No Automatic Redshirt for Smith Despite Late Arrival
By Brandon Castel
COLUMBUS ? It took him a little longer than anyone involved would have hoped, but Rod Smith is finally a Buckeye.
The freshman tailback out of Fort Wayne, Ind. had fans in Columbus questioning his existence when he failed to report to Ohio State, first in the summer and again during fall camp.
Despite Jim Tressel?s insistence that Smith would arrive ?any day,? the Buckeyes practiced 29 times during the month of August without him while he straightened out his academic affairs, but that won?t mean an automatic redshirt for the 6-foot-3 running back.
?He's not an automatic redshirt,? Tressel said Tuesday during his weekly press conference previewing the Miami game.
?I think conventional thinking, because he missed all of preseason, would be I don't know if he could get enough reps now to be able to earn the right to go in before someone else, but you never know with injuries and so forth.?
One of the highest-rated prospects in Ohio State?s class of 2010, Smith was on the sideline for OSU?s season-opener against Marshall, but didn?t officially hit the practice field for the first time as a Buckeye until Sunday.
?I thought he looked good,? Tressel said of his first impressions of the young back.
?Now, maybe it was because he had fresh legs and everyone else has training camp legs and so forth, but Sunday I thought he was flying around. He caught the ball in the back field once or twice on Sunday and I'm anxious to see him.?