Braden Smith, Cincinnati Football News: Draft Scout Player News

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09/16/20 - WR Braden Smith, rSr/2024, Cincinnati

Braden Smith has a knack for impressing people early on. His freshman year at Northwest Mississippi Community College, head coach Benjy Parker found Smith alone in the weight room, going through a drill. The former high school quarterback, making the transition to wide receiver, was throwing a tennis ball off the wall, catching it and sending it back. It was a common drill wide receivers went through. But Smith fielded the ball and threw it back like a shortstop. Parker, impressed with Smith's hand-eye coordination, asked Smith if he played baseball before and the Flowood, Mississippi, native said he had. "I never saw him play, but I bet he was a good baseball player," Parker said.

While many don't associate baseball with him anymore, many have a similar feeling of amazement when they meet Smith. He impressed Parker early in his time in junior college, he did the same with Louisville wide receivers coach Gunter Brewer this spring and took it to the national stage on Saturday. In his Louisville debut, Smith caught four passes for 110 yards, the longest was a 63-yard catch that set up Louisville's first touchdown. He was named ACC receiver of the week for his performance. He is the first Louisville player since Deion Branch (2000) to tally 100 yards or more in his debut. Parker also coached Branch for a year when he was at Jones County Community College and said he and Smith are very similar. "Braden is bigger and probably a step faster, but Branch was certainly very savvy and very tough," Parker said. "They have a lot of the same traits." - Courier Journal

rSr/2024