Most Crucial Jayhawks 2016: No. 12 – S Fish Smithson
photo by: Mike Yoder
Kansas University safety Anthony Smithson? No, the junior-college transfer prefers to be called ‘Fish,’ a nickname given to Smithson by his grandmother when he was an infant.
Today’s entry on the Most Crucial Jayhawks of 2016 list is a name that’s both wildly familiar to KU fans and wildly unusual in the dictionary of baby names.
It also belongs to one of KU’s top returning players from 2015 and likely falls a little lower on the list than many people expect simply because we now know what this player is capable of and the standard for his season is higher than the one for most KU players, old and new.
Reminder: This is not a list of the 25 best players on this year’s team. That would be much easier to pinpoint and, although still key, would not exactly demonstrate the full value that each player has in regard to the 2016 season.
This is a list of the 25 players who need to have strong seasons in order for the Jayhawks to have a chance to compete.
Tom Keegan and I came up with the list by each making our own list of 25 and then combining the results. We did the same thing for the last two years, but the amount of fresh faces made this list much tougher to put together.
Track the list every weekday at KUsports.com, where we’ll unveil the list one-by-one in reverse order. And, in case you miss some, be sure to check the links at the bottom of each entry for an up-to-date look at the list of 25.
12. Fish Smithson, Sr. Safety
They don’t make ’em much more consistent than KU safety Fish Smithson, but, according to Fish himself, they do make ’em better.
That’s why the senior returning for his third season in the program who led the Big 12 in tackles (111) and the nation in solo tackles per game (7.9) in 2015 spent the entire offseason working as if he had yet to accomplish a thing.
Named to the all-Big 12 second team following a strong junior season, Smithson returns as not only the most accomplished player on KU’s defense but also one of its anchors.
He’ll have more help and experience around him this season, which should give him a better opportunity to make more plays. But he does not figure to stray too far from the traits that made him one of the more sure tacklers in the Big 12 a season ago — toughness, intelligence, effort and pride.
Like many players on the KU roster, Smithson leaned up and got stronger this offseason. That, he believes, will make him a better all-around player. He also emphasized becoming a better leader and more polished in coverage and said after the 2015 season that he would like to be known as more than just a solid tackler.
No matter how much they appear to have improved in 2016 — if at all — the Jayhawks are going to need Smithson to continue to clean up the back end of their defense. But if he can capitalize on the work he put in on the other aspects of his game and add it to what people already know he’s capable of, Smithson can take that step forward that he wants to take.
Top 25 Most Crucial Jayhawks of 2016: