With over 25 years of experience as an assistant at the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision level — all but one of those with a Power 5 school — Michael Smith enters his second season as the University of South Alabama’s wide receivers coach.
Last season, Smith was instrumental in helping Jalen Tolbert earn the Sun Belt Conference Offensive Player of the Year honors, the first for a Jag, as Tolbert led the conference in catches, receiving yards, receiving yards per game and yards per reception - ranking third in both total yards and yards per game nationally heading into the postseason - after catching 82 passes for 1,474 yards and eight rouchdowns on his way to a third round selection of the Dallas Cowboys in the 2022 NFL Draft. Two other receivers, Jalen Wayne (53) and Caulin Lacy (41) each had over 40 receptions on the season.
Most recently, he was on the staff at Kentucky for two seasons during which time the Wildcats posted an 18-8 overall mark while winning both bowl games; that included finishing in the final top 25 rankings with a 10-3 record following a win over Penn State in the Vrbo Citrus Bowl in 2018. His efforts helped Lynn Bowden Jr. earn all-Southeastern Conference honors both years as an all-purpose player, highlighted by being named first-team all-league in 2019.
In five years coaching wide receivers at Arkansas from 2013-17, Smith was part of a staff that helped lead the Razorbacks to three bowl appearances. That included a 7-6 finish following a victory in the Texas Bowl his second season and an 8-5 record the next year when UA defeated Kansas State in the AutoZone Liberty Bowl.
Smith served in multiple capacities as a member of K-State’s staff for 16 years. He started in the profession as a student assistant for the Wildcats in 1993, and was a graduate assistant during the 1995 and ‘96 campaigns as the program posted a combined 28-7-1 record while appearing in a bowl each of those year, highlighted by victories in the Copper and Holiday Bowls.
He was the Wildcats’ running backs coach from 1997-05, a span that saw the team record six seasons with a double-digit win total, finish in the top-10 of the final national polls on five occasions, and seven bowl appearances including victories in the 1997 Fiesta Bowl and 2000 Cotton Bowl. Smith rejoined the K-State staff in 2009 as wide receivers coach, and over the next four years helped the Wildcats to three bowl berths including invitations to the Cotton and Fiesta Bowls his final two seasons when the program posted a combined 21-5 record and 15-2 mark in Big 12 Conference play.
In 2006 Smith helped Rice garner an invite to the R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl while serving as the Owls’ running backs coach, while he worked with both running backs and inside wide receivers the next two years at Arizona as the Wildcats went 8-5 after appearing in the Las Vegas Bowl in 2008.
Not only did Smith help K-State to a 143-56-1 mark in his time on the staff, he has been a part of more than 200 victories as a coach at the collegiate level.
A four-year letterwinner at Kansas State, Smith twice earned All-America honors and was named to the all-Big Eight Conference team on two occasions as a wide receiver. He received his undergraduate degree from the school in social science in 1995.
Smith and his wife Karyn are the parents of three daughters — Kylie, Kenzie and Kamryn — and son, Kason. Kylie was a four-year softball letterwinner at Arkansas from 2014-17 while Kenzie is currently a member of the volleyball team at Southern Mississippi.
The Smith File
Born: Nov. 21, 1970, in New Orleans, La.
Education:
Kansas State ’95, bachelor’s degree in social science
Collegiate Playing Experience:
Four years, wide receiver
Honorable mention All-America, 1989, third-team All-America, 1991
All-Big Eight Conference, 1989, ’91
Coaching Experience:
Kansas State — student assistant, 1993; graduate assistant, 1995-96; assistant coach, 1997-05, ’09-12
Rice — assistant coach, 2006
Arizona — assistant coach, 2007-08
Arkansas — assistant coach, 2013-17
Kentucky — assistant coach, 2018-19
South Alabama — assistant coach, 2021-
Family: Wife, Karyn; Three daughters, Kylie (27), Kenzie (22) and Kamryn (12), and one son, Kasan (13)
