Jacksonville State University Athletics

Rod Smith, whose relationship with head coach Rich Rodriguez goes back many years, enters his third season as the Offensive Coordinator and Quarterbacks Coach at Jacksonville State in 2024.

Rodriguez announced the hiring of longtime coach Smith as his new offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach on June 12, 2022, returning Smith to the sidelines with Rodriguez, who he played for in college and has worked with at four previous stops. He brings over 25 years of coaching experience to Jax State, over 20 of those years at the FBS level, and has coached in 11 bowl games. 

In 2023, the Gamecocks' offense ranked third nationally in rushing yards per game at 236.7 and averaged 30.2 points per game. during a 9-4 season that culminated in the program's first FBS Bowl victory. The tempo of the Jax State offense was difficult for opponents to keep pace with as it averaged a play every 20.6 seconds ranking as the fastest offense in the country. 

His first season at Jax State was a successful one that saw Smith’s offense put up big numbers behind veteran quarterback Zion Webb. The Gamecocks went 9-2 and a perfect 5-0 in conference play en route to the ASUN Championship. The Gamecocks posted the fifth-best rushing offense and the No. 10 scoring offense in the nation, resulting in Smith being named the 2022 Graphite Award Winner for the ASUN, honoring the top play callers in each Division I conference.

He played quarterback for Rodriguez at Glenville State from 1993-96 before starting his coaching career in 1997. Smith would later work for Rodriguez as the quarterbacks coach at West Virginia in 2007, the quarterbacks coach at Michigan from 2008-10 and as the co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Arizona from 2012-17.

From Arizona, he went to Illinois and was the Illini’s offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach from 2018-2020 and served as their acting head coach at the end of that 2020 campaign. His was an analyst at Virginia in 2021 and comes to the Gamecocks from Penn State, where has most recently served as an analyst. 

While at Illinois, Smith led the Illini to the 2019 RedBox Bowl, their first in five seasons, after leading an impressive turnaround with the offense in his first season at UI in 2018. That 2018 team made the biggest improvement in the nation in rushing, averaging over 137 yards more per game than the year before in 2017. The Illini averaged 243 yards rushing per game in 2018, second in the Big Ten.

While with Rodriguez at Arizona, Smith helped establish one of the nation’s best offenses and set several single-game and single-season records. In 2017, the Wildcats averaged over 41 pointer per game (5th nationally), 309 rushing yards, 180 passing yards and 489 total yards (12th nationally).

While with Rodriguez at Michigan and West Virginia, he helped develop two of the top quarterbacks to ever hold the reigns in Rodriguez’ offense. Denard Robinson was the 2010 Big Ten Offensive Player of the Year after Pat White won his second-straight Big East Offensive Player of the Year Award in 2017.

Smith, a 1997 graduate of Glenville State, was an All-American and team captain for Rodriguez. The Franklin, W.Va., native would later earn his master’s degree  from Urbana University in Ohio in 2000.