Through the Storm
J’Mar Smith and Tom Hager
In partnership with Athletes For God
By the time I woke up, the devastation had already occurred.
Despite the howling winds, and the alarms blaring across our city, I had slept through the storm. An EF3 tornado, with winds gusting up to 136 miles per hour, had just torn through Ruston, Louisiana. It wasn’t my hometown, but by this point in my football career at Louisiana Tech, it practically felt like a second home.
And when I looked around the next morning, I barely recognized it.
Everywhere I looked, I saw devastation. Stores were crumbling apart. Houses and hotels were completely stripped of their roofs. Trees were laying on top of cars. And debris. There was debris everywhere.
When I woke up that morning, I had no idea that anything was any different. I could tell it wasn’t an average day, because it was chilly outside and I could feel the moisture in the air—like it had just rained. But nothing too out of the norm. It wasn’t until I logged onto my Facebook that I knew a tornado had struck right through Ruston.
I hopped in my car to head over toward the football facility, wondering if I could survey much of the damage. By the time I arrived at the weight room, it was obvious that Ruston wasn’t the same city as it had been the day before. The softball stadium had its lights strewn across the grass, and the baseball stadium wasn’t doing much better. Their field was a mess, and the tennis court was beaten up pretty bad as well.
One of the craziest parts for me was realizing that the tornado had come right by my apartment complex. I could have died that night, and yet God didn’t let that happen. I knew that day that things weren’t going to just go back to normal anytime soon. But that didn’t mean something beautiful couldn’t come out of it.
It’s kind of crazy how God orchestrates our path to be in the right place at the right time.
When I was in high school, I didn’t necessarily have my eyes set on Louisiana Tech right away. I grew up in Meridian, Mississippi, and I had considered attending Mississippi State before they pulled my scholarship offer. I hadn’t done anything wrong – they just needed two quarterbacks in that class, and they had signed a pair of recruits before I had committed.
I committed to Louisiana Tech in November of my senior year, and by the time the tornado hit I was preparing for my third season as the starting quarterback. But God didn’t just put me in a leadership position by the time the storm hit…he also gave me the faith to handle adversity when it did strike.
My grandmother was the one who made sure I attended church at a young age. She took me to Savannah Grove Church in Meridian, where I served as the usher. Every Sunday, starting at 8 in the morning, I was there. She is the one who told me to pray and have faith in God’s strength, and she’s the reason I have Philippians 4:13 on my Twitter Bio. That’s the verse that says “I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.”
That verse doesn’t mean God will always make the road easy. It means He gives you strength when it isn’t.
In my situation, I did try to help clean up the city, and prayed with the other members of my church for the five people who lost their lives that night. It was a really sad time, but it was also beautiful, seeing people wear these orange “Ruston Strong” t-shirts. And while there seemed to be debris everywhere you looked, there were friends and volunteers around every corner as well.
It wasn’t the first time I had seen people rally together in the aftermath of adversity.
To put it simply, the 2017 season was frustrating.
Our team lost not one, not two, but three games by a single point. First was the 17-16 loss at South Carolina, a game we led 13-0 in the fourth quarter. We never trailed until they kicked the game-winning field goal with four seconds left. Next there was the 23-22 loss at UAB, when they blocked our field goal attempt as time expired. Last of all was the 24-23 loss to North Texas, when we couldn’t drive close enough in the final minutes to give our kicker a good chance.
But that may not have been the worst loss…there was also a double overtime loss to Southern Miss, a game we led by 11 points with less than three minutes to go.
We finished the season with a respectable 7-6 record, but we were four plays away from being 11-2. Instead of getting down on each other, we chose to use that frustration as fuel. During the offseason workouts we pushed each other to our limits. Every rep, every drill, every day.
We improved to 8-5 the next year, and by the time our 2019 season came around, we were aiming for a double-digit win season. It was going to be my final season at LA Tech, and I wanted to end things the right way. Our program hadn’t won 10 games in a season since 1984…back when we were still a 1-AA team.
We lost our first game against Texas, but after that we just got on a roll. We won our next three games before taking on Rice, a game that really showed where we had come as a team. Rice led for most of the game and took us to overtime, but our defense held them to a field goal in their first possession, meaning we could win the game with a touchdown once we got the ball.
Now going into that week my coach had told me that I might have to use my legs – especially in the red zone – but I had no idea just how accurate his prediction would be. I ran the ball on one play earlier in the drive, and moments later I faced a similar situation. Rice put a blitz on me, and after letting my defenders rush by me for a second, I made the choice to tuck the ball in and run. It wasn’t necessarily something I had planned for, but when I saw the open space I took off for the end zone. I got there just before their secondary could tackle me, and suddenly our team was 4-1 on the season.
We would win the four games after that as well, extending our winning streak to 8 games. It looked like no one could stop us.
Except maybe ourselves.
I was unable to play for the next two games for a violation of team rules, and it was rock bottom for sure. Not only could I not be on the field with my teammates, I watched as they lost those games against Marshall and UAB. In two weeks we went from undefeated in Conference-USA to missing out on the conference championship game. All that momentum we had worked for was suddenly gone.
I had been on the other side of this just three years earlier, when our starting quarterback couldn’t play for also violating a team rule. I still remember when I found out that he had gotten in trouble, I made sure to reach out to him. I wanted him to understand that I was there for him, and that if he ever needed help with anything, to simply ask.
Now it was his chance to return the favor.
Ryan Higgins, our quarterback from that 2016 season, called me up to offer his support. So did my family. I have always tried to lead by example, so sitting out those two games was agonizing for me. Having their support was huge.
Fortunately, my coach Skip Holtz gave me another chance to take the field and redeem myself.
As I took the field that night against UTSA, I knew it would be my last time ever running out of Joe Aillet Stadium.
It was Senior Night, so for this particular game I was introduced on the field with my family. I could tell it wasn’t a typical game, but I tried to keep my routine the same. I still wrote Philippians 4:13 on my wrist, just like I did all my other games. I also wore a cross underneath my right sock that one of my friends gave me. The other thing I liked to do before all my games was head to the end zone and say a quick prayer, asking for God’s help. Sometimes that meant forgiveness. Sometimes that meant protection. And sometimes it meant guidance. But before every game I always tried to talk with God.
We won that game 41-27 to earn a spot in the Independence Bowl against Miami. I didn’t have my best game, but our defense was amazing, and we won 14-0 for our 10th win of the season. We achieved double digits after all.
These days I’m working out in Daytona Beach, Florida, getting ready for the NFL Draft. I don’t know if I’ll be picked or not, but I already know what it’s like to be in the NFL. My Dad, Kenny, played for eight years in the league. I was too young to remember all of it, but I definitely remember him being my favorite player as a kid. I also remember hanging out with all the players at the team facility, and having as much free food as I wanted.
My dad’s memories of the NFL are probably a little different, like the fact that he had to make a lot of sacrifices. He played for five different teams, which meant he was moving constantly. We went with him up to Foxborough when he played for the Patriots, and when he was with the Saints he only lived 3.5 hours from where I grew up in Meridian. But for some of those other games, I was watching on television.
I’m hoping to follow in my dad’s footsteps, but I have no idea what the future holds. That even goes for draft day, because I have no plans yet. I might be with my family, but then again I might just be working out at the gym.
But my focus is less on my draft day plans than what I’ll be doing if or when I make it to the NFL. I wore my Dad’s jersey when I was a little kid, because I looked up to him. And it’s quite possible that someday kids might be wearing my jersey. I just hope that if kids are choosing me as their role model, I’m giving them a good reason why.
Images courtesy of Louisiana Tech Athletics