Why is Fresno State center on national award watch list? Numbers tell the story

Fresno State center Matt Smith entered the Bulldogs’ football program in 2016 as a non-scholarship walk-on, undersized for the position at 5-foot-11 and maybe 260 or 270 pounds.

But the senior has continued to grind, working his way up from the scout team to the starting lineup, and on Wednesday secured a spot on the watch list for the Rimington Trophy.

The Rimington is presented annually to the top center in college football, and past winners include a number of first-round NFL Draft selections including Garrett Bradbury (Minnesota) and Billy Price (Ohio State) the past two seasons.

Smith is one of six players on the watch list from the Mountain West Conference, along with Cam Reddy (Colorado State), Taaga Tuulima (Hawaii), Kyle Stapley (New Mexico), Kyle Hoppe (San Jose State) and Keegan Cryder (Wyoming).

The Rimington watch list was on hold until Wednesday, the trophy committee electing to wait until a plan to play during COVID-19 was implemented across all Division I conferences.

After playing primarily on special teams in 2018, Smith last season started the Bulldogs’ first eight games before suffering a leg injury in a Nov. 2 victory at Hawaii.

Fresno State was ranked fourth in the Mountain West in scoring offense through that Hawaii game, averaging 34.1 points. It averaged just 21.4 points over its final four games, sliding to a 4-8 finish, after losing Smith and starting right tackle Syrus Tuitele to injury.

The rushing production also slipped, the Bulldogs averaging just 3.6 yards per play over the final four games after averaging 5.4 through the first eight games.

Smith also is a semifinalist for the William V. Campbell Trophy, which is known as the academic Heisman. He earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration (sports marketing) last spring with a 3.91 grade-point average, has been on the Presidents List (4.0 GPA for the semester) six times and has been a Mountain West Scholar Athlete two times.