Tykee Smith confident in his game as he goes through spring

On3 imageby:Palmer Thombs04/07/23

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ATHENS, Ga. — Tykee Smith made it clear on Thursday, he’s out of the knee brace and full go for spring. Smith played in all but one game for Georgia last fall but didn’t ditch the brace until the spring. It’s just another step in his continuation back to full comfort.

“Definitely a blessing just to be out there and get a spring to go through because I’ve never been through a spring before and then to finally get an offseason to go through here full healthy and gaining confidence back. That’s definitely been the biggest thing,” Smith said. “Definitely a little different. I’ve never been through a spring before, so this is my first spring going through. So just being able to have another time and another phase to kind of learn the defense and get more comfortable and gain more confidence in my knee.”

Smith says the biggest thing he’s learned during his time at Georgia has been the value of patience. He arrived on campus out of the transfer portal with plenty of hype surrounding him. An All-American caliber player at West Virginia, Smith was expected to step in and make an immediate impact. However, a foot injury kept him from playing in the first five games of the 2021 season, and then after playing in his first against Auburn in Week Six, he suffered a torn ACL in practice the preparing for Georgia’s Week Seven game.

Smith was able to play in all but one of Georgia’s games last season but admitted he didn’t feel fully comfortable until the end. You might not have been able to tell though based on his performance, totaling 28 tackles in 14 games including four starts. Smith forced a fumble and had a pass deflection to go along with his 2.5 tackles for loss.

“The biggest thing, I think I started getting back toward myself toward the end of the season — like, late in the season,” Smith said. “The biggest thing was just being able to come out of my brace and then finally trusting [the knee] coming out of the brace … I just learned patience and just trusting that the plans that God made for me is bigger than what I had planned for myself and I could get done by myself.”

Smith was able to make a contribution – maybe not as major as he would have hoped for – in his first season back from the injury. Approaching it with the attitude of doing anything to help the team, Smith is getting ready to go for 2023 doing just the same.

Having shared playing time last season with Javon Bullard at STAR, the two developed a strong friendship. However, because they were playing the same position, they weren’t necessarily developing chemistry on the field. Now with Bullard getting a look at safety, there’s a chance both could be on the field and making a major impact.

“That’s my dawg. That’s one of the guys that me and him are real tight in the back. We just feed off each other’s energy, and basically we get each other going,” Smith said. “Like, the last couple of practices, we’ve been starting up by jumping up and jacking each other in the head — me, him, and Malaki Starks — and then just being able to go out there and then make plays. That’s been the biggest thing.”

“Us being out there at the same time being as we both play similar positions and play, like, rotating between STAR and safety, just us being able to be on the same page, knowing what kind of calls to make when we see certain formations and then knowing how, like, each other’s thinking and how we’re going to play it,” he added on playing with Bullard. “The way I’ve been trying to get better is, first, I had to make sure I was in the best shape to be able to go through the spring and then just basically take on that leader role in the DB role because I’m an older guy in the room this year with Chris Smith gone. So yeah, that’s basically it: becoming more of a vocal leader.”

Smith will have a chance to show fans what he looks like without a knee brace for the first time at Georgia’s G-Day spring game on April 15th. He’s excited not only to do that, but simply to get out on the football field in the spring – something he hasn’t been able to do before in his career.

“With the spring game coming up, I’m just trying to be the best version of myself,” Smith said. “Trying to come out there with confidence and execute the plays as best as possible and then just have a good time with the team and enjoy the time with that being my first spring game being able to go through.”

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