BYU’s Smith Sizes Up as a Big Target

Midnight. A big man and his wife enter a grocery store in Provo, Utah. He grabs a grocery cart. He rolls it away.

Down the aisle they go. Through the fruits, vegetables and meats. A while later, the cart is full. They check out, and head into the darkness.

Another week’s grocery shopping finished, Chris Smith, Brigham Young’s 6-foot-4, 230-pound, All-American tight end, and his wife, Sarah, head for home while most in Provo sleep.

Seems Ty Detmer is not the only guy in town who has trouble going out in public.

But Smith, 24, is too big to hide. When you’re an All-American on one of the country’s top football teams, and you have practice and games and interviews, let alone studies to keep up with, it’s not easy.

And those are just the pressures Smith is under. He said his wife--the former Sarah Newby, a graphic artist from Del Mar--is affected by other pressures.

“When we go grocery shopping, people look in the cart to see what she is feeding me,” said Smith, who was married in April, 1989. “They say, ‘Ah, pudding pops. I don’t think he should be eating those.’

“We go to malls, people are always staring at us. It’s got to be difficult for her.”

So to avoid some of the attention, they grocery shop at midnight.

“We really do,” he said. “Students, adults, everybody recognizes us, you know. The thing we dream about is going off somewhere where nobody recognizes us.”

That should become possible--financially, at least--in the near future, because most NFL draft analysts think Smith, a senior, is a guaranteed first-round draft pick. Already, he is the only BYU player ever to make every All-American team in one year. Jim McMahon didn’t do it. Steve Young didn’t do it. And neither has Detmer, who was left off the Kodak All-American team, because that’s just for seniors.

“That’s been a surprise,” he said of the recognition. “I wasn’t expecting that.”

Smith found out he had made one All-American team on Friday, Nov. 16--the day before BYU defeated Utah, 45-22. He was walking toward a snack bar in the team’s hotel, he said, ready to get a cheeseburger when a teammate congratulated him on the honor. The good words have continued throughout the past month.

“He has stayed healthy; the team has stayed healthy,” BYU Coach LaVell Edwards said. “Combine all of those factors and Chris has had a big year.”

Entering Saturday’s Holiday Bowl against Texas A&M;, Smith has caught 68 passes for 1,156 yards and two touchdowns. Maybe the thing that stands out most is that he averages 17 yards per catch, unusually high for a tight end.

Part of that is because he is quick. At La Canada High School near Pasadena, Smith was a wide receiver. He was just a step slow at that position for Division I, though, and converted to tight end in college.

That was originally at the University of Arizona, where he redshirted as a freshman in 1985. Then he went on a Mormon church mission, and when he got back, Coach Larry Smith was in the process of leaving Arizona to become coach at USC.

Chris Smith was going to transfer to USC, but that was about the time Southern Methodist received the death penalty from the NCAA, and the Trojans filled their last two remaining scholarships with SMU players.

Smith eventually transferred to BYU, where his older brother, Ken, had played nose guard. He is still quick--he has been clocked at 4.55 in the 40-yard dash. Things have worked out fine.

“The tight end has always had a big role in our offense,” Edwards said. “We get double-covered, or two-deep coverage, and you get a tight end or back who can run, it makes it more difficult for (the defense) to double-cover outside.

“You get real good threats--two wide receivers, a back and tight end--and that’s more problems you can put on (the defense). That’s where Chris comes in. He has good speed and good size, and he’s a target tight end.”

Although Smith is the second-leading receiver on the team, he has only two touchdowns. That’s why one of Smith’s favorite days this season was Nov. 17--that same weekend in Utah--when BYU defeated the Utes, 45-22. It was the day he caught his first touchdown pass of the season.

“Seems like I always get the ball around the six-yard line and do something else,” he said. “That game, I’ll remember.”

The Cougars, though, haven’t needed Smith for touchdowns. As long as he produces in short-yardage situations, Cougar coaches are happy.

“He’s a guy we count on,” said Norm Chow, BYU quarterbacks/receivers coach. “Whenever we’ve been in a critical situation, we’ve always gone to the halfback. With Chris, we’ve been able to do both. On critical downs, like third-and-four, we’ve gone to him time after time.”

Texas A&M; knows this. The Aggies also know their man-to-man, blitzing defense will not come as a surprise to BYU. It’s just a matter of figuring out exactly how everyone matches up.

“He’s a great threat,” Texas A&M; Coach R.C. Slocum said. “He really presents a problem. Anytime you have an inside receiver as hard to cover as he and (halfback Matt) Bellini are, you have a problem.

“They can dictate what you do on the defense inside.”

It has already happened several times this season. Bellini is third on the team with 59 receptions for 601 yards. He and Smith are enough to drive any opponent crazy.

“(Texas A&M;) is a good team,” Smith said. “I think they’re a little underrated. They say they’re going to blitz us a lot. You either live by the sword or die by it. When they (blitz) against BYU, people either do really well or get hurt.

“We’ll see who gets hurt Saturday.”

Until then, Smith will practice and he and his wife will get a little time to visit with family. They’ve been looking forward to this trip for a long time, and already, they’ve discovered one thing.

This bowl stuff sure beats the heck out of grocery shopping.