For Oklahoma TE Blake Smith, Catching First Career Touchdown was "Out-of-Body Experience"
NORMAN — On Saturday, Oklahoma transfer tight end Blake Smith caught his first collegiate touchdown pass during his second game in Norman.
The redshirt junior transferred from Texas A&M over the offseason after spending his first three seasons with the Aggies. After losing veteran tight end Brayden Willis to the NFL Draft, OU's tight end room was lacking any depth or experience following the 2022 season.
Tight ends coach Joe Jon Finley reacted quickly, hitting the transfer portal to ensure that the Sooners' unit would not be so barren. While there are multiple talented young players at tight end, Kaden Helms is dealing with an injury that will sideline him all season while Jason Llewellyn and Kade McIntyre are still very young and inexperienced.
Finley was able to add former Oklahoma and South Carolina tight end Austin Stogner, former Michigan State athlete Hampton Fay and Smith through the portal, bolstering OU's tight end room with multiple seasoned veterans.
Still, with just two career catches under his belt heading into the 2023 season, Smith was billed as merely a blocking tight end when he arrived in Norman. Smith began to show flashes of his receiving ability early on, however, catching a touchdown in Oklahoma's spring game despite having a cast on one of his arms.
Despite having one career receiving yard prior to his time at OU, Smith has two catches for 30 yards and one touchdown in his first two contests as a Sooner. Against SMU, the 6-foot-4 tight end hauled in his first career touchdown catch on a two yard pass to put the Sooners ahead 14-3 late in the second quarter over the Mustangs.
"I gave (the ball) to the ref," Smith said. "I was having an out-of-body experience."
Near the goalline, Jeff Lebby chose to run a rub route specifically designed to get Smith the ball in short yardage situations, according to Smith and wide receiver Andrel Anthony.
After Anthony was able to draw Smith's defender away from the former Southlake Carroll (TX) standout, Dillon Gabriel hit Smith for a touchdown as he was rolling out to his left. Smith turned around and began to celebrate with his teammates, seemingly elated after bringing in his first collegiate score.
“Yeah it’s been what, four years now? It felt good to finally get out there and once the play was called I kind of knew it was coming my way," Smith said after practice on Monday. "So just executing it and the rest is history.”
Anthony said after the Sooners' victory over SMU that Smith had a sinking feeling that he wouldn't be open when his number was called, but the speedy wideout did a good job of deterring any would-be defenders from the big tight end.
"We were talking yesterday — cause we’d had the play drawn up for awhile now — and he was joking around," Anthony recounted. "He’s like, yeah, they’re gonna be in a coverage where he’s not gonna be able to get the ball. But luckily they were in man, so (we got a little rub) and he scored. He was like, ‘That’s all you.’ I was like, ‘I gotchu.’ That's amazing.”
Even when Smith isn't making career milestone plays, he is a huge part of Oklahoma's offense as a run blocker, seeing his fair share of snaps in both of the Sooners' first two contests despite being listed as the second string tight end.
Smith said that OU's main two tight ends, himself and Stogner, have blocked well this season but still have more room to improve.
“I think we’re doing good," Smith said. "Me and Stog had a few mess ups, just little technical stuff that we need to fix on and physicality-wise, but I think for the most part we’re doing really well.”
Lebby seems to agree, as he said after the Sooners' victory over Arkansas State that Smith "really did a nice job" against the Red Wolves. If Smith shows more growth as a pass catcher and continues to contribute as a run blocker, the former Texas A&M walk-on will likely earn even more snaps for Oklahoma as the season progresses.
Despite being in his first year with the program, Smith has already developed a solid relationship with Gabriel, OU's starting quarterback.
“It’s grown tremendously," Smith said. "It all started in the spring, but it grew over time. And I feel like the confidence that we’re both connecting on through the passing game is just going to continue to grow.”
This connection growing would be a huge aid to OU's offense, who still needs to see more from its tight end room. Despite a solid start to the season for Smith, Stogner only has one catch through two games and the remainder of the Sooners' tight end room is still very green.
If Smith can step up and take over as one of the team's leaders on offense, even if he isn't getting a huge share of the targets, could help open up much more of the field for Lebby and company.
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