Rodney Smith gives Minnesota more than it could have expected

Minnesota sophomore Rodney Smith has rushed for 801 yards and 10 touchdowns this season.If all Rodney Smith ever contributed to Minnesota was a recruiting tip, well, that would have been pretty valuable.

Golden Gophers assistant coach Brian Anderson was visiting Smith in the fall of 2013 when he casually asked him who was the best player he’d ever gone up against. Smith pointed to his teammate at Mundy’s Mill High School in Jonesboro, Georgia, a skinny, under-the-radar prospect named Jonathan Celestin.

That caught Anderson’s attention, and Celestin – whose best recruiting offers at the time were from Valdosta State and Western Carolina – ended up signing with Minnesota a few months later. The…