Football Spotlight on Zach Smith

Spotlight on Zach Smith…

#11 Zach Smith • 6-3 • 224 • Junior • Quarterback

Zach Smith is in his second season at Tulsa, but after transferring from Baylor University, it's his first season in which he's able to play. Smith has started the first 4 games at quarterback for the Golden Hurricane and has completed 79 passes for 1,018 yards and 5 TDs for a 132.50 passing efficiency. In Tulsa's 24-21 win over Wyoming, Smith completed 25 passes for a season-high 354 yards and 2 TDs, and for his performance was named to the American Athletic Conference's weekly honor roll. He will graduate in December with a degree in organizational studies and a minor in communication and will begin working on his MBA in January.

What I like most about football…
Probably the brotherhood and camaraderie with your teammates, that's something you don't get from many other places.

In high school …
I played football and baseball. I played shortstop and pitcher. I didn't actually talk to schools about playing baseball, I guess there were several schools that talked to my coach saying they were interested in me as a pitcher. I played all 4 years of football in high school, first as a freshman on the JV team and then sophomore through senior season I played varsity. In baseball I didn't play my senior year because I graduated early, so I played just 3 years of baseball.

The difference between throwing a baseball and football …
The big thing obviously is the mechanics. You have a lot shorter release throwing the football than you do throwing the baseball. In high school, that's something I had to work on during the baseball season was not losing my mechanics throwing the football, so I would throw the football once in awhile during the baseball season too.

When the decision was made …
I always loved football. I guess when I started attracting some attention of some college coaches is when I thought that I could really pursue this going forward. The interest from coach's kind of solidified the idea that I could take it forward.

Role model …
My dad. I've always looked up to him and seen him as a role model. I always try to aspire to be like him.

Parents …
My dad, Shawn, is a probation officer. My mom, Kim, is an elementary school teacher at Grandview. She teaches 1^st grade. I've gone to her class a couple of times, nothing real big, just to talk with the kids and mess around.

Favorite NFL team …
The Dallas Cowboys

Favorite NFL players …
Brett Favre and Tory Aikman. I've always been a Troy Aikman guy, and currently you can add Tom Brady too.

Most unique class …
I've taken a ceramics class here at Tulsa. That was kind of difficult to be honest, but I made some cool stuff for my grandma. She thought it was awesome. I made her a little pig that you can put stuff on top of it. It was probably the most unique class that I've taken. It was kind of hard.

What drives me …
My family, my faith and just really wanting to be the best I can be and make the most out of the ability that has God blessed me with.

What I like about TU …
It's a small campus, so it's doesn't take long to get around. It's a beautiful campus. Classes are difficult but its a good education. I like the city of Tulsa a lot. It's a great city, so the location of the University is pretty good.

Free Queso sold me on Tulsa …
I never had free queso before coming to Tulsa, so I knew Tulsa was the place for me when the Mexican restaurant we went to had free queso –– any place that has free queso! It was at 3 Tequila's on Peoria.

Hobbies …
I like to golf, fish and hunt.

Golfing Buddies …
Seth (Boomer) and Zaven (Collins), and it was Chandler (Miller). We're looking for a fourth. Usually during the spring and summer we'd get out maybe once a week or the weekend. We'll go to Lafortune, Blackjack in Sand Springs, Mohawk and Page Belcher. Usually we'd look on the website and see which one has the cheapest price.

Growing up on a ranch and riding horses …
The ranch I grew up on was about 3,000 acres in between Cleburne and Blue Rose. It's actually called Goat Neck. It was my grandparents ranch, but we lived out there for 9 years or so. I can hold my own on a horse. I'm probably a little rusty because I haven't ridden in a while.

Rodeo …
I did rodeo when I was younger, until about 2010. I did all the events, run barrels, getting the flag off the goat things like that. Then I did calf roping, and tried my hand at calf riding, which I got dip-sticked a lot (thrown over the front of the calf too many times). I just kind of stopped because I was playing baseball a lot more and didn't have time to rodeo as much. I really enjoyed it though.

My twitter handle …
@TheZach_Smith

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