Baltimore Ravens pass rusher Za’Darius Smith could have easily never played football at all.
After playing basketball for most of his life, Smith realized after his junior year that the sport wasn’t destined to be a significant part of his future, especially given the realities presented by his size while he tried to play center at the AAU level. Suggestions were made that he give football a shot, but trying to join the varsity team at Greenville (Ala.) High School as a senior after having never played the game before was a bit of a reach. But the football coach said if the other seniors approved of it, he’d allow Smith to join.
Smith knows how much his life changed because his classmates voted to allow him to play.
“If it wasn’t for them, I wouldn’t be Za’Darius Smith,” he said.
The fourth-year pass rusher is off to a solid start to his 2018 season. Through three games, he’s on pace to post career highs in tackles and sacks. While it’s still a relatively small sample size, he’s actually on pace for his first career double-digit sack season. He even caught the internet’s attention with his take on Ray Lewis’ “squirrel” celebration after sacking Denver Broncos quarterback Case Keenum Sept. 23, the same day Lewis received his Hall of Fame ring in Baltimore.
The former University of Kentucky standout has had to grind on his path to rediscovering the promise he showed during his rookie season in 2015 (5.5 sacks). The difficulty of that grind might have been easier to stomach for Smith considering where he’s come from.
If you watched the first two seasons of the hit Netflix show “Last Chance U,” you’re probably familiar with East Mississippi Community College in Scooba, Miss. The school has been a landing spot for a number of high-profile football players who have dealt with behavioral issues or academic struggles. It gives players one more opportunity to try to transition to (or back to) a major Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) college football program.
Smith played at East Mississippi in 2011 and 2012. He was a part of the school’s first junior college national championship team in 2011. His reason for coming to the school wasn’t the same as most of his teammates. He just needed somewhere to further develop as a football player because he had only played one season in high school. But his experience in Scooba was exactly like the experiences of his teammates and just as raw as what fans saw on the show, which centered on the school’s 2015 and 2016 teams.
“Coming out of East Mississippi going to Kentucky, a lot of guys was like, ‘Dang Z, you’re so humble,'” Smith said. “‘Dang Z, you’re so happy about everything that you get.’ At junior college, we didn’t have a pair of cleats a game or we didn’t have different gloves per game. We had one pair of shoes, one pair of cleats for the whole season. That little stuff right there made me humble. To make it out of there, it was basically football and books at East Mississippi.”
And as was evident on the show, simply living in the town of Scooba (population 732…seriously) was a particularly humbling experience. What was there to do?
“Nothing,” Smith said. “You gotta go 30 miles south to Meridian or 45 miles to Starkville. If you don’t have a vehicle — that’s something I didn’t have, I didn’t have a vehicle. I was considered an out-of-state guy. So like on the weekends I couldn’t go home, I just had to stay there. That’s what kept my mind focused on football.”
That isolation also drove Smith to take academics seriously and forge a friendship with one of the stars of “Last Chance U,” former East Mississippi academic adviser Brittany Wagner.
“When I first went on my visit to East Mississippi, it was me, my mom and my brother. As soon as I got there, that was the first lady that I met,” Smith said. “I kid you not, she said, ‘If you come here, you’re gonna be in your books and we’re going to play football.’ And that was the two things that she told me and we stuck with it and we got my work done, and I was able to go to a [Division I] university after that. So I thank Ms. Brittany Wagner for everything.”
Wagner was actually a little apprehensive about Smith’s arrival in Scooba.
“In Mississippi, we have limits on how many out of state players we can bring in,” Wagner told PressBox. “We can only bring in eight out-of-state players. So typically those eight players are [Division I] transfers, they’re highly recruited, five-star players. They are the reason why we win championships. Typically they are D-linemen and quarterbacks and just really talented players.
