With Hurricane Katrina about to slam into New Orleans, Ernest Smith was getting ready to hop on a bus and play the first football game of the 2005 season.

But just as the bus was about to pull out, the Edna Karr Magnet School players got the bad news. Since people were already starting to evacuate New Orleans, the game had been canceled.

Within the next couple of weeks, Smith’s whole life would be turned upside down.

Senior receiver Ernest Smith leads Baylor with 13 catches for 196 yards in the first two Big 12 games. (Rod Aydelotte photo)

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BAYLOR vs. #14 OKLAHOMA STATE

Kickoff: 11:32 a.m., Saturday, Floyd Casey Stadium

TV: 11:30 a.m., Versus

Radio: 11 a.m., 1660 AM

Records: BU 3-3 (0-2); OSU 5-1 (2-0)

Series: OSU leads, 15-12

Last meeting: OSU, 34-6 (2008, in Stillwater)

Betting line: OSU by 9 1/2

Weather: 68 degrees and sunny

After Katrina leveled New Orleans, his dad was bused to Tyler, Texas. Ernest found himself playing his senior year at John Tyler High School, a strange place far away from home.

“It was a huge adjustment,” Smith said. “The average teenager would have let his emotions take over, and it could have become a negative situation. But I always try to look at things that happen as an opportunity.”

Smith took his chance and ran with it.

After a solid season at Tyler, Smith signed with Baylor and has become a key receiver. Now a senior, he’s been Baylor’s top receiver in the first two Big 12 games, catching 13 passes for 196 yards. He set career highs with seven catches for 125 yards last weekend against Iowa State.

“Ernest is a great teammate and inspirational player,” Baylor coach Art Briles said. “He’s really played well for us and has helped raise the team. He’s a tremendous practice player who does everything full speed. ”

After playing wide receiver for three years, Smith has found his niche by moving to an inside receiving spot this season. Baylor’s quarterbacks have been able to find Smith in the creases of defenses, and he burned Iowa State deep, catching a 54-yard pass from Blake Szymanski.

Though he’s lanky at 6-3 and 200 pounds, he doesn’t mind catching the ball and taking a hit over the middle.

“Tough is the best way to describe Ernest,” Szymanski said. “He’s got zero fear when he’s called to make a play. He used to play outside because of his size. It’s probably taken him three or four games to grasp the inside receiver position, but he’s definitely got it down the last two weeks.”

When the Baylor coaches told Smith they wanted him to move inside this year, he made the change without complaint. After catching seven passes for 175 yards and three touchdowns last season, Smith wanted more opportunities to catch the ball.

“When they told me I was moving inside, I didn’t think twice about it,” Smith said. “The next day I started working on the routes and the speed of them. As dangerous as it is over the middle, you have more space to deal with if you catch it. I consider myself much faster than the average safety or linebacker. If you get over the middle, you’ve got a good chance of slipping a tackle and breaking free.”

Making adjustments

With Robert Griffin going down with a season-ending knee injury in the third game, Smith has had to adjust to playing with Szymanski and freshman Nick Florence. Each quarterback has his own style, but Smith has done his best to make them feel comfortable.

“I have to get with that quarterback on our own time and do some work by ourselves, just him and me,” Smith said. “You’ve got to get used to the velocity, and if they throw a tight spiral or if they throw a slight wobble. If he has a slight change, we have to get on the same page.”

During the Hurricane Katrina aftermath, Smith learned all about making adjustments in every area of his life. He was born in New Orleans and had spent his whole life there. But within a few weeks in August 2005, the 17-year-old’s world was shaken in ways he couldn’t have imagined.

When the massive hurricane hit, his father, Ernest Sr., holed up in the Superdome with thousands of other New Orleans residents who had fled their homes. Many of them were bused to different parts of Texas, and Ernest Sr. ended up in Tyler.

After temporarily moving to McComb, Miss., to stay with his mother, Ernest Jr. got a call from his father to join him in Tyler. With all the chaos surrounding him, it was hard for Ernest to just think about his senior year of football.

“As a 17-year-old, I’m not just worried about football,” Smith said. “I’m worried about family, friends, my girlfriend and my dad. Football wasn’t the key. I had all these other things going through my mind. But my dad found a place for me to play in Tyler, and it was like being born again.”

When Smith arrived at John Tyler High School, there was considerable hype about this Katrina refugee who had developed into a college football prospect in New Orleans. Smith admits that some of the hype was over the top.

“People were saying this blue chip guy is coming to town who runs a 4.1 in the 40,” Smith said. “I’d hear people say, ‘There’s that guy from New Orleans.’ But it was a big change for me. I found out how crazy people are about football in Texas. We’d play in big stadiums that were filled with people wearing blue on one side and the other team’s color on the other side.”

Before becoming eligible, Smith had to sit out of John Tyler’s early games. But he put on such a show in practice that the coaches couldn’t wait until he stepped on the field.

“We were amazed by his talent,” said then-John Tyler coach Thomas Brooks, who now coaches at Jasper High School. “He was a super young man. We were so happy to have him because he was a great athlete who brought a winning attitude. We made the playoffs that year, and Ernest was a big reason for the turnaround.”

Catching 21 passes for 283 yards and three touchdowns, Smith was rated the No. 40 prep wideout in the country by rivals.com. He drew considerable interest from colleges, including former Baylor assistant coach Chris Lancaster.

“I didn’t know anything about Baylor until I got to Tyler,” Smith said. “Coach Lancaster showed a lot of interest in me. I knew Baylor would have a couple of senior receivers in Dominique Zeigler and Trent Shelton in 2006, but I felt I’d get a chance to start when they left.”

Gaining playing time

After playing football at Tyler in fall 2005, Smith returned to Edna Karr Magnet School in New Orleans to finish his high school diploma in 2006. Playing behind Baylor’s senior receivers as a freshman, Smith caught just six passes. But he moved into the starting lineup as a sophomore and caught 21 passes for 247 yards and a touchdown.

With 18 catches for 226 yards, Smith is well on his way to his best season at Baylor. Smith said he suffered a slight concussion against Iowa State, but plans to play Saturday against Oklahoma State.

Once a high school quarterback, Smith showed he still has some passing skills when he took a lateral from Griffin and threw a 33-yard touchdown pass to Lanear Sampson in Baylor’s season-opening win over Wake Forest.

“I have a really high passer rating,” Smith said. “I just wish I could throw five or six more times.”

When he finishes this season, Smith hopes to get a shot at the NFL. It would be just one more adjustment for a young guy who has already made many of them.

jwerner@wacotrib.com

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