How Did Emmitt Smith become The New Walter Payton? | Undeniable with Joe Buck

ironic because it comes back around that you have sweetness stitched into your Letterman's jacket yeah yeah now sweetness was the nickname for the great Walter P yes it used to tell me I used to run like Walter and so uh you know I became a big fan of Walter at a young age and then uh you know I had people tell me I look like him so I was like okay cool I'm going become sweetness too so I became sweetness so your your dad's nickname is pudding and your name's sweetness those are the Smith boys yeah exactly um what were you looking for in a college because you could have gone anywhere by the time you're you're ready to walk out you're you're the parade allamerican you're you know right you're all us I wanted to go to an organization where I had a chance to play and I felt like Florida gave me the best opportunity to play around this time though you lose your grandmother and and you're now launching you know now you're becoming a man right I mean you're you're going off to college right right how hard was that to lose her you know it happened uh in Florida like most States they have the super 25 football team State of Florida versus state of Georgia and I was on the state of Florida's team doing this rap doing this transition between high school and college and while I was down there preparing to play in the game I gotta I sleep on the floor gotta em you need to come with us and right when I woke up I had a sense that something happened to my grandmother I told you not to bring this up man um and and so I knew in my spirit that she had left and and all I wanted to do was get home because she was such a spiritual person right before I left to go to college um even back before I left to go down to the All-Star Game she gave me this Bible verse and uh and the Bible verse was pretty simple trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not onto your own understanding in all thy ways acknowledge Him and He Shall direct your path and I meditated on that word for so long and everything that I did from that point on was all around that whenever I found myself in a situation even going to Florida and I'm competing for a job and I got Florida on the to me they had five running backs but they end up with 10 and I'm struggling to get in there because now I'm entering into this big time program and they trying to break me down trying to break me down trying to put weight on me I would go to my room and I would read and I would meditate on it and it was just one of those things where I told you not to do this so you you go to Florida they do the bait and switch on you they tell you they got five running backs all of a sudden there's 10 yeah what what are we talked about goals and what you were doing in high school what are your goals when you get to College goals in college uh obviously to start and uh to uh get over about, 1500 yards um being modest and and um score about 20 touchdowns average 125 yards a game um win games Win games and that's that those my my goals do you remember your first start yes I do it was a hell of a first start yes it was it looked like this here's Smith leading away McGrady Smith's gone touchdown Florida EMT Smith looking for 200 yards in his second touchdown look at the move to the five oh my emit Smith there you go EMT Smith he now holds the record for rushing by a freshman running back in Florida history man things are going about as well as they can go for you on the football field yeah maybe individually yes but not for the overall program um we we kind of like uh was in the middle of the road six and five 7 and four uh nothing real uh uh really really nothing really to be proud of uh so while the individual goals are being met yeah the first thing on your list with your team goals it's not not quite been met and that was the disappointing part because while I was at the University Florida we cycle through three different offensive coordinators for three straight years all three years I was there so I never had a chance to really grow in offense and really um become a complete football player like I wanted to become your junior year rules around you have another great year individually uh your head coach resigns yeah Steve Spurrier is on his way in right and that just happens to be when they're allowing Juniors to head to the NFL draft and that's I mean you've done all you can do at the University of Florida individually all right did you have a sense of where you might go in the draft didn't have a close was it first round no doubt or was it I hope I'm in the first round well there was a lot of of talk you know everybody speculate Mel Kyper and everybody else speculate that he's a firstr for sure first round draft pick but I seen the for sure first round draft picks not get drafted at all and people to be fair were saying well he's too small he's too small he's not fast enough he's not NFL I'm not I'm not I'm not I don't have this I don't have that I don't have what it takes Jimmy Johnson the great Jimmy Johnson is coming off a one in 15 season with our friend Troy Aman and I know you wanted to be a cowboy since you were seven but they stunk at that time not only did not only did they sting but I I think they were sitting at the 22nd pick right in that draft and so but now they make a move I didn't know whether or not I would go to them or not but I wasn't even thinking about them I thought I was thinking the top 10 based off of what people were saying and I was nervous you know when I got that call from from Jimmy I was like the Cowboys would I like to wear a star on my helmet I'm like heck yeah that was that was the question right would you like to wear a star how would you like to wear a star on your helmet I'm like coach I would love to wear a star on my helmet you don't understand I mean I don't I don't don't think that they truly understood how much I absolutely love the Dallas Cowboys funny enough you're rooming with Michael Irvin that's funny right and he sees you writing down your goals I mean we talk about this stuff all the time on this show but you're actually doing what your high school coach had taught you to do because now it's not a dream it's a goal and your goal is to become to alltime Leading Russia as a rookie and he looked at me and started laughing started laughing like this dude doesn't know what he just got into and um because he'd been there yeah he has been there Michael had had been there matter of fact he was coming off a knee injury and so and he had gone through a one in 15 season so he knew the challenge that laid light ahead of us and so I guess he was trying to give me a dose of reality