At least one agency gave Tennessee football Volunteers offensive lineman his due.
Despite being named First Team All-SEC for a third straight year, a few national organizations still continued to overlook Tennessee football offensive lineman Trey Smith. AP left him off all its All-American teams on Monday.
However, on Wednesday, Smith at least received his due from another group of writers. The 2020 Football Writers Association of America named Smith a Second Team All-American as he wrapped up his senior season on Rocky Top.
The 6’6″ 330-pound lineman joined the Alabama Crimson Tide’s Alex Leatherwood and Landon Dickerson along with the Texas A&M Aggies’ Kenyon Green as the four SEC offensive linemen to make the list. Smith was the only SEC lineman to not make First Team.
Despite Tennessee football’s issues throughout the year, Smith remained a consistent force at guard for the Vols. He is the first UT player to earn All-American recognition of any kind since Derek Barnett in 2016.
Assuming he moves onto the NFL, Smith is one of the great stories on Rocky Top. In the three full years he started at guard, one for Butch Jones and two for Jeremy Pruitt, he earned First Team All-SEC. One of those years, 2017, he earned Freshman All-American honors.
In 2018, however, he moved over to left tackle and likely would have been All-SEC again had blood clots not cut short his season. Those blood clots kept Smith out of offseason activities in 2018 and 2019. He figured out a way to play with them, though, and has always been elite up front.
Earlier in the year, Smith made the decision to return for his senior season even though he would have likely been a first round NFL Draft pick, further cementing his place as a beloved figure on Rocky Top. Once again, he became the one reliable offensive player in a difficult year.
Although Tennessee football had a difficult year, Smith should have been an All-American across the board. He was never the problem and will likely one of the best players up front entering the draft this year. There’s a reason he was the only Vol to earn All-SEC. At least he earned the honors by one service, though.