Darris Smith had the cornerback beat.
Of course he did.
Smith, one of Missouri football's December transfer portal acquisitions, was a Georgia Class 3A champion in the 400-meter and the 4x400 relay. He had a few steps on the defensive back with nobody else in the area code. But instead of making it a few more paces and breaking away, the two-way star slowed to a canter to invite the challenge … depending on your definition of the word "challenge."
"Absolutely stiff-armed him all the way into the ground," said Jordan Mullis, Smith's coach at Appling County High. "Maybe like six inches deep," before running it in for a touchdown.
Of course he did.
"He likes to hit people," Smith's father, Darris Smith Sr., said. "He likes to be aggressive."
That checks out, too. Darris Smith is naturally a defensive end.
And, now, he's Missouri defensive end.
Mizzou has wrapped up its spring camp — Darris Smith's first official batch of practices in Columbia — and has a four-month wait until players report for the fall. Ten key members of the MU defense that went 11-2 and won the Cotton Bowl in 2023 are either out of eligibility or exploring professional opportunities.
More: Missouri basketball transfer portal tracker: Who is joining, leaving Tigers?
At 6-foot-6, 245 pounds, new MU defensive end Darris Smith is hard to miss. He's the type of player, per new Mizzou defensive ends coach Brian Early, that is the prototype for what they want their boundary defensive end to look like.
Missouri's defensive ends have big cleats to fill: Replace potential first-round draft pick and edge rusher Darius Robinson manning its front.
The Tigers have Johnny Walker Jr., the Cotton Bowl Defensive MVP, repping at the position that first-year MU defensive coordinator Batoon is calling the "Joker" role, which, in short, is a boundary end whose primary job will be to spearhead backfield havoc.
Mizzou also has Darris Smith Jr., who committed to the Tigers on Dec. 20 from Georgia.
Early signs suggest that's a good portal pickup.
"Darris Smith shined bright in the spring game," MU head coach Eli Drinkwitz said on March 22, "and he's really flashed that way for us all spring."
The prototype Missouri wants for its boundary edge rusher, Early said, would look a lot like the physique of a basketball player.
"I saw him get down the court on a fast break and stand a ball up about three feet above the square defensively," Mullis said, "and his head hit the glass."
Check.
The "Joker" end ideally, Early said, will be the team's best pass rusher.
"He's got the capability of coming off the ball like a receiver," Mullis said. "I'm a high school coach, so, obviously, he killed high school kids. You know, I know the SEC is different, but I'm assuming you're paying guys up there to teach him how to do it. The thing about him is he can bend, he can run (and) he's actually longer fingertip to fingertip than he is head to toe."
Two for two at the plate.
And, finally, the chosen player will need to be able to "play in space."
"He ran down (current Arkansas running back) Rashod Dubinion in his senior year (when) we played the team that won the state title," Mullis said. … "The kid broke a really long run, and you know obviously we knew that they had a Power Five, SEC-committed tailback, you know, and they ran him down from behind at 6-6 playing defensive end. That was pretty impressive."
Clean sweep.
Darris Smith spent two years at his home state Georgia Bulldogs. He committed to Kirby Smart's team the same day an Alabama offer letter arrived at his house, somewhat to the chagrin of his Tide-supporting father, Darris Smith Sr. joked.
The new MU edge managed a tackle in UGA's 2022 national championship win over TCU, and another in the Peach Bowl win over Ohio State the game prior, wrapping up his freshman campaign. He featured in 16 games, mostly as an outside linebacker in the Dawgs' typical 3-4 front.
But there was a problem. Kirby Smart and staff had Smith practicing all over the defensive side of the field. He was taking some reps at star safety, and others at outside linebacker, splitting time between rooms.
There also was a bigger problem for the football-obsessed underclassmen: He really just wasn't getting much game time.
"He loves football," Darris Smith Sr. said. "I think it was kinda like eating at him standing on the sideline. You know, he wanted to give himself a better chance to get on the field."
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So, when Missouri made contact — two days after Darris Smith entered his name in the portal, according to Dad — there was a speedy choice.
His father, when he heard about an upcoming Missouri visit, advised him to go ahead and commit, to give himself a chance to learn the playbook and better his odds of seeing playing time. Darris Smith entered the portal on Nov. 28. He committed to MU less than a month later.
Smith started playing football at age 8, running routes against his younger brother Darion Smith, a current Appling County High senior, in the yard.
He was always big. Real big. Darris Smith Jr. eclipsed 6 feet in sixth grade. His younger brother didn't like playing basketball with him, Darris Smith Sr. said, because his older sibling was too tall.
When Mullis was appointed Appling County High's defensive coordinator during Darris' sophomore year before later becoming his head coach, Smith was 220 pounds and so lean he "looked like a supermodel." Mullis used him everywhere, snapping it to the athlete in wildcat, chucking him the ball at X receiver, and, of course, letting him hunt down QBs.
The coach couldn't halt him. Mullis had to stop him from benching more than 350 pounds in high school, in case he hurt himself.
Smith played basketball for three years in high school, winning a regional title, and starred in short-distance events on the track, recording a 21.85-second 200 and a 49.17 time in the 400.
Size and speed … sounds useful for a high school football coach, eh?
"I mean, it just doesn't look normal," Mullis said. "He carried himself and he ran so well, like he ran very smooth, so it didn't look abnormal. It was just, you noticed this guy was bigger and moving faster than everybody else. … You would have thought he was a big tall basketball player at receiver, and he goes out here and just runs big post routes on people. Yeah, I mean, it was obviously not normal."
Now, the edge is a Tiger. And he's apparently getting bigger.
Darris Smith Sr. drove to Columbia, Missouri, for his son's spring game on March 16. The day before, the Tigers held a practice open to family members.
In that timeframe, Smith, along with Walker, Michigan State transfer Zion Young and second-year Arizona State transfer Joe Moore III, appeared to make up the two-deep at defensive end.
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The father watched his son trot out onto the field. He'd heard he was now clocking in at 247 pounds, up more than 10 pounds from his Georgia days, but only ever seeing proof through social media pictures.
Seeing it in person: Dad said his mouth fell open.
"I was like, 'wow,'" Darris Smith Sr. said, "because I haven't seen him that big."
The Tigers have big shoes to fill. Robinson was an All-SEC performer and is receiving some first-round love based on his Senior Bowl and NFL Scouting Combine performances.
But Missouri has a big newcomer on campus.
"He had the capability for a young guy to be really strong with his hands. That always impressed me. Obviously, he's got big ol long hands, but he had some violence to him that a lot of those longer guys hadn't kind of grown into yet," Mullis said. "But I think he likes playing football and, you know, sometimes a lot of kids may be talented, but they don't like playing football. I think he likes playing football."
This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: 'Not normal': Meet Darris Smith, Missouri football's new edge rusher
