Trey Smith wins back-to-back Super Bowls, 50th Super Bowl won by a former Tennessee player

In the fall of 2018, Trey Smith’s football career was in question. Tennessee’s star offensive lineman was shut down after the first seven games of the season due to health concerns centered around a blood-clotting issue in his lungs.

All he has done in the six years since then is become First Team All-SEC, a Second Team All-American and now a two-time Super Bowl champion.

Smith won his second straight Super Bowl title with the Kansas City Chiefs Sunday night in the 25-22 overtime win over the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl LVIII at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.

For the Tennessee football program, it’s the 50th Super Bowl won by a former player, with a total of 40 different former Vols combining for the 50 Super Bowl rings. A former Tennessee player has been on the winning team in seven of the last eight Super Bowls.

Smith and San Francisco wide receiver Jauan Jennings made the 105th and 106th appearances by former Tennessee players in the Super Bowl. The two were teammates at Tennessee from 2017 to 2019.

Trey Smith was First Team All-SEC, Second Team All-American during Tennessee career

Smith returned to Tennessee for the 2019 season, playing in all 13 games and making 12 starts at left guard on his way to First Team All-SEC honors. He was named Second Team All-American in 2020, but didn’t hear his name called in the 2021 NFL Draft until the sixth round due to concerns over his health history.

Smith, a former five-star in-state offensive line prospect out of University School of Jackson in Jackson, Tenn., was selected with the 226th overall pick in the 2021 NFL Draft. 

Jennings was the 217th pick in the 2020 NFL Draft, selected in the seventh round by the 49ers. And for most of Sunday night, he stole the show at the Super Bowl.

He threw a 21-yard touchdown to running back Christian McCaffrey in the first half on a wide receiver throwback trick play. He also caught a 10-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter. 

He caught four passes for 42 yards and the touchdown, leading all 49er receivers in the game and giving his team a go-ahead score with 11:22 left in the fourth quarter. 

“Man, just a blessing,” Jennings told Jim Wyatt of his opportunity to play in the Super Bowl on Monday, during Super Bowl LVIII Opening Night in Las Vegas.  Extremely amazing. And I’m just representing everybody from Tennessee and the 49ers.

“Got a lot of family out here. Everybody is rooting for me. I just can’t wait to bring it back to Tennessee.” 

Jauan Jennings became just the second player in Super Bowl history to both throw and catch touchdowns

Jennings is just the second player in Super Bowl history to both throw and catch a touchdown pass, joining former Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Nick Foles.

In a five-year career at Tennessee, the Murfreesboro native caught 146 passes for 2,153 yards and 18 touchdowns. He capped off his career with highs in receptions (59), yards (969) and touchdowns catches (8) during his redshirt senior season in 2019. He added 13 rushes for 51 yards and another score on the ground.

Jennings was a four-star recruit in the 2015 class out of Blackman High School in Murfreesboro, Tenn. He was dual-threat quarterback prospect — he was rated higher than both Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes and 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy — before moving to wide receiver at Tennessee.

Jennings posted career highs with 35 catches on 56 targets for 416 yards and a touchdown in 16 games in 2022 and caught five touchdowns as a rookie in 16 games in 2021, catching 24 passes on 38 targets for 282 yards. 

Jennings, a former seventh-round pick in the 2020 NFL Draft, Jennings is in his third year with the 49ers. He caught 19 passes for 265 yards and a touchdown in 13 games during the regular season.

He was selected at No. 217 overall by the 49ers and signed a four-year, $3.41 million contract at the time. He was cut by San Francisco in September 2020, then protected by the franchise the following December. He signed a Reserve/Future contract with the Niners in January 2021.

“I dreamed about it,” Jennings told Wyatt of his Super Bowl opportunity. “I just kept telling myself as a kid all I got to do is go in to work every day. That’s my life. Just going to work, Monday through Sunday.”