“I remember [former East Mississippi defensive line coach Freddie] Roach saying, ‘We’re bringing this kid in from Alabama, he’s an out of stater, he’s a D-lineman, you’re gonna love him, he’s never played football.’ And I was thinking, ‘What are we doing? Are we trying to lose?'”
But it didn’t take long for Wagner to take to Smith.
“[He] seemed a little shy and a little insecure, kinda scared, and he did seem just a little intimidated and unsure of the process,” Wagner said. “But he was so polite and he looked you in the eye and he was well-spoken, and I just kinda could tell right off the bat that he was a good kid and that he just was gonna be one of those guys that I immediately kinda took to and wanted to see succeed. And of course that’s exactly what he turned out to be.”
Smith needed to take extra classes in order to leave East Mississippi for Kentucky in time to arrive for spring football his second year, and Wagner watched the work Smith put in. Wagner could tell he was going to be able to handle the hard work it would take to succeed better than the typical entitled athlete who has been given everything in life simply because of their overwhelming talent.
“People always ask me, ‘What’s the difference in the guys you have playing in the NFL and the guys that maybe don’t make it even to Division I?’,” Wagner said. “And I think that’s the difference. Usually the guys that make it to the NFL — either it was a situation like Za’Darius’ where they weren’t recruited out of high school, or they didn’t have that opportunity, they weren’t ‘the guy’ and they really had to fight for it. And they learned work ethic. They learned that there’s not a magic wand. I used to say that all the time: ‘Guys, there’s not a magic wand. I don’t have it, coach doesn’t have it, nobody has it. You are your own magic wand.’
“And that clicked with Za’Darius. He had some pretty rough moments. Coach Roach recruited him and Coach Roach left. We hired another D-line coach. He had some moments. He was playing on a D-line that was an entire Division I D-line. He didn’t come in there and start. He had to earn his spot. It’s a rough place to be, it’s a rough coach to play for.
“In recruiting, he was just getting hounded in recruiting. Then when he chose Kentucky, he got a lot of flak for that. He definitely went through it and held his own, and I definitely think that’s the difference in his success. He gets it, that everything he gets in life he will earn himself. No one will give it to him.”
That rough coach was Buddy Stephens, the sharp-tongued coach of the Lions whose brutal style was on display throughout “Last Chance U,” with regular full-throated, profanity-laced rants directed at his players. Smith believes even that experience benefitted him for his pro career.
“I give it to him, I’m glad I got that early in my football career,” Smith said. “Just because that comes with the game. He talked the talk, walked the walk. At the time, he’s still a coach. And all he wants to do is make you better as a person. For me to learn that and for that to click real quick — a lot of guys couldn’t deal with the temper tantrums that he has. I was one of the guys that sat there listening while he was screaming and I learned from it.”
Smith and Wagner have remained close since working together at East Mississippi. He’d regularly reach out to her during his time at Kentucky. In fact, Wagner pointed out that Smith’s graduation announcement could be seen on her office bulletin board when viewers watch the show. Last November, she happened to be in the area for a speaking engagement at Towson University and ended up spending her birthday with Smith. She toured the Ravens’ practice facility in Owings Mills, Md., and met the people that are now part of his professional life.
“To build friendships, you gotta keep your word and you gotta stay true to what you know,” Smith said. “From my first day there, on my visit, she told me what we were gonna do and we pursued it and we worked hard and from now on, man, we’re like best friends. … We’re forever going to stay friends.”
“I watch him, I keep up with him, I know exactly what he’s doing,” Wagner said. “I follow him on all of social media and sometimes I get on to him for things. So yeah, he will never get rid of me.”
Smith hopes his experience at East Mississippi and his relationship with Wagner will continue to benefit him even well beyond football.
“I hope so,” Smith said. “I try to teach every young kid that I go talk to, to always respect older people and listen to what they’re trying to tell you because they done been through some situations that you’re going to go through in life. So just take notes and listen when they’re trying to tell you something.”
Photo Credit: Kenya Allen/PressBox