By Mark Schmetzer
Enquirer contributor

Junior tailback Mike Smith has often found himself in opponents' end zones this season. (Mike Simons photo)

Miami is the fifth-highest scoring Division I-A football team in the nation, but you won't find the RedHawks' leading scorer in the team's media guide.

Mike Smith, a 6-foot, 193-pound junior tailback, wasn't even expecting to be on campus this year. Instead, he planned on transferring to Youngstown State to be closer to his ailing mother, Majornna, and even participated in a few practices with the Division I-AA Penguins.

But when Majornna, a diabetic who has rheumatoid arthritis, started feeling better, and when Mike told her he was lukewarm about YSU, she encouraged him to explore returning to Miami.

RedHawks coach Terry Hoeppner welcomed Smith back, the NCAA gave its approval, and the tailback has scored 10 TDs and 60 points, twice as many as any other RedHawk, while helping Miami to a 6-1 mark overall, and a 3-0 record in the Mid-American Conference East Division.

"I ended up finding out that I had made the wrong decision," said Smith, who's from Twinsburg, Ohio. "Coach Hoeppner gave me permission to come back."

Since he'd decided to transfer, Smith didn't participate in Miami's spring practice, but Hoeppner never closed the door.

"The maturity and responsibility he showed to consider sacrificing playing and going to school here moved me, so I left the door open," Hoeppner said. "There was a point this summer where it looked like (transferring) was going to happen, but then I got a phone call right before camp started: 'This is Mike. I want to come back.' We had to go to the NCAA, but they knew the right thing to do. ... It was his mom who convinced him that she was fine, and that he'd be better off here."