Marquette Smith (born July 14, 1972) is a former

American football American football, referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada and also known as gridiron football, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular American football field, field with goalposts at e ...

running back A running back (RB) is a member of the offensive backfield in gridiron football. The primary roles of a running back are to receive American football plays#Offensive terminology, handoffs from the quarterback to Rush (American football)#Offense ...

. Mostly known for his

prep PowerPC Reference Platform (PReP) was a standard system architecture for PowerPC-based computer systems (as well as a reference implementation) developed at the same time as the PowerPC processor architecture. Published by IBM in 1994, it allow ...

and

college A college (Latin: ''collegium'') may be a tertiary educational institution (sometimes awarding degrees), part of a collegiate university, an institution offering vocational education, a further education institution, or a secondary sc ...

career, he spent two seasons with the

Carolina Panthers The Carolina Panthers are a professional American football team based in Charlotte, North Carolina. The Panthers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC South, South division. The t ...

of the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...

(NFL), but knee injuries in successive years during the pre-season kept him off the field.

Biography

Smith was an All-American running back at

Lake Howell High School Lake Howell High School is a comprehensive school, comprehensive four-year high school in Central Florida, US. The school is in Seminole County, Florida, Seminole County with a Winter Park, Florida address. The school's first principal, Richard ...

Winter Park, Florida Winter Park is a city in Orange County, Florida, United States. The population was 29,795 according to the 2020 census. It is part of the Greater Orlando, Orlando–Kissimmee–Sanford, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area. Winter Park was foun ...

. In 1990, he was named High School Football Player of the Year by

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, and Offensive Player of the Year by ''

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''. Considered to be the premier recruit in the class of 1991, Smith chose

Florida State Florida State University (FSU or Florida State) is a Public university, public research university in Tallahassee, Florida, United States. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida and a preeminent university in the s ...

over

Penn State #Redirect Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with ca ...

and

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

. He could not live up to expectations, and decided to transfer to the

University of Central Florida The University of Central Florida (UCF) is a public university, public research university with its main campus in unincorporated area, unincorporated Orange County, Florida, United States. It is part of the State University System of Florida. ...

after his

redshirt Redshirt, Red Shirt, or Redshirts may refer to: Sports * Redshirt (college sports) Redshirt, in United States college athletics, is a delay or suspension of an athlete's participation in order to lengthen their period of eligibility. Typically ...

sophomore season in 1994. In only two seasons at UCF, Smith rushed for 2,569 yards; through the 2018 season, he is fourth on UCF's list of career rushing yardage leaders, and the only player in the top ten with less than a three-season career at UCF. He is the only player in UCF history to rush for more than 1,000 yards in back-to-back seasons, and his 1,511 yards (with 14 touchdowns) in 1995 set the school's single-season record (later surpassed by

Kevin Smith Kevin Patrick Smith (born August 2, 1970) is an American film director, producer, writer, and actor. He came to prominence with the low-budget buddy comedy film ''Clerks (film), Clerks'' (1994), which he wrote, directed, co-produced, and acted i ...

in 2007). Smith earned second team All-America honors in 1995, and was an honorable mention selection on UCF's 25th Anniversary Football Team as compiled by the ''

Orlando Sentinel The ''Orlando Sentinel'' is the primary newspaper of Orlando, Florida, and the Central Florida region, in the United States. It was founded in 1876 and is currently owned by Tribune Publishing Company. The ''Orlando Sentinel'' is owned by pare ...

''. Smith was drafted in the fifth round of the 1996 NFL Draft by Carolina. After his time with the NFL's Panthers, Smith played for the Shreveport Knights of the short-lived

Regional Football League The Regional Football League (RFL) was an American football minor league formed to be the self-styled "major league of spring football." Established in 1997, the league played a single season, 1999, and then ceased operations. History The RFL s ...

in 1999.

References

External links

UCF Knights bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Marquette 1972 births Living people People from Casselberry, Florida Players of American football from Seminole County, Florida American football running backs Florida State Seminoles football players UCF Knights football players Regional Football League players Lake Howell High School alumni

Biography

See also

References

External links