‘It will be really weird.’ Ex-UK starting QB is gearing up to coach against the Cats.

Mark Story
·5 min read

When Maxwell Smith accepted an assistant coaching position with NCAA Division III Heidelberg University in 2021, his aim was to coach quarterbacks.

Given the realities of life in D-III athletics, however, the former Kentucky Wildcats starting QB also found himself serving as the academic adviser for the quarterbacks and running backs; the football team’s equipment coordinator; and the game-day manager for Heidelberg’s women’s and men’s lacrosse teams.

“That is just the D-III lifestyle,” Smith said Monday. “I got to learn that very quickly — you wear all hats.”

What Smith, 31, did not know in real time was that the willingness of a former SEC quarterback and graduate assistant to start his professional career on the bottom rung of the NCAA football coaching ladder was paving the way for a quick ascension back to Division I football. When Eastern Kentucky University kicks off its 2023 season with back-to-back road games at Cincinnati (Sept. 2) and Kentucky (Sept. 9), Smith will begin his first season as Colonels quarterbacks coach.

After Trent Steelman stepped down as the EKU QB coach following last season, Eastern head man Walt Wells thought of Smith. In 2018 and 2019, Wells had been a quality control coach at UK during part of the time Smith served as a volunteer or graduate assistant on the staff of current Wildcats head man Mark Stoops.

“I was impressed with him (at UK),” Wells says of Smith. “But what really impressed me about Maxwell, here’s a guy who played in the SEC. ... And he takes a D-III job because he wants to coach quarterbacks. That showed a lot of character in my opinion. He wasn’t just looking for the logo, he was looking to coach.”

Of new Eastern Kentucky University quarterbacks coach Maxwell Smith, EKU head man Walt Wells says, “a bright individual. I always try to hire people who can (eventually) take your job.”
Of new Eastern Kentucky University quarterbacks coach Maxwell Smith, EKU head man Walt Wells says, “a bright individual. I always try to hire people who can (eventually) take your job.”

When Smith first came to Kentucky, he was looking to play. A 6-foot-5, 220-pound product of Granada Hills, Calif., Smith was a relatively unheralded UK recruit. Pressed into service as a true freshman in 2011, however, Smith quickly showed a level of “arm talent” that belied his recruiting profile.

In his first career start at Kentucky, Smith threw for 283 yards and two touchdowns in a 30-13 SEC victory over Mississippi. During the following season’s second contest, Smith played the best game of his UK career. Versus a Kent State team that would go on to finish the 2012 regular season 11-1, Smith completed 30 of 39 passes for 354 yards and four touchdowns in a 47-14 UK win.

However, injuries to his throwing shoulder limited Smith to three starts in 2011 and four in 2012. When Smith returned to action in 2013 — the first year for Stoops as Kentucky head man — he did not have the same zip on his throws.

Maxwell Smith was the Kentucky starting quarterback when the Wildcats strafed Miami (Ohio) 40-7 on Sept. 7, 2013. It was the first victory for Mark Stoops as UK head coach.
Maxwell Smith was the Kentucky starting quarterback when the Wildcats strafed Miami (Ohio) 40-7 on Sept. 7, 2013. It was the first victory for Mark Stoops as UK head coach.

So in 2014, Stoops and staff prioritized younger quarterbacks Patrick Towles and Drew Barker. Smith ultimately finished his college career starting for San Diego State in 2015 — as the Aztecs went 11-3 and won the Mountain West Conference title.

Alas, the injury bug also got Smith one final time. A major knee injury — torn ACL, MCL and meniscus — sidelined Smith for San Diego State’s final two games and ended his post-college playing aspirations.

After serving an internship as a Chicago Bears scout, Smith decided his heart was in coaching. He called Stoops to ask if there would be any opportunity for him to break into the profession at UK.

Stoops told him Kentucky had a slot open for a volunteer defensive coach. So Smith began coaching by helping Steve Clinkscale (cornerbacks) and Dean Hood (safeties) coach the Wildcats defensive backfield. Once formally a UK grad assistant, Smith eventually moved back to offense but worked with the Cats’ wide receivers.

“My dream is to be a quarterback coach, an offensive coordinator, a head coach,” Smith says. “So I wanted to get back to offense. I was with the (UK) wide receivers for two years. My thought process being, as a quarterback, I wanted to learn more positions.”

The final game of Smith’s GA tenure at Kentucky was the Wildcats’ 23-21 win over North Carolina State in the Gator Bowl at the end of the 2020 season.

Trying to land his first full-time coaching position amid the coronavirus pandemic proved challenging. After four idle months, another former UK graduate assistant, Ryan Finck, told Smith about an opening for a quarterbacks coach at Finck’s college alma mater, Heidelberg.

Smith went to the NCAA Division III school in Tiffin, Ohio, even though it meant, initially, being apart from his then-girlfriend, Macey Johnson. The relationship survived, though, and the couple is scheduled to marry on May 27 in Bardstown.

Ultimately, that move to Ohio created the path to bring Smith back to the commonwealth.

In his first season as the Eastern QB coach, Smith will work with returning star Parker McKinney. A 6-3, 208-pound super-senior, McKinney set school records last season by completing 68.6 percent of his passes and throwing for 3,956 yards, and 33 touchdowns.

“Obviously, (Smith) played the game at a really high level,” McKinney says. “I am just hoping he can teach me and take my game to another level as well.”

Maxwell Smith’s first season as Eastern Kentucky Colonels quarterbacks coach will be spent working with record-setting super-senior Parker McKinney (18). “Well, just don’t mess it up, right?” Smith says of his plans for McKinney. “Kind of let him be who he is is my biggest thing.”
Maxwell Smith’s first season as Eastern Kentucky Colonels quarterbacks coach will be spent working with record-setting super-senior Parker McKinney (18). “Well, just don’t mess it up, right?” Smith says of his plans for McKinney. “Kind of let him be who he is is my biggest thing.”

After his long association as both a player and a graduate assistant coach with UK football, Smith acknowledges it is “a little weird” being back in central Kentucky but being affiliated with a different college program.

When EKU visits Kroger Field to play UK, it will feel even stranger.

“Obviously, it will be really weird the second game of the season when I am in Kroger Field,” Smith said. “But it’s not ‘Maxwell vs. Kentucky.’ It’s ‘Eastern Kentucky vs. Kentucky.’ We’ll have one job (and) that is to go out there and compete to win a ballgame.”