Thursday, November 5, 2009
In interviews, freshman safety Lubbock Smith remains quiet. He looks the questioner in the eye and politely offers his response, but he does so with little expression on his face.
Freshman safety Lubbock Smith tackles Oklahoma running back Chris Brown in a game Oct. 24. Smith just entered the Jayhawks' starting lineup.
Then, Smith gets onto the subject of tackling. His eyes light up and a sly smile creeps across his face.
If an observer notices one thing about Smith’s play, it’s this: Smith loves to tackle and, generally, he does so very well.
“He’s not afraid to put his face on people, run through and wrap up,” defensive coordinator Clint Bowen said. “I say all the time: Tackling is about a little bit of want-to and toughness. He has both of those.”
Smith’s affection for tackling stems from — where else? — the football-crazed state of Texas.
Yet it certainly wasn’t an initial connection between player and contact.
“When I first started playing,” Smith said, “I was actually very scared to go and tackle.”
Smith overcame his fear of contact as a seven-year-old. He was playing with boys two or three years older than he was because teams were divided by weight, not age. One day at practice, Smith found himself encircled by his older teammates in a drill called “bullpen.”
The objective was straightforward. When the coach called a certain player’s number, Smith had to run and collide with the player wearing that jersey.
It was then, only after thudding pads with 11 or 12 of his teammates, that Smith’s current appreciation for tackling took hold. It hasn’t left him since.
“And it grew through the years,” Smith said. “Playing against different great players at a young age, I just wanted to go out and initiate that I was a great hitter. Inflict the pain on them, not let them do the same to me.”
The Sunday after Kansas’ 41-36 victory against Iowa State on Oct. 10, Bowen approached Smith with a rather simple proposal: Practice well this week and the starting job is yours.
Smith upheld his end of the bargain and subsequently started against Colorado in Kansas’ next game. But even before Bowen’s proposal, Smith, who redshirted last season, was never too far away from earning a spot in Kansas’ starting lineup.
“He needed to make me trust him a little bit more early with his eye-control,” Bowen said. “A safety, it’s a bad thing to stare at the quarterback, and Lubbock likes staring at the quarterback. I told him when he proved to me that he would read his keys, then he’d get to play. And he’s done that.”
Since entering Kansas’ starting lineup, Smith has routinely displayed a knack for tackling, especially around the line of scrimmage.
In three games, Smith has made 19 tackles. He has also helped to cure a Kansas defense that was severely ailing after the disappointing loss against Iowa State.
Coach Mark Mangino also inserted freshman cornerback D.J. Beshears and freshman defensive lineman John Williams into the starting lineup before the Colorado game.
The defense, meanwhile, has drastically improved.
“Putting Lubbock back there has helped because he’s a tough customer,” Mangino said. “He doesn’t back down.”
That’s certainly been the case so far this season.
Senior safety Darrell Stuckey described Smith’s tackling as “very consistent,” while Bowen praised Smith’s aggressive playing style.
For his part, Smith simply said, “I love contact.” It’s a phrase dripping with football toughness. And it’s a phrase that seems to sum up Smith’s football personality.
“I want to be the first person to get up after a hit,” Smith said. “And I want to see the expression on their face after I get up.”
— Edited by Brenna M. T. Daldorph
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