EAST LANSING – Real life interrupted Armorion Smith’s last few seasons.
In a win over Boston College that required every ounce of resolve and inner strength to finish, it was fitting that the Michigan State football safety made perhaps the biggest play of the night to make it happen.
Smith’s breakup of a 2-point play pass from Eagles quarterback Dylan Lonergan to Lewis Bond in the second overtime provided the Spartans with an opening to win it Saturday, Sept. 6. That allowed quarterback Aidan Chiles to run for the tying touchdown and throw a cross-field 2-point pass to Omari Kelly, giving the Spartans a thrilling 42-40 victory at Spartan Stadium.
But that celebration might not have happened if not for Smith’s blanket coverage and knock-down knack for the ball.
“Man, that was everything,” said sophomore MSU receiver Nick Marsh who was a high school teammate of Smith at River Rouge High. “I came to show him love after the game. I was like, ‘You took us home.’ We needed that.”
With Nikai Martinez out and still nursing an injury, Smith earned his second straight start and delivered from start to finish. The 6-foot-1, 212-pound fifth-year senior produced a career high eight tackles and recovered a first-quarter fumble in the end zone after linebacker Jordan Hall stripped the ball to prevent a Boston College touchdown.
“It means a lot, especially for that guy,” coach Jonathan Smith said. “The quality of man that he is, effort, football means a lot to him. … It’s just awesome.”
Smith’s life-altering events
The past five years have been life-altering for Armorion Smith. As the Detroit native began his college career at Cincinnati, he learned in October 2022 that his mother, Gala Gilliam, had been diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer. Smith transfered to MSU to be closer to her before the 2023 season but suffered a season-ending injury four games into that year.
Gilliam died Aug. 8, 2024, just before the Spartans’ season last fall. Marsh’s mother, Yolanda Wilson, and a number of other players’ moms rallied around Smith.
“I would say it was like family,” Marsh said in May of the bond he built since his freshman year of high school with Smith, who was a senior at River Rouge. “Our bond was short just because of the age gap, and I wasn’t able to see him or talk to him as much as I wanted to when he went off to college. When he found out his mom was sick, we just came together like a family. My mom had been taking good care of her and being around her like a guardian angel. I looked up to that.
“The best thing I could do was support him at the time, not knowing exactly what he needed. But just being there for him. I think we all came together and just wrapped our arms around him and his family.”
Smith has since assumed custody and guardianship of his five younger siblings, and Smith was named this fall among the 75 players on the College Football Comeback Player of the Year Award Watch List.
“It’s not just something that just happened. He works every day and has more on his plate than anybody in that (football) facility,” Hall said of Smith’s pass breakup. “So for him to be able to put himself in that position, to step up when it matters most, that was a big-time play that we needed. And I’m glad that it came from ‘Skeeze’ in that moment.”
Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him @chrissolari.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan State football players cherish Armorion Smith’s pass breakup: ‘You took us home’
Reporting by Chris Solari, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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