ANN ARBOR, Mich. — At Carl Smith’s home, the conversation never stopped.
Whether the subject was politics or what to have for dinner, nothing was decided without ample deliberation. A philosopher by nature, Carl tended to arrive at his opinions in a roundabout way, teasing out everyone else’s thoughts before voicing his own. His home was a hub of intellectual activity, a place where visitors could walk through the door at any time and find him holding court about issues affecting the Black community in Grand Rapids.
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Carl and his wife, June, were pillars of that community, steeped in the civil rights struggle of the 1960s. They started a newspaper, The Organizer, that became a voice for the Black freedom movement and ran a Black People’s Free Store where people gathered to read books, talk politics or stock up on basic necessities. Carl later worked for the Michigan Department of Civil Rights and was honored with a mural in the Heartside neighborhood of Grand Rapids.
Mazi Smith was too young to participate in his grandfather’s roundtable discussions, but those conversations formed the atmosphere of his childhood. Words and ideas were always in the air. Though Mazi was 8 years old when his grandfather died, Carl left behind a gift for Mazi to discover when the time was right.
“I believe in ancestors,” said Kim Olushola, Carl’s daughter and Mazi’s aunt. “Things are passed down. A lot of the qualities that my father had were passed down to Mazi. Mazi reminds me of him a lot.”
Now in his fourth season at Michigan, Mazi is beginning to unwrap the gift. Teammates listen when he speaks and quote his words with reverence. He’s become an elder statesman of Michigan’s defense, a hulking defensive tackle who commands attention on the field and in the locker room.
We're proud to have @mazismith represent us in the #B1GLife Series!#GoBlue https://t.co/wkcXdGphWu
— Michigan Football (@UMichFootball) July 13, 2022
Two years ago, Smith wasn’t ready for any of this. He wasn’t playing much and needed time to mature, both physically and emotionally. He couldn’t push people around the way he did in high school, and at times his frustrations spilled over.
“I just don’t like people touching me, for real,” he said. “When the O-linemen started moving me and stuff, I was like, ‘Get off me, man. I don’t like that. Stop touching me.’ I used to get angry. It wasn’t necessarily about making a play; it was about destroying the person in front me.”
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Now that Smith has established himself as a starter and a leader of Michigan’s defense, he can put his full personality on display. He’s not just a physical freak who, at 337 pounds, can conquer a set of plyo stairs with unnatural ease. He’s also a man of words, dispensing wisdom in a laid-back drawl reminiscent of his grandfather’s kitchen-table conversations.
“Players from other teams want to talk to him and, you know, chop it up with him, as the young people like to say,” coach Jim Harbaugh said. “He’s just got a vibe about him, just this aura around him. I’m the same way: I want to hear what he says, hear what he thinks about things. He’s real deep and just a real cool guy.”
Maybe that’s why Kenya Smith, Mazi’s mother, envisioned a different path for him in high school. Before Mazi’s size and athleticism made him a top-100 football prospect, his mom imagined him putting his rhetorical gifts to use in a different way.
“I thought he would go to high school and be on the debate team,” Kenya said. “I really did. But football is more fun for everybody.”
Mazi came from a family of writers. His grandfather and aunt wrote pieces for the newspaper, and his mom’s first cousin was Sekou Smith, a longtime NBA writer and analyst for ESPN who died in 2021. Kenya remembers reading “Go Away, Dog” to Mazi while he was still in the womb and surrounding him with books at an early age. He started speaking at 1, she said, and was writing poetry and science fiction by the time he was 13.
“I think it came from his large vocabulary,” Kenya said. “I grew up in the hip-hop era, so I would listen to old school hip-hop when I had him. He just took a liking to it.”
Life wasn’t always easy for Kenya, who worked as a teacher while raising a budding football star with a prodigious appetite. She made sure Mazi had everything he needed to thrive, whether that was getting him in the right schools, taking him to football practice or making sure the fridge was stocked.
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“The way I grew up, I never even looked at it as, ‘Oh my gosh, this is going to be a challenge,’” Kenya said. “Feeding him was a challenge because he was always hungry. I’m a teacher, so I knew the psychology of children. I gave him the best that I could give.”
