RB Respect Month Vol. 3, Day Four: Kevin Smith and the most disrespected RB season in college football history (2007)
Smith deserved better in his record-breaking year at UCF.
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Welcome to day four of Running Back Respect Month! Yesterday, Stanford's Christian McCaffrey got his first dose of superstardom against UCLA in 2015. Here's where we're at today, and how the rest of the month looks:
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Today: Kevin Smith vs. Tulsa (2007 C-USA Title)
RB Respect Month Vol. 3, Day Four: Kevin Smith vs. Tulsa (2007 C-USA Title)
We're nearly six full months from the start of the 2026 season, but I guarantee that you can go on Twitter right now and easily find hundreds of college football fans accusing various media members of disrespecting their favorite teams and players. This isn't limited to the small fish in the pond, either. As you're reading this, there are Ohio State/Alabama/Notre Dame/USC/Whichever Team You Want To Pick fans acting like they don't get enough respect or attention. In a sport built off tradition, college football fans crying foul about the coverage of their team is among the richest. In the vast majority of cases, the whining is ridiculous and has no merit. There are exceptions, though. For example: I'm not mad at UCF fans if they're still upset over how Knights running back Kevin Smith was covered in 2007.
For the uninitiated, Kevin Smith played at UCF from 2005-2007. His 1,178 yards rushing were second-nationally among true freshman in 2005, only trailing RB Respect Month Alum Tyrell Sutton from Northwestern (1,474). Smith only played nine games in 2006, but his 934 yards and seven touchdowns were still enough to earn him second-team All-Conference USA honors from the league's head coaches.
Smith's low profile nationally heading into 2007 was understandable. It was a pre-social media world, and you couldn't access every game as easy as you can now with streaming. This may sound crazy to younger people, but even the idea of having multiple screens available to watch on was a high-end luxury given the price (and size!) of TVs at the time. Your best bet on getting a multiple-screen experience was either going to a bar, a Buffalo Wild Wings, or Las Vegas itself. It's outrageous how much things have changed in under 20 years!
Anyway, where things should've shifted drastically from an attention standpoint for Smith happened in UCF's first two games of 2007. He opened the season with 217 yards and two touchdowns in a 25-23 upset at NC State, scoring an 80-yard TD on the first play. The win was UCF's second over a BCS opponent in their 11 years as a FBS program! Next, the Knights had the pleasure of hosting No. 6 Texas in Orlando. In an odd game featuring downpouring rain and a brief lightning delay, Smith did major damage in the second half, finishing with 149 yards and two TD in a narrow 35-32 loss. Afterwards, Texas Head Coach Mack Brown praised Smith's ability to cut back and gain yards when the Longhorns defense had him cornered. At the very least, that game should've been a wakeup call to the whole college football world that No. 24 at UCF was a serious problem. Instead, Smith continued to tote the rock in relative obscurity.
He ran for 124 yards and three TD the next week against Memphis, then 223 yards and three scores vs. Louisiana. Consecutive losses to East Carolina and South Florida –where he put up a combined 202 total yards and a TD– to close out the halfway mark of the season probably tanked any chance he had at receiving any major national awards. At that point, Smith had 915 yards rushing and 11 TD for a 3-3 Conference USA team. Great stats, but I can't blame anyone in the college football media world for not giving Smith their full attention. I can and will blame them for their response to what happened next. UCF went undefeated over the second half of the season, with Smith leading the way. Here's what he did in those six games:
- 33 carries, 170 yards, four TD vs. Tulsa
- 43 carries, 175 yards, two TD at Southern Miss
- 29 carries, 188 yards, two TD vs. Marshall
- 41 carries, 320 yards, four TD at UAB
- 20 carries, 177 yards, two TD at SMU
- 46 carries, 219 yards, one TD vs. UTEP
That's a total of 1,249 yards (a 208-yard average!) and 15 total TD in six games. Put it all together and Smith led the nation in both rushing yards (2,164) and touchdowns (26), while powering UCF to a 9-3 record and the Conference USA Title Game. He was just the 13th 2,000-yard rusher ever in FBS at the time. Despite his individual and team accomplishments, Smith still didn't get the respect he'd earned. His Heisman buzz was nearly non-existent - which would've made more sense if he hadn't put up big numbers against both NC State and Texas. Adding to the disrespect, he wasn't even named a Doak Walker finalist, awarded to the nation's top running back. Arkansas' Darren McFadden, Michigan's Mike Hart, and Rutgers' Ray Rice earned that distinction, with McFadden taking it home for a second-straight season. All three had great years in their own right, but the leading rusher and scorer in the country can't at least get a top-three finish?
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Unlike McFadden, Hart, and Rice, Smith still had one game left to make a Heisman statement before voting closed - this time on a national stage. UCF's Conference USA Title matchup against Tulsa being on ESPN gave the majority of the nation their first opportunity to watch him play. He didn't disappoint. In the span of three-and-a-half hours, the conversation about Smith went from, "Who is he?" to "Wow, this is a neat story!" to, "Is this kid going to break the single-season rushing record?!" after he ran for 284 yards and four touchdowns in UCF's 44-25 win:
A performance like that would be enough on its own to turn anyone who didn't know about Smith into a fan. What took it to a higher level was the legendary names the broadcast kept mentioning while he did it. Over the course of the game, he broke Marcus Allen's single-season carries record, passed Allen for second-place on the single-season rushing list, and became a real threat to break Barry Sanders' single-season rushing record:
By the time he ripped off a game-sealing 74-yard TD, the whole nation couldn't sleep on Kevin Smith anymore:
And if you think I'm just hamming up this idea that Smith didn't get enough national attention before this game, here's Scott Van Pelt apologizing to him on Sportscenter afterwards:
Ultimately, Smith's emergence in the Heisman race was too late. He finished eighth, earning three first place votes and 55 points total. He also came up just short in his chase to make running back history. Smith ran for 119 yards in UCF's 10-3 Liberty Bowl loss to Mississippi State, finishing 61 yards behind Barry Sanders' 2,628 mark from 1988. Almost 20 years later, his 2,567 rushing yards in 2007 rank fourth all-time. (Ashton Jeanty - 2,601 in 2024 and Melvin Gordon - 2,587 in 2014 passed him since.) As fate would have it, the Detroit Lions selected Smith four months later in the third round of the 2008 draft, where he'd play all five of his NFL seasons.
I wish everyone –including myself– got to watch more of Kevin Smith at UCF. He had a unique blend of size, power, and speed that made him devastating in the open field when he hit a crease. It sucks that he didn't get more of a national spotlight, but it's also kind of cool that UCF fans can always play the, "No, you'll never truly understand how great this guy was," card with the rest of us whenever he's mentioned.
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Other notable things about this game/video
- There was so much discussion during the broadcast about Smith having a decision to make in regards to the NFL Draft. Imagine an ESPN talking head saying, "Yeah, honestly, I think Ashton Jeanty should come back next year so he can be the Heisman favorite!" during his 2,600-yard season in 2024. That was Andre Ware this whole broadcast. I'm not even making fun of him for it - it was just a different time!
- Tulsa's first-year offensive coordinator had their offense rolling in 2007. Wonder if he ever did anything of note?
- Current Colorado Offensive Coordinator Brennan Marion did serious damage as a receiver for the Golden Hurricane:
- Those three hours Les Miles was Michigan's Head Coach (allegedly) on December 1, 2007 were wild:
