The fall 2011 football season is looking good for N.C . State as players are beginning to return from season-ending surgeries. Players like Jarvis Byrd and Rashard Smith are returning to practice healthier than before and ready to tackle any obstacle ahead of them.
Sophomore Jarvis Byrd said he is ready to take on the new season that lies ahead of him and his fellow teammates.
“Starting on my knee, I feel like it’s not exactly where I want it to be, 100 percent, but it’s at where it can be stable,” Byrd said. “The strengthening is good; I am still working on flexibility. For the spring game, I think I can hold up for a whole game. This upcoming season I feel like I can last a whole season because I have the offseason to work and strengthen it.”
Both Byrd and Smith were recruited for the secondary, where they began to play cornerback. They were recruited on the criteria of unique skills in the positions they played.
Byrd, a native of Pahokee, Fla., played varsity all four years of high school where he was named All-American and All-State in 2008. Byrd also went on to play in the Treasure Coast All-Star game in 2008 and was named a Prep Star All-American as a senior.
Smith, a native of Dublin, Ga., played primarily as cornerback for his high school team, along with some appearances as quarterback. The media voted him Georgia Class AA Defensive Player of the Year in 2007 and 2008, and he recorded 10 interceptions his junior and senior years at Dublin High School. He finished high school with a career best 30 interceptions.
Not too far into their college careers, both players began to experience problems dealing with their legs and knees. Smith began to feel problems in his knee early into the season. He had moved back into the starting lineup for the Boston College game in 2009; however, during the second quarter of the contest, he endured a season-ending injury to his knee. Coach Tom O’Brien followed the injury by redshirting the true freshman at the time.
Byrd was a top recruit for the Pack, considered to be the best player in State’s 2009 recruiting class according to Rivals.com. The coaching staff had a tough decision on its hands, because if they took off Byrd’s redshirt, he would have already missed a good portion of the season. After removing Byrd’s redshirt, the team was faced with another problem as Byrd had also received a season-ending knee injury similar to Smith’s.
During both players’ offseasons, a few young guys on the team had to step it up to fill the shoes of Smith and Byrd. State’s freshman-dominated secondary in 2009 allowed 222.2 passing yards per game. The sophomores, minus Smith and Byrd, have shown improvement this season.
“The freshmen that came in for secondary, young guys like [D.J.] Green and [David] Amerson, did well for what they were asked,” Byrd said. “They played well and were able to fit the position well on the physical aspect. We got a lot of improvement in experience even though we had some changes.”
Despite the difficult time O’Brien had looking for players to temporarily fill the DB spots, today the two top recruits are back to continue their college career. O’Brien knows his players are ready and acknowledges that they are needed for the season.
“I think Byrd and Smith have to help us,” O’Brien said. “They give us depth and provide opportunities for us that are not seen otherwise.”
This weekend, the team will be having it’s annual spring game where everyone will have the opportunity to see what the team has worked on over the past four months and what lies ahead in the upcoming season.
“I feel like this upcoming year is going to be better than previous,” Byrd said. “We have more secondary experience; a young group with potential that we haven’t seen in the last two years.”
