most and concentrate on them. He helped them avoid the traps that were going to get them. That was his philosophy, help them early on and they can make it.”
What Smith talked about was “making it out of the tough neighborhoods.” He said he did from his early days in Albemarle, N.C., about 45 minutes from Charlotte, N.C.
“That’s where I lived until we moved to Georgia in about my 10th grade year,” he said. “It was a small, tough, area. Some don’t make it out, but it’s interesting because the group I came up with all made it. They are scattered at schools across the south.”
Basically, Smith said that happened because of a bond that made sure that no one was left behind.
“You don’t always see that, but my group was able to make it out,” he said. “So my mission is like my dad’s mission, to serve the ones who need it the most. When I go to my service projects, I look for the ones who are at the highest need level and I go straight to them.”
Smith has been nominated for the Danny Wuerffel Award, given to the FBS athlete “who best combines exemplary community service with athletic and academic achievement.”
There is little question that he fits the description. He has been part of in multiple Lift Up America events, helping sort food for the various volunteer groups across Northwest Arkansas, worked with the Boys & Girls Club. He’s also packed meals for families in need for the Fearless Food Fight and has visited sick children at the Arkansas Children’s Northwest Hospital, among other things. He is also involved with the Arkansas Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) and represented the Razorbacks in Birmingham, Ala., as part of the SEC Leadership Council. Smith was also recognized on the SEC Community Service Team.
“We ask for help in community service, T.J. is going to be first to put up his hand,” said Kyle Parkinson, associate athletic director for communication. “He’s there every time. The kids love him.”
You spend half an hour with T. J. Smith, you are going to love him. It probably happens in the first five minutes when he explains his mission in life.
“I just love to serve kids, especially the minorities,” he said. “I just remember growing up in two different cities and both of them had good areas and rough areas. I knew kids in the rough areas.
“I know what the stats say, that most don’t make it. It doesn’t have to be like that. I’ve seen it where they do make it, but it was because someone cared. I am not going to be the one to say they aren’t going to make it. I’m going to try to make sure they do make it.”
T. J. Smith has already made it. Now, he’s trying to see if the Razorbacks can make it. Don’t bet against him.