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.