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While it’s true that NC State faced a lot of disappointments in 2024, Hollywood Smothers was definitely one of the silver linings of the season. He came to Raleigh as a redshirt freshman with 11 carries and 42 yards to his name from his time in Norman, undersized, and lacking a ton of film to evaluate. It was a fair expectation that he would see limited reps as the third back with Kendrick Raphael returning and Jordan Waters expected to fill a bell cow role. None of that happened.
Smothers ended up being levels more advanced than expected, and he eventually brought some answers to a run game struggling to produce explosive plays. His combination of shake in space, breakaway speed, and fundamentally sound play started getting State's run game off the ground.
The fear with young backs that have so much speed is a willingness to try and claim the edge and get outside when it isn’t the right play. You figure a guy like this had little trouble getting outside at the high school level, where defensive ends that are future accountants are more common than ones that will be D1 football players. There was some of this, but not as much as you’d think. He was more technically sound than expected as a freshman, and when State got his speed involved in outside zone, it really worked.
Smothers is a zone back, and when the Pack started transitioning to more of a zone-only approach, it worked for the freshman. His acceleration and cut speed put a lot of pressure on the perimeter of defenses, and when he used that within the play instead of relying on it to win the edge, he was a beast.
This is the kind of thing you don’t want, and exactly what’s referenced above.
When Belton turns the Duke defensive end outside, this ball should puncture the line right off Anthony Belton’s inside hip in the B gap. If that happens, it gains a yard or two. The linebacker was able to get over the top of Zeke Correll and is going to make the play for a short gain. Smothers should take these two yards because 2nd and 8 is still a lot better than 2nd and 13. Instead, he tries to outrun the edge and can’t.
It's the kind of freshman play I thought you’d see more of, but truthfully, this was few and far between. State ran outside zone with Hollywood quite a bit in the back half of the season, and I think there were only two, maybe three, real instances of him overpressuring the edge, another being this.
State catches Syracuse here down a hat in the box, and Anthony Belton scores an A+ reach block. This ball should hit right where it does, but Smothers makes his cut about a step too late, slowing the play a bit and more importantly causing him to stumble.
This is super nitpicky, of course. I just wanted to illustrate the kind of mistake you expect to see from a speedy freshman and the times where Smothers showed it. The one above was an easy read that he overran, but he carried the ball 74 times this season and you can count on one hand the number of touches where it was worth taking serious issue with his execution. What you cannot count on one hand is the number of explosive plays he created by breaking a second level tackle. I will absolutely take that from a freshman, especially when he outperformed the other two backs in both categories.
The Syracuse game was his first one back from an extended injury absence, and once he settled back in, things really starting happening. These were the first real instances of State going heavy outside zone with Smothers.
The whole point of outside zone is to put pressure on the edge of the defense and then attack vertical cut lanes that said pressure can create. Smothers fits this so well because of the pressure he can put on the edge with his speed. This is a really good example.
Peak at right tackle and the defensive end are in an absolute war. In an ideal world, Smothers should cut off the development of that block’s leverage, but Tim McKay at right guard gets run under by the linebacker and Smothers has to outrun the penetration and the eventual edge the defensive end creates. A slower, less explosive back probably needs to get through an arm tackle to get upfield here. Smothers' ability to get outside makes the opportunities to cut vertically even more abundant.
He progressively got better post-injury, and the UNC game was one where he really shined. This was a high-level outside zone run that I loved.
The track here is really good and the cut is so explosive. State's in a tackle over formation and Peak on the far left is not going to win outside of that linebacker. Belton kind of stalemates with the defensive end. Smothers tracks wide and then cuts under when that defensive end rips outside of Belton. He's gone in a flash. This is great execution and an understanding of how the play is supposed to work.
Smothers is a fast freshman who doesn’t try to beat everybody to the sideline. At NC State, we recently saw a fast freshman have this exact problem, and Smothers not really showing this tendency with any consistency is really nice. It makes outside zone a much more prolific play.
Funnily enough, the back himself has said that inside zone is his favorite run. I think he’s better in outside zone, but he did some good stuff in inside zone as well. This was his 49-yard touchdown against Stanford, which came from inside zone and demonstrated how well-rounded of a playmaker he became.
