2020 Mountain West Football Top 50 Players: #30, Hawaii WR Jared Smart
The Warriors wide receiver is the highest-ranked Hawaii player on this year’s countdown of the Mountain West’s best.
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You won’t overlook him this year.
It isn’t easy for the average college football fan to follow every single narrative thread as it unravels and, especially with an exciting team like the Hawaii Warriors, it’s also easy to get caught up in the excitement that some players generate while overlooking others.
Such might be the case of the next athlete on our list of Mountain West football’s best for 2020, wide receiver Jared Smart, who didn’t enter last season with the same level of hype as his offensive compatriots and may have been overlooked for just how good he was. Playing alongside Cedric Byrd and Jojo Ward, the transfer from California’s Laney College actually outpaced Byrd in receiving yards (1,129 to 1,097) and caught more passes than Ward (87 to 65), finishing second in the Mountain West with 51 catches of 10 or more yards while scoring five touchdowns.
He played an especially crucial role as the team rallied toward the division title, averaging 6.3 catches and 94.3 yards with four scores in Hawaii’s last six games, five of which were Warrior victories.
Though Hawaii has brought in new reinforcements like Rico Bussey Jr., Aaron Cephus, and Calvin Turner, Smart should remain one of the focal points of head coach Todd Graham’s high-octane offense. If you need new reasons to stay up late this fall, look no further.
