Missouri football defensive end Darris Smith is “hungry” to get back on the field. After an ACL tear last August, here's how Smith made his way back.
Darris Smith is desperate to hit someone.
The Missouri football defensive end goes to sleep thinking about putting his pads back on. There are those thoughts again, front and center of his mind in the morning after he wakes up.
The edge rusher has pictured the ideal play-call: B-Gap stunt and blowing up a play in the backfield.
He wants it all. Pads. Cleats. Contact.
And can you blame him? He’s had to wait a while.
Smith tore his ACL last August in the middle of fall camp ahead of the 2024 season. The Mizzou coaches had raved about his offseason leading into this time last year, when he arrived with Missouri as a marquee transfer from Georgia. Smith, looking back, said he doesn’t believe he has ever been quite as good at football as he was in the days leading up to that injury.
“I feel more hungry. Every day I wake up, or every day before I go to sleep, I'm thinking about fall camp,” Smith told the Tribune on Sunday, a day before preseason camp started. “First day of fall camp, just right here. I’m just ready to put my pads back on, you know what I’m saying? Do contact. I'm glad to be here. … I just can't wait.”
He played sparingly for Georgia in 2022 and 2023 before moving to Columbia. But just as he hit what he thinks was his prime, the chance to prove it was torn away.
It was a special teams practice drill that took him out. Smith was on the kickoff team chasing down a potential kick returner, and as he tried to get around a block, his legs got caught and tangled.
“Went straight to the ground,” he said.
Smith had a same-day MRI. The news was not good — the season-is-over type of news.
But it's a new year, and Smith is back, “hungry” and seemingly at full speed for Missouri football in 2025. He’s in a deep room — maybe the most loaded on the Tigers’ roster.
Zion Young is the star returner. Another Georgia Bulldogs transfer, Damon Wilson II, was one of the top-ranked transfers of this past offseason. Top-50 freshman Javion Hilson and freshman All-American, Appalachian State transfer Nate Johnson are intriguing newcomers, too.
But don’t forget Smith.
The rehab process on an ACL tear isn’t fast. Recovery required day after day in the Missouri facility with athletic trainer Victoria Simpson.
Smith said there were a lot of single-leg squats. He graduated from one-leg hops on flat surfaces to, eventually, one-leg hops onto platforms. He had to relearn how to land on the leg; how to properly put pressure on it. More than anything, Smith remembers the leg extensions.
It’s a gruelling, slow process, and that’s without factoring in the mental toll.
It was, after all, meant to be Smith’s year; the season the 6-foot-5, 232-pound edge rusher broke out of a reserve role with his home-state Bulldogs and starred in the SEC. But football went on without him. The Tigers went 10-3 with a bowl win over Iowa without him.
“I was depressed for a long time,” Smith told the Tribune. “It probably was like three months of it, because I had never been through adversity like that. It was really hard at first. But, you know, talking to people, talking to my parents and stuff, they helped motivate me. Once I got in a better mood, it was just game on.”
He leaned on his family. Simpson, who Smith calls “Miss Vic," helped motivate him through the recovery process.
Progress was slow, but it was progress. Eventually, he just had to get back.
“Like, before the games, if anybody needed a Gatorade, I’d get them a Gatorade,” Smith said. “Just to be there.”
When his rehab reached a point that he could begin running again, Smith said he would go to the facility, get on a treadmill and go for hours. Not because he had to, anymore, but because he had missed it.
Smith’s debut has been delayed, but it’s coming. In preseason camp reps, he’s been working as part of the Tigers’ two-deep. Defensive ends coach Brian Early said he’s one of two players Missouri is currently repping at both their field and boundary edge-rushing positions, which gives Smith an excellent shot at seeing significant playing time. His primary position likely will be on the boundary in a rotation with Wilson — the 'Joker' defensive end role MU tabs as its premier pass-rushing option.
The Baxley, Georgia, product hasn’t, per PFF, played more than 14 defensive snaps in a game since he arrived in college. He missed all of the spring while he rehabbed and recovered.
Now, his gear is going back on.
Good luck finding anyone more grateful.
“I’m just thinking about it every day; thinking about, like, just putting the pads back on, tying my cleats up and getting out here,” Smith said. “I really missed that. I’m just glad to be back here now.”
This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Missouri football DE Darris Smith ‘hungry’ for return after ACL tear
Category: General Sports