Smothers' decision making in the backfield got better as the year went on, and he handled penetration really well, with this inside zone play above being an excellent example. The original aiming point of inside zone is the A gap, while outside zone is the C gap. That’s why they’re named what they are. Inside zone starts inside, while outside zone starts outside. How about that? With Correll's shoulders turning toward the boundary in the above play, the ball should try to hit in the back-side A gap. Kamen Smith is late to the blitz and gives up some penetration, but Smothers is able to get underneath it. After that is when he really starts to separate himself from replacement level running backs at the college level. He breaks two tackles and then runs away from the safety.
I like this one as well.
It's inside zone again with some strong development on the front side (right side). It's not exactly penetration, but the defensive end starts to win inside of Belton and chops off the initial aiming point of the play. Smothers cuts backside of it and picks up the leverage of the two downfield blocks correctly. He does a good job dealing with losses on the line and making decisions on when to outrun penetration versus cutting inside of it. This execution starts a create a back with a high ceiling and a high floor.
These reads aren't highlight reel plays, but they display clean execution behind the line of scrimmage, and that’s the foundational element of running back play without which you have nothing. Sometimes these reads can be really easy. Other times, they can require more patience from the back. It just depends on a lot of things. I generally think that D1 running backs should be able do this at a high level as a baseline. Everybody will mess up some but if you consistently struggle to read out an outside zone play, you probably shouldn’t be on a college football field. It’s a foundational element, and Smothers has no issue checking this box in ink.
As mentioned, he starts to separate himself from generic expectations for running backs with what he does after he’s made a cut. Smothers breaks tackles and makes people miss, and one broken tackle on a well-blocked play can be the difference between 8 yards and 80 yards. He can obviously make people miss in space, but his ability to actually physically break tackles was more than I expected. You saw him break two in the above touchdown run against Stanford. He's a playmaker in every definition of the world.
Over 54% of yards from Smothers in 2024 were more than 15 yards downfield. He's a producer of explosive plays. Only one other back over the last two years recorded a number over 40%, and that was Kendrick Raphael this year at 42.5%. Smothers averaged a run of 10+ yards every five carries.
His ability in space is the most obvious thing that pops on tape. Against Syracuse, CJ Bailey checked down a four verticals play to him and he proceeded to break four tackles and take it 72 yards. He becomes a legitimate threat to do something interesting in check down situations, something CJ Bailey was heavily reliant on in 2024. It also makes him a receiving threat inside of actual concepts.
One of Robert Anae’s staple plays to beat man coverage is mesh rail, and Smothers scored a game-winner against Cal after he took the rail route 46 yards with a broken tackle to help.
There is a lot you can do with this ability. State ran this pipe route concept below in an attempt to isolate him on the linebacker, and while it didn’t work, you can see the thought process with the speed of Smothers. You’ll see this play again, and State will score on it at some point.
The other part of Smothers’ game that was impressive for a freshman was his pass protection. This is another thing you usually have to provide freshman with some grace on. Many are not great at it, but Smothers is pretty effective.
State's in a pull protection look here as part of play action. The pulling guard is responsible for the end man on the left and every other linemen is in a slide with their responsibility being their right-side gap. This creates the seam in protection and Smothers needs to read inside out to secure it. The linebacker blitz looks to be slightly delayed and Smothers seems to want to release, but he catches it coming and does a good job squaring to it and getting low. If he misses this, Bailey probably still gets this off but has a guy in his face. It's a little thing that only gets noticed when it isn't dependably there.
I just like the physicality in the one below. He is small but willing in pass protection and he gets the blitzer on the ground.
This is a double A-gap blitz from Stanford and State is protecting it with a half slide protection. That leaves an A gap free, and Smothers has to pick that blitz up and not get ran over. He's good at this stuff.
I said it before about reading blocking leverage and it applies to pass protection too. A lot of this stuff isn't highlight stuff. Smothers can put together a sweet highlight reel, but he does the little things well too. These are not necessarily things that are insanely difficult, but they are things that we've watched State struggle with in the recent past. Running back play was very poor in 2023 and it had some pretty perfunctory performances in 2024 as well. Smothers is bringing some juice to the position.
For a skinny freshman with no tape to watch, I had low expectations for Daylan Smothers, but I seriously underestimated how ready he would be. He averaged almost six yards per carry and had two receptions that went for over 40 yards, both of which were under five yards in depth of target. Smothers is an explosive play waiting to happen, and if State can run block at a similar level to what it did this year, you’ve got a back that is going to put up some nasty numbers.
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