Sept. 18, 2016
By Arielle Sargent, GoPSUSports.com
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Postgame media sessions at Beaver Stadium typically hum along with questions from the flurry of individual interviews prompting familiar names like Trace McSorley, Saquon Barkey and Chris Godwin. This week, a new name emerged from the Beaver Stadium media room following Penn State's 34-27 win against Temple.
Just a little more than an hour drive from Beaver Stadium, a standout linebacker and running back from Lewisburg Area High School turned away offers from prestigious institutions like Penn and Princeton to pursue his Penn State Football dream.
Before Saturday, Smith's career stat line included appearances in five games, three contests in 2015, including one tackle against Illinois. Smith did not see any playing time as a redshirt freshman in 2014 and was a member of the scout team as a walk-on true freshman in 2013. On pace to graduate in December, the kinesiology major and Dean's List student currently carries a 3.77 cumulative GPA.
Saturday afternoon, nearly every player in the media room, including head coach James Franklin, had something to say about the bold and brave performance from the Penn State walk-on from Winfield, Pennsylvania, who had just recently earned a scholarship.
In front of more than 100,000 fans in the "Stripe Out" crowd at Beaver Stadium, he stepped in the game at middle linebacker for starter Nyeem-Wartman White, who departed the game in the first half with an injury.
"Coach told me to be ready to play," Smith said.
Smith embraced every sense of the familiar "next man up" phrase he had surely heard all week, with the Nittany Lions already dealing with the loss of starting linebackers Jason Cabinda and Brandon Bell to injury.
Still, he rose to the occasion, stopping Temple running back Jahad Thomas, a 1,000-yard rusher, midway through the second quarter to match his career-high one tackle mark. Smith wasn't done though, as he registered seven more tackles in the second half, pairing up with Torrence Brown for his first tackle for loss, bringing down Temple quarterback Phillip Walker for a 1-yard loss in the fourth quarter.
"I thought it might be for a couple of series to give Nyeem Wartman-White a break," Smith said. "I didn't really know what to expect but I was preparing mentally and physically for the game because you never know what's going to happen and you have to be ready when your number is called."
When No. 47 was called, Smith made the most of the big opportunity he'd been preparing for his entire career, delivering and communicating calls without missing a beat, despite having little to no experience in practice with the first team.
"Brandon comes to work every single day," defensive tackle Parker Cothren said. "He's a guy that I've always looked up to and tried to follow because his work ethic is unbelievable. He's always ready to go. His number got called today and he came out and had a great game."
Franklin awarded Smith one more opportunity postgame, letting him break the team down at the end of the Nittany Lion locker room talk.
Smith's focus was family.
"There's nothing like being a part of a football team," Smith said. "We spend all our time together and I broke it down on family tonight, because that's the way I feel about these guys and we feel about each other. We're here together, we spend about 345 days out of the year together and it's just been an awesome experience."