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WR Corey Smith (Official Thread)

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Marla Ridenour: Road full of detours leads Buchtel?s Corey Smith to Ohio State
By Marla Ridenour
Beacon Journal sports columnist
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August 18, 2013

COLUMBUS: Corey Smith?s life has been full of disappointing twists. But none more so than the day he pulled up to his apartment and found most of his belongings in the yard, including his now-broken 32-inch television.

Less than two years later, Buchtel High School?s Smith has landed at Ohio State. That was hard to imagine when he and his Grand Rapids (Mich.) Community College teammates were embroiled in a scandal that likely helped end the school?s 80-year-old football program.

Players like Smith thought they were keeping up with their rent, but in September 2011, the landlord claimed they owed him tens of thousands of dollars, which school investigators suspected might have been intercepted by someone in the football office. Many players were evicted in December.

Suddenly homeless and teamless, Smith had no idea where to go.

?Oh, my God, it?s a book or a movie,? said Ricky Powers, Smith?s football coach at Buchtel.

?I couldn?t believe it when he called, I was so distraught,? said his mother, Ericka Smith.

Smith picked up the pieces of his television and his football future. The first junior college transfer at Ohio State since Larry Grant in 2006, Smith persuaded coach Urban Meyer to take him with an honest recounting of his story. He has three seasons in Columbus to complete two years of athletic eligibility.

Smith, a wide receiver, just finished the biggest week of his career as the Buckeyes went through nine practices in six days.

?However far down on the [depth] chart he is right now, it?s more because of the transition to this level, this program and this offense,? Ohio State receivers coach Zach Smith said a week ago at media day. ?How high up on the chart he gets will be determined in the next week. We?ll see how high he reaches.?

Powers expects Smith to reach high.

?One thing about Corey, he is special and he wants to be great,? Powers said. ?That?s what he?s going after and he?s doing a great job doing it.?

Eligibility questions

Smith attended Buchtel starting as a sophomore after what he admitted was a very poor academic year at Barberton High School. At Buchtel, Smith was recruited by Alabama, LSU and Tennessee, said Powers. Smith committed to the Volunteers and UT arranged for him to attend East Mississippi Community College after graduation.

Then, before what Powers thought was Smith?s junior year, Powers received a call from a principal at Barberton.

?He said, ?You might want to check his eligibility. I?m looking at it here, it looks like he should be a senior now,? ? Powers said in a phone interview last week.

Powers said when Buchtel?s academic coach starting checking, ?it didn?t seem like he existed at Barberton.? Powers learned that Smith was ineligible to play football that season. Smith said he dropped out, but eventually finished his GED.

Instead of heading to East Mississippi, Smith decided to attend Grand Rapids with several Buchtel teammates. Powers wasn?t happy because he wanted Smith to make a break from his friends.

?Not saying the guys he went with were bad, Steve Parker is a great athlete, all those guys went to the state championship,? Powers said. ?Sometimes to grow you have to get away from the people you?re used to and grow from another place.

?You had him getting hand-picked by Tennessee to go to this school and the other guys, we were just getting them in junior college so they could get another look.?

cont...
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http://www.ohio.com/news/top-storie...-buchtel-s-corey-smith-to-ohio-state-1.421865
 
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UpNorth_Buckeye;2364006; said:
Kind of surprised he hasn't made much noise at all, and at least doesn't sound like he'll be getting much play time at all this year. Unless I'm missing something being reported elsewhere.
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Looks that way to me as well. Kind of figured he'd have an uphill battle coming into a new offense. I think he'll still get some reps in garbage time though. We have a lot of unproven depth at WR, where he could move up the depth chart throughout the season
 
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