Smith electrifies crowd as Bombers unearth returner

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Mark this date and time down on your calendars, Winnipeg football fans: Friday night, May 31, 8:42 p.m.

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That’s the moment the Blue Bombers discovered a kick returner to replace departed star Janarion Grant.

With around 3:00 to go in the first half of a preseason game against Calgary, rookie Chris Smith fielded a Stampeders punt, found a hole and broke into the clear, outrunning would-be tacklers on his way to a 109-yard touchdown.

The 24-year-old from Mississippi dropped to his knees in the south end zone, raised his arms and soaked in the adulation from some 24,000 in the stands.

“It felt amazing,” Smith said. “I ain’t played football in over a year, and man, just to get back in the end zone – that’s my first punt return touchdown since high school. I ran out of gas. But I wasn’t going to let that chance slip out from under me.

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“I was tired. But I told myself if I score I’m giving all the praise and glory to the Lord. So I just bowed on my knees and thanked him for the opportunity.”

On the Winnipeg sideline, head coach Mike O’Shea and first-year special-teams coordinator Mike Miller were no doubt doing an inner fist pump. They had their man.

The Bombers’ first preseason game hadn’t separated anyone from the pack in the return game.

Even the coach acknowledged one “monstrous play” like that, in that position, can earn someone a spot.

“That’s an interesting question,” O’Shea said. “I think the answer is absolutely yes. Because that one play could break a 10-10 tie. It was excellent. That’s as long as they get.”

In a regular-season game, players would be told to let a punt bounce into the end zone instead of fielding it on their one-yard line.

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Not in the preseason.

“You want them to return everything,” O’Shea said. “I’m sure he’s glad he heard that message. We are.”

Special teams aren’t an afterthought for O’Shea’s Bombers. He played them, he’s coached them and he values them as much as he does a brawling group of hogs and a D-line that gets after quarterbacks.

Good returns equal field position. Field position equals points. Points equals wins.

Over the last four seasons, nobody did it better than Grant.

The slender speedster from Florida produced eight Winnipeg kick-return touchdowns in 41 regular-season games – No. 1 in this franchise’s long and glorious history.

That’s a major score virtually every five games.

His playoff performance went one better: two major scores in eight post-season and Grey Cup games, or one every four times he laced up his cleats.

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You just can’t replace the jolt of electricity that kind of return game provides.

Smith will try.

“That’s the job I want to win,” he said. “Training camp’s for opportunities. So you’ve got to take full advantage of them. Lord’s will I’ll make this team. It will mean a lot.”

While Grant was a receiver when he wasn’t terrorizing cover teams, Smith is a running back of some renown.

With the University of Louisiana-Lafayette Ragin’ Cajuns in 2021, he produced one of the top-five rushing performances in school history, rolling up 238 yards on 24 carries on his way to an 855-yard season in 13 games.

But that’s not where he fits in with the Bombers.

Winnipeg employs a Canadian at running back, Winnipegger Brady Oliveira, and to maintain their Canadian-American ratio the Bombers have another Canadian, Johnny Augustine, as Oliveira’s backup.

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So Smith may be little more than an insurance policy at that position. A Plan C, even.

But the difficult job of returning punts was his the moment he crossed that goal line on Friday night.

O’Shea’s comments going into the game were telling: “If they’re the best returner, we’ll figure out what else they can do.”

The year before becoming a college star at running back, Smith was force on special teams, returning 23 kicks for 617 yards and two touchdowns, the fourth-best yardage total nationally.

Many pundits thought he’d be an NFL draft pick in 2023, his 40-yard time of 4.4 seconds grabbing attention.

He wasn’t chosen, signing as a free agent with Seattle, getting cut, then signing with San Antonio of the XFL.

“But they released me before training camp,” Smith said. “Then I started substitute teaching and started coaching football. So I almost thought I was done. I love the game so much, I’m not just going to let it walk away from me.”

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Smith is no taller than Grant – both are listed at 5-foot-9 – but he packs more of a punch: where Grant weighs in at just 157 pounds, Smith is listed at 194.

Kick returner was just one of the spots still up for grabs going into the preseason finale.

A fifth receiver to replace Rasheed Bailey, a defensive end to replace Jackson Jeffcoat, a cornerback to replace Demerio Houston and an offensive tackle to replace Jermarcus Hardrick were among the priorities.

The coaches dressed few veterans in order to get a good, long look at the newcomers.

They’ll pour over the film, watching every play to make those decisions.

But one call doesn’t need any film study.

The Bombers may have lost the game, 31-10.

But they found something, too.

pfriesen@postmedia.com
X: @friesensunmedia

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