Morehouse got a “steal” when Amyr Smith accepted the school’s scholarship offer. Listed as a 5-foot-7 and 170-pound wide receiver from Grady High, Smith was overlooked because of his size despite his impressive production numbers.
“Once he signed his scholarship we couldn’t believe it,” coach Rich Freeman said. “We knew what type of player he was. We knew we were getting a steal. … He’s definitely the type of player that can play (FCS) football.”
Before he received the offer from Morehouse, Smith’s recruiting process wasn’t nearly as active as it should’ve been for an athlete with his skill level.
“Senior year I went through the season and I had 20 touchdowns and five interceptions, but I didn’t have the size, so I wasn’t really getting recruited by anybody,” Smith said.
He specifically remembers going to meet Georgia State athletic director Charlie Cobb with his coach C.J. Stewart to ask why a local kid with the numbers he had wasn’t getting more attention.
“He told me that if I was three inches taller then I was good, but that was the only reason … my size,” Smith said.
That wasn’t anything Smith hadn’t heard before, but now it was his only obstacle to getting a scholarship to play college football. For a while he was under the impression that West Georgia offered him a scholarship, but he misunderstood and was back to zero football scholarship offers.
Despite the lack of interest from football programs, Smith received offers to play baseball at Savannah State and Georgia Highlands (a junior college).
Just two weeks after Cobb reminded him how short he was, Morehouse gave him his only football offer, and he committed. Going to Morehouse was an easy decision for Smith because he is close to home and will be allowed to play both sports that he loves.
“The moment he got the offer from Morehouse, that was it,” his mother Shemitia Smith said. “he didn’t want to hear anything else.”
Two big injuries in Morehouse’s receiving corps forced Smith into getting early playing time. Freeman was impressed that his young receiver was able to pick up the offense as quickly as he did and produce when his number was called.
“Our top two receivers (Mann and McGuffie) both sustained injuries and both had to sit out for the duration of fall camp,” Freeman said. “While they were down with a hamstring and a groin respectively, he was able to get those reps and learn what we do as a football team.”
In a triple overtime loss against Arkansas-Pine Bluff, the freshman caught five passes for 175 yards and three touchdowns. In the win over Johnson C. Smith, he set a school record with a 100-yard kickoff return for a touchdown. Just four weeks into his freshman season, Smith has already earned two SIAC Newcomer of the Week honors and a SIAC Special Teams Player of the Week award.
Even though Mann and McGuffie will be returning to the receiver rotation, Smith has proved that he’s ready to make an impact for the Maroon Tigers.
