Inside NC State RB Hollywood Smothers’ quest to become the Pack’s next 1,000-yard rusher

It seemed like the play was dead on arrival. He took a first-quarter handoff out of a pistol formation and immediately hit the A gap with authority, where a pair of Campbell linebackers were waiting in the hole. It appeared as if the tailback was set to be stuffed for no gain.  But instead of settling for next to nothing, NC State redshirt sophomore running back Hollywood Smothers took a step back and darted to his left. He found an opening behind left tackle Jacarrrius Peak, and sprinted through, making three defenders miss in the process. After slithering through a mass of bodies, the former Oklahoma transfer was off to the races for an electric 59-yard touchdown run.  Smothers, who finished that afternoon with just four carries for 123 yards and a pair of touchdowns in a 56-10 Week 6 rout over Campbell, provided a small glimpse of what he can do with the ball in his hands on that one play. He took a snap that most running backs would have given up on and turned it into a game-changing explosive score, a trait that Smothers has become synonymous with in the Wolfpack’s backfield this fall.  The Charlotte, N.C., native took six games to emerge as the Pack’s No. 1 option in the backfield a year ago, but he has become one of the team’s top playmakers since. Now, after racking up 825 rushing yards with six touchdowns on 125 carries through the team’s first eight games of the 2025 campaign, Smothers is on the cusp of joining a small, yet elite group of NC State tailbacks to eclipse 1,000 yards in a single season.  It’s been seven years since the list had a new addition when Reggie Gallaspy II became the most-recent to do join with 1,091 yards as he capped a three-season stretch of millenary-yard rushers as Matt Dayes (1,166) did it in 2016 and Nyheim Hines (1,112) did in 2017.  While Smothers is on pace to write his own name next to the 13 other NC State ball carriers that have done it in the program’s 120-season history before him, Wolfpack coach Dave Doeren believes that benchmark isn’t a total he thinks the running back will be limited to by the end of the fall. “We’ve got a really good running back,” Doeren said. “I think 1,000 yards is selling him short. We’ve got to do everything we can to get that guy touches. He’s a really good football player, and the more he touches the football, the better.” Smothers is more than just a downhill running back. He possesses an innate ability to find open space on the field, while doing so with a team-first mentality, not paying too much attention to his own statistics along the way. That combination, in a way, is the secret to his consistent success en route to becoming one of the rare elite running backs that have come through the Wolfpack’s program.