FAYETTEVILLE – Michael Smith was not having an ideal freshman year at college. Like a lot of 18-year-olds, he was having some trouble adjusting.
He was literally 1,000 miles from home. He was playing college football, but not on scholarship. Those two things would have been fine except Smith’s Wildcats team went 0-11 that year, 1988, and shortly after a season-ending 56-14 loss to Colorado, coach Stan Parrish was fired.
Smith, now in his third year as wide receivers coach at Arkansas, did not even bother flying back with his team to Manhattan, Kansas. He took a flight from Denver International Airport back to New Orleans.