Dana Smith, the mother of junior defensive back Artie Burns, passed away early Tuesday morning.
According to the Miami Herald’s Susan Miller Degnan, the football team was told Smith suffered a heart attack Monday night and was rushed to a local hospital. Miami coaches gathered at the hospital, including former head coach Al Golden, to support Burns. For nearly a decade, Smith raised Burns and his two younger brothers without Burns’s father, Artie Tyrone Burns Sr., who began serving a 25-year prison sentence for drug trafficking in February of 2006.
Burns, who also hurdles for the track and field team at Miami, is in the middle of a career-year with five interceptions, third-most in the nation and tops in the ACC.