"Birmingham Stallions quarterback J'Mar Smith back for a second season"

The text below is a partial article from 1819.com. Check out the full version at this link.

The photography was copied from Smith's own Instagram account, uncredited.

Smith was the Conference USA Player of the Year at Louisiana Tech in 2019. He played in 44 games during his college career, with his final appearance coming in a 14-0 win over Miami in the Independence Bowl. He signed as an undrafted free agent with the New England Patriots but was released before training camp began. He was part of a Canadian Football League practice squad before being released again.

Smith was coaching football at Huntington High in Shreveport, Louisiana.

“I was the quarterback's coach there,” said Smith, whose father, Kenny Smith, is a former defensive lineman at the University of Alabama and was a nine-year NFL veteran. “I coached a great guy in Kam Evans, who is going to do great things. That kept me into it, helping those guys get to where they wanted to be, helping those guys understand football a little bit more. Helping those guys understand football as a sport and the life lessons that comes with it.”

Then came the call from Holtz, his coach at Louisiana Tech.

“I remember it, man,” Smith said. “I was in the living room on my headset with my best friends. We call ourselves Five Guys. There’s five of us. We all went to Louisiana Tech, and the night of the draft last year, I saw Coach Holtz's personal number call me. I knew how I was going to be coached. I knew the expectations. I knew what to expect from him. When me and Coach Holtz first got on the call, I’m getting chills thinking about it. The ups and down we’ve been through came back. There’s been a lot of ups, but there’s been downs too, especially with a head coach and a quarterback.”

Smith said playing at Protective Stadium had a lot to do with the team's success.

"I can clearly remember, me and (linebacker Scooby Wright) went to, I want to say it was Michigan and Pittsburgh," Smith said. "It was after our game, on a Sunday, and I could count there were maybe 100 people there. You could hear everything going on the field. It was like, 'Man. We're grateful to have the city of Birmingham supporting us.' They rallied around us. It helped that first game with me, the energy. I started off slow, trying to get a groove. I was hadn't played ball since 2019. I was trying to get a groove back into the game."