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Miami track added an elite prospect last night who will be eligible to compete this season beginning in January.
Chauncy Smart, who signed with USF football in the 2017 class and enrolled in June, left the Bulls football program last week with the intent of focusing solely on track at another program. He confirmed to Canesinsight tonight that he has closed the door on his football career.
“I got my release a couple weeks ago and I contacted Miami, letting them know I had my release from football and was looking for a school to go to. We kept in touch and I sent my release to the coach and it’s been popping from there. The coaches told me the things they could do with me and all that,” he said.
The only schools that USF was restricting him from attending were conference foes and a handful of other opponents such as Illinois and UCF on their schedule in coming years.
“I went on a visit to Tennessee, I liked it, but I couldn’t go that far away from home so Miami let me stay in the state of Florida.”
Interestingly enough, Smart admitted that Miami actually was not a school that he was considering in high school.
“I wasn’t considering them like that in high school. They kinda figured out that I didn’t want to come there because I had stopped replying back to them (laughs). That’s when they stopped hitting me up, so I hadn’t talked to them since last year until I hit them up recently,” Smart explained.
Smart was the Florida state champion in the 100M in 2017 and has a personal record of 10.26. He is finishing up his semester of classes at USF until he enrolled at Miami in January, where he will be on track scholarship.
“I’m really thankful for that because I thought I was going to have to sit out,” he said.
Smart noted that director of UM track Amy Deem has a connection with his trainer, Gary Evans, who has worked with the likes of Tyson and Marvin Bracy.
“I called her yesterday and told her I was making my decision and she said I made her whole week.”
He added that he will start back at track training this week.
“I’m very excited to get back in to it because I know that I’m going to come to Miami and I’ll be running with a lot of other top guys with my same speed,” he said.
A few athletes that Smart knows from high school meets include wide receiver Mike Harley and track athlete Brandon Taylor.
