In 2015, Ito Smith fashioned the kind of season sophomore running backs at Southern Miss don’t often manage.
The smaller-by-comparison (5-foot-9, 195 pounds) Semmes, Alabama, native burst onto the scene last season, rushing for more than 1,000 yards and finishing 18th in the country with 134 all-purpose yards per game.
You wouldn’t have known it then, and you wouldn’t know it today as Smith and the rest of the Golden Eagles get set to break spring camp Saturday with the annual Black and Gold spring game (set for noon at M.M. Roberts Stadium). He still displays the quiet confidence he brought to Hattiesburg with him as a fresh-faced freshman in 2014, and maintained throughout his breakout sophomore campaign that landed him All-Conference USA honors.