Mazi’s colorful personality was on full display during his time at East Kentwood High School in Grand Rapids. He used to wear a pair of prescription goggles that, while functional on the football field, also reflected his goofy side. It wasn’t the go-to look for someone trying to be intimidating, but for Mazi, it fit.
“That was just his thing, his quirk,” Kenya said. “He loved his goggles. I was like, ‘Dude, you have glasses.’ But he’s always been him. Who was going to pick on him? He was too big.”
By the end of his junior season, Smith had scholarship offers from Notre Dame, Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State and a bunch of other big-time programs. Kenya didn’t want to push him in a particular direction, so she wrote the name of each school on a white board along with the distance from home, the graduation rates and other relevant details.
Of all the coaches recruiting him, Smith had the strongest bond with Greg Mattison, Michigan’s defensive line coach. That relationship was a driving factor behind his decision to sign with the Wolverines, which made it that much tougher when Mattison left Michigan for Ohio State not long after Smith arrived on campus.
Between the departure of his position coach and a lack of early playing time, Smith had to do soul-searching about his future. Kenya told him to be patient and wait for his time, advice that is bearing fruit three years later.
“It was very difficult at first,” she said. “I always told him this is a business. When it all boils down to it, people have to do what’s best for them and their families. Once we had that conversation, his spirit calmed down.”
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At that point in his life, Smith wasn’t ready to do what he’s doing now. Before he could become the No. 1 physical freak in college football, he had to get serious about taking care of his body, eating right and committing himself to his training. On a personal level, he needed time to find his voice and earn the trust of players around him.
The transformation became evident last season as Smith emerged as a starter and key contributor during Michigan’s run to the College Football Playoff. Tony Kimbrough, Smith’s coach at East Kentwood, sensed the difference when Smith came to visit during the spring. Kimbrough could see that the kid with the goofy goggles had grown into a man who was serious about his career and his future.
“I could see the maturity,” Kimbrough said. “The focus was different. He’s always been one of those guys you want to talk to. … We did have some laughter, but most of it was pretty serious. It was one of those enlightening conversations that you love having with any of your former players.”
Mazi Smith is taking a leadership role on the Michigan defense. (Matthew OHaren / USA Today)With Michigan on the cusp of the 2022 season, Smith’s time has arrived. Aidan Hutchinson is gone. So is Christopher Hinton, another highly rated defensive tackle who was part of Smith’s recruiting class. The mantra for this year’s defense comes from Smith, who wants the Wolverines to embrace an identity with no stars and equal contributions from everyone.
“I’m quoting Mazi Smith: Mazi wants us to be a more cohesive unit,” defensive end Mike Morris said. “There’s no defense running through just a couple guys. It’s 11 people working as a unit to be the best defense you can be.”
Smith’s football maturation comes with a growing awareness of his family legacy. He joined a group of Big Ten athletes and coaches in July for a tour of civil rights sites in Montgomery and Selma, Alabama, and he said his mother’s work as a teacher has inspired him to spend time mentoring kids in the Black community. On Twitter, Smith’s avatar is a fitting symbol: a picture of his grandfather in a hat, sunglasses and T-shirt that reads, “Do you read The Organizer newspaper?”
Because Carl and June Smith died when Mazi was young, much of what he knows about his grandparents was passed down through Kenya and other family members. Mazi is carrying on their family tradition, even when he doesn’t realize it.
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Olushola, Mazi’s aunt, remembers attending Michigan’s spring game and observing Mazi interacting with a group of younger players. The young players were huddled around, soaking up every word as Mazi spoke. It was a lively exchange of ideas reminiscent of the kitchen-table discussions Olushola witnessed as a kid, this time with Mazi in the middle.
In that moment, Olushola could see Mazi carrying on a conversation that began long before he was born.
“I think it’s just a natural progression, just growth,” Olushola said. “He’s applying what he’s learned throughout his life. My parents were always givers. They gave. I think that’s what Mazi is doing with the football team.”
(Photo of Kim Olushola, left, Mazi Smith and Kenya Smith courtesy of Smith family)
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