Christopher Smelley (born September 29, 1986) is an American

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

and

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

player. He is a former starting

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

for the University of South Carolina, as well as a former

catcher Catcher is a Baseball positions, position in baseball and softball. When a Batter (baseball), batter takes their at bat, turn to hit, the catcher crouches behind home plate, in front of the (home plate, home) Umpire (baseball), umpire, and recei ...

for the

University of Alabama The University of Alabama (informally known as Alabama, UA, or Bama) is a Public university, public research university in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Established in 1820 and opened to students in 1831, the University of Alabama is the oldest and la ...

High school

In his career, Smelley set Alabama High School Athletic Association records for yards in a single game (585) and season (4,120). He also set Alabama High School Athletic Association (AHSAA) records for touchdown passes in a season (59) and career (134). While attending American Christian Academy in Tuscaloosa, the 6'2", 221 lb Smelley played on three state championship

teams and was the Class 1A Player of the Year for 2005, but chose to pursue college football over college baseball. On February 1, 2006 Smelley signed a national letter of intent to play

at the University of South Carolina. He was listed as a top-rated football prospect on

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

.com's "Class of 2006"

College career

University of South Carolina

He arrived at South Carolina in 2006 and made two appearances in a backup role for the South Carolina Gamecocks. In the first two games of the 2006 season, he completed 9 of 15 passes for 112 yards. He suffered a heel injury during a practice and was granted a medical

redshirt Redshirt, Red Shirt, or Redshirts may refer to: Entertainment * ''Red Shirts'' (film), a 1952 film about Anita Garibaldi by Franco Rossi * Redshirt (stock character), originally derived from ''Star Trek'', a stock character who dies soon after b ...

. In 2007, after his return from injury, he took over the starting position after replacing ineffective starter Blake Mitchell against LSU.

Steve Spurrier Stephen Orr Spurrier (born April 20, 1945) is an American former American football, football quarterback and coach who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 10 seasons before coaching for 38 years, primarily in college. He is often ...

announced that Smelley would start against

Mississippi State University Mississippi State University for Agriculture and Applied Science, commonly known as Mississippi State University (MSU), is a public land-grant research university adjacent to Starkville, Mississippi. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Unive ...

on September 29, 2007, a game which earned him SEC Freshman of the week honors. In 2008, Smelley was the

second string ''Second String'' is a direct-to-TV film from 2002 about the Buffalo Bills football team who find its first string (led by real-life Bills quarterback Doug Flutie, who had left the team by the time the film was released) out for a month after a f ...

quarterback behind Tommy Beecher. Beecher later suffered a concussion in the second half of the first game of the season after throwing four interceptions. Smelley entered the game and completed five passes on five attempts, also throwing for two touchdown passes. He was then named as the starter for the next game against the

Vanderbilt Commodores The Vanderbilt Commodores are the college athletics in the United States, intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Vanderbilt University, located in Nashville, Tennessee. Vanderbilt fields 16 varsity teams (6 men's teams and 10 women's team ...

. Later that year, he completed 22 of 32 passes, threw for 327 yards and three touchdowns during a win against Ole Miss. For his performance he was named the SEC Offensive Player of the Week. He was 9-6 in 15 career starts. For his career, Smelley completed 56.4 percent of his passes for 3,210 yards and 23 touchdowns with 22 interceptions. He ranks in the top 10 on USC’s all-time list in completions (270), attempts (479), completion percentage and passing touchdowns (22).

University of Alabama

On January 9, 2009, Smelley declared that he would be transferring from the University of South Carolina to go play baseball (and possibly football) at the University of Alabama. Due to

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

transfer rules, he must sit out spring semester, though he is still able to practice with the team.

Personal

His brother is

Brad Smelley Brad Smelley (born April 20, 1989) is a former American football tight end. He was drafted by the Cleveland Browns. He played college football at the University of Alabama. He also played for the Houston Texans and St. Louis Rams. College car ...

, a former football player for the

Alabama Crimson Tide The Alabama Crimson Tide refers to the intercollegiate athletic varsity teams that represent the University of Alabama, located in Tuscaloosa. The Crimson Tide teams compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's Division I as a mem ...

Cleveland Browns The Cleveland Browns are a professional American football team based in Cleveland. Named after original coach and co-founder Paul Brown, they compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference ( ...

, and the

Houston Texans The Houston Texans are a professional American football team based in Houston. The Texans compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC South, South division, and play their home ga ...

Coaching career

Chris Smelley was hired as Head Football Coach at American Christian Academy in Tuscaloosa, Alabama on January 9, 2014. On August 3, 2021, he resigned, citing personal reasons.

References

External links

Profile at official South Carolina football site

{{DEFAULTSORT:Smelley, Chris 1986 births Living people Sportspeople from Tuscaloosa, Alabama American football quarterbacks South Carolina Gamecocks football players