JSU football: Smothers' late-game heroics earns him CUSA honors
Oct. 2—JACKSONVILLE — Logan Smothers' dazzling fourth quarter proved to be enough to earn national recognition.
The Jacksonville State quarterback was named Conference USA's offensive player of the week for Week 5, the conference announced Monday.
This marks the first time this season a JSU player has earned CUSA offensive player of the week honors. Jeremiah Harris (Week 0) and Chris Hardie (Week 4) have earned defensive player of the week honors, while Jack Dawson earned special teams honors in Week 0 and Week 4.
"He's still figuring out where to go, where to look, and at the end of the game, he's more comfortable," JSU coach Rich Rodriguez said. "The thing about Logan, and all of our quarterbacks, they're all competitive guys and his confidence didn't get waivered, which could have because we didn't play well at all, I mean, really anybody in the first half. He did have a good day, but he knew what he was supposed to be doing and he's still learning."
Smothers finished 16-for-28 passing with 197 yards and three touchdowns. He also ran for 37 yards and a touchdown on 12 carries.
During JSU's 58-second drive with just over a minute left, Smothers went 6-for-8 for 75 yards, including a 28-yard touchdown pass to Perry Carter and a successful two-point conversion on a pass to Quinton Lane in the back of the end zone. One of his incompletions was a spike.
In overtime, Smothers threw a 24-yard touchdown pass to Sean Brown, which went on to be the game-winning score.
Rodrigiuez said seeing the quarterback do well not only gave the coaching staff a boost of confidence in the future, but surely gave the Nebraska transfer something to build on moving forward.
"I think sometimes I forget this is his first year in the system," Rodriguez said. "I think every week and certainly every month, and the more games he plays the more comfortable he'll get. I was proud of the way he competed at the end, but we missed so many things in the first half especially."
Even after the strong performance, the week hasn't been easy for the junior.
On Smothers' 16-yard touchdown run with 8:44 left in the fourth quarter, he started to limp around the five-yard line and hobbled into the end zone. Rodriguez said that after a negative MRI, Smothers has looked better each day.
"He had a little knee sprain, so we checked it out," Rodriguez said. "We do more MRIs than anybody in the country. If a guy gets up and he's got a little ouchie, we're getting the thing set up, which is a good thing for players' peace of mind. We did MRI, there's no structural thing and so he's just a little sore. I think he was better yesterday, he'll be better today, so he's fine."
With Smothers getting a clean bill of health following his first four-touchdown performance of his collegiate career, JSU (4-1, 2-0 CUSA) gets only six days to prepare for its next midweek matchup against Middle Tennessee State.
Sports Writer Thomas Ashworth: 256-236-1551. On Twitter: @ThomasAshworth0.
