Coast Guard releases amazing rescue footage of former Alabama, South Carolina athlete Chris Smelley
The United States Coast Guard has released amazing rescue footage featuring former Alabama Crimson Tide and South Carolina Gamecocks athlete Chris Smelley.
The former SEC athlete turned Sylacauga, Alabama head football coach went missing while he was on his kayak in Walton County, Florida. In the time following, Smelley was located by the US Coast Guard, and later rescued, and now video of it the insane ordeal has come to light.
Check out the video below, shared to X (formerly known as Twitter) by Simone Eli of WKRG TV in Mobile, Alabama.
“WOW!! Incredible video from US Coast Guard of Sylacauga head football coach Chris Smelley being rescued yesterday 2 miles off the Gulf Coast in Florida,” Eli posted on X. “Amazing technology and talented people no doubt!! Hats off to @USCG!”
That’s a pretty amazing video, shared to X for the world to see. Thankfully, tragedy was avoided, and Smelley has bene safely rescued from the life-threatening situation.
Continuing, Walton County Sheriff’s office released a report on Thursday at 3:37 p.m. ET that Smelley, 37, went fishing in his blue and black kayak around 8:30 a.m. ET in the Gulf of Mexico off Grayton Beach.
The WCSO and South Walton Fire District conducted a search for the former SEC athlete, and the coast guard as contacted as well. At 8:30 p.m. ET, 12 hours after he initially went missing, the sheriff’s office announced that he was found safely by the coast guard.
It’s unclear what the events that led to him going missing were, or any other details pertaining to the case. What is clear, however, is that he has been located and rescued after a few hours of searching.
Smelley was a two-sport athlete in college. A member of the 2006 recruiting class, he was a four-star recruit and was the No. 14 quarterback in his class, per the On3 Industry Rating, which is a proprietary algorithm that compiles ratings and rankings from all four primary recruiting media services.
Out of high school, Smelley signed with South Carolina to be a quarterback under head coach Steve Spurrier. In 21 career games, Smelley threw for 3,210 yards, 23 touchdowns, and 22 touchdowns for the head ball coach. He was the starter for South Carolina during the 2008 season after Tommy Beecher suffered an injury in the season opener against North Carolina State.
Taking a look at the program’s record books, Smelley’s name appears multiple times. He ended his South Carolina career ranking within the top 10 of attempts, completions, and total touchdowns.
After his junior season, he changed his tempo as Smelley chose to no longer play football heading into his senior season. Instead, he transferred to his hometown university, Alabama, where he joined the Crimson Tide’s baseball team. He was not deemed eligible by the NCAA to participate in the 2009 season and despite being on the team, Smelley did not record a statistic in 2010.
He went on to move into the coaching space after his sports career came to an end. In 2014, he became the head coach at American Christian Academy in Tuscaloosa, where he had attended high school but resigned ahead of the school’s 2021 football season.
On3’s Barkley Truax and Griffin McVeigh contributed to this report.