The Daily Orange

Media Credit: Court Hathaway

Derrell Smith never heard the voice message himself, rather secondhand from his high school coach. It was probably for the best. The sobering call came from a coach at the University of Delaware.

We don't see you as a college linebacker. We're pulling your scholarship.

They were piercing words Smith refuses to suppress. This was his hometown team. So now, before every game - when most of his teammates are blasting angry rap or heavy metal - Smith flicks his iPod to Usher. He stays mellow, stays quiet. His motivation rages internally. With "Can You Handle It" slowly beating on, Smith rekindles that Delaware snub.

"You're not a D-I linebacker," recalls Smith, with a smirk. "That's what I think about before every game. I'm going to show you all."

And he has. Getting snubbed by Delaware turned out to be a blessing. Now as a junior, Smith is arguably the best linebacker in the Big East.

Through 10 games, he leads the conference with 60 solo tackles (82 in total) and four forced fumbles to go along with 6.5 sacks. He's the catalyst of a run defense that ascended 88 spots nationally, from 101st last season to 13th this year. Smith's spontaneous playmaking ability has given Syracuse (3-7, 0-5 Big East) a fighting chance each week.

He never let Delaware's denial float in one ear and out the other. He clung to it and converted it into energy. Something about not being wanted in his own backyard still motivates him.

"Once they call defense out and I step on the field, I become a whole different person," said Smith, who hails from New Castle, Del.

Syracuse was his lone Division I-A scholarship offer. Even that took a stroke of luck. Smith said the man who recruited him, former SU assistant Tim Cross, needed to convince the other Orange coaches to give him a shot. Sure, Smith was a standout running back at Paul Hodgson Vocational Tech (Del.) His 18 touchdowns earned him Gatorade Player of the Year honors.

But his defensive film wasn't exactly a SportsCenter highlight reel.

Smith was undersized and tentative. When Paul Hodgson switched to a 4-3 alignment, Smith moved from safety to outside linebacker as a senior. Littered with pancake blocks and poor decisions, the defensive film scared teams off, including Delaware.

"I was recruited by a lot of schools, but none of them offered scholarships because I was horrible at linebacker," Smith said. "I didn't know how to read. I was scared at outside linebacker, honestly."

Continued...

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