Torrey Smith - Early Life

Early Life

Smith was born on January 26, 1989 and grew up with his mother Monica Jenkins in Colonial Beach, Virginia and Fredericksburg, Virginia. The oldest of seven children, Smith helped his single mother, who attended Rappahannock Community College in the day and worked at night, with household chores and earned honor roll grades in school. Smith attended Colonial Beach Elementary School, where his physical education teacher, Steve Swope, recognized his athletic ability and allowed Smith to attend his camps free of charge. Smith noted, "Coach Swope knew me before I knew myself ... Every kid who's athletic in that town goes through Coach Swope." Smith went on to Stafford Senior High School, where he played basketball as a guard, and football at several different positions. He enjoys fishing as a pastime.

Smith played on the Stafford Indians football team as a quarterback, running back, wide receiver, cornerback, kickoff returner, and punt returner. In Stafford's 2004 game against King George, Smith opened with a 54-yard kickoff return, played quarterback, and scored on a 63-yard punt return. His coach, Roger Pierce, said, "Torrey can do those type of things for us. We expect him to do those things." During his senior year in 2006, Smith had 155 carries for 815 yards and 12 touchdowns, completed nine of 25 passes for 230 yards and two touchdowns, and made three receptions for 81 yards. Over the course of his interscholastic career, Smith returned six kickoffs for touchdowns. He earned all-state kick returner honors as a sophomore, all-district honors as a junior, and honorable mention All-Northwest Region quarterback honors, and all-district and all-area honors as a senior.

As a college prospect, Rivals.com ranked him 30th nationally among dual-threat quarterbacks, Scouts, Inc. ranked him 33rd nationally among wide receivers, and SuperPrep placed him on its Virginia 33. ESPN assessed him as a "do-it-all prospect" and projected him as a wide receiver because of his size and speed. Smith was recruited by Maryland, Penn State, and Virginia Tech. He was shown interest by Virginia, but did not receive a scholarship offer. The Virginia staff, which questioned whether he had recovered his speed after a basketball injury during his junior year, asked Smith to run a 4.5-second 40-yard dash at a Nike combine at Clemson University, which he did. The Virginia staff then asked him to repeat the feat at the University of Virginia campus, but Maryland offered a scholarship, which Smith accepted. He later said, "I kind of hold a grudge against U.Va. a little bit. I'm not afraid to say it. I kind of want to show them that they questioned my speed and whether I was going to get it back. I want to show them that I'm all healed up." Virginia head coach Al Groh said of the Fredericksburg native before the 2009 game against Maryland, "Clearly if we forsaw him being the type of player that he is now, he would be returning kicks for Virginia. So we are not above admitting that there is a player that certainly has turned out to be superior to what many people thought, including ourselves. He's—regardless of what the circumstances were in the past—he is a superior college football player."