Change Nothing New For Justin Smiley

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Change Nothing New For Justin Smiley

May 16, 2008

By Andy Kent
Special for MiamiDolphins.com

It's been nearly a decade since Justin Smiley came into a football season comfortable in the knowledge that his responsibilities on offense would be the same – and that was when he was a senior offensive tackle at Southeast Bulloch High School in Brooklet, Ga.

Smiley, 27, signed with the Miami Dolphins as an unrestricted free agent on the first day of free agency in February after spending his first four seasons in the National Football League with the San Francisco 49ers. Putting on a different jersey for yet another new head coach doesn't seem to faze him one bit.

"I had four offenses in four years at Alabama, and all four years I've been in the NFL I've had four offenses, so I've had eight offenses," Smiley said. "So it's been a new offense for me every year in college and the pros, and I think that has actually worked to my advantage because I've had to learn to adapt.

"That's the nature of this game, it's one of those games where if you don't produce, be it a coach or a player, you can expect change. I just wish that I could play under one offensive coordinator for at least two years to see how we can do."

At least Smiley won't be alone this time around as the Dolphins have overhauled the roster since the end of the 2007 season. In fact, there are only two returning starters on the offensive line (second-year center Samson Satele and fifth-year tackle Vernon Carey). With the amount of young talent either drafted or signed by the new regime of first-year General Manager Jeff Ireland, Executive Vice President of Football Operations Bill Parcells and first-year Head Coach Tony Sparano, Smiley is going to be counted on to provide veteran leadership.

Even though he's only 27, Smiley has displayed a work ethic and desire beyond his years at every level, and that allowed him to achieve success under all sorts of difficult circumstances. He weathered the probation years at Alabama and the firing of his third head coach in as many years, Mike Price, during spring football before his redshirt junior year in 2002, and then thrived under Mike Shula his senior year. Smiley credits his mother, Terri White, for being his role model growing up and instilling in him the value of hard work.

"She's pretty amazing," said Smiley, who became a father to a boy named Justin, Jr., six months ago with his wife, Mellisa, a former San Francisco 49er cheerleader. "My mom and dad divorced when I was like a year-and-a-half and she remarried (to Jerry Smiley) when I was around nine-years-old and she raised me and my brother, Nick, by herself for like nine years. She worked in a saw mill carrying lumber, and she wasn't what you would picture a lumberjack to be, she's a very pretty lady. It was just amazing the sacrifices she made."

Ron Flott was Smiley's high school coach beginning with Smiley's sophomore season after moving to Georgia from Brandon, Fla. He is currently the head football coach at neighboring Emanuel County Institute in Twin City, Ga., but maintains a close relationship with Smiley and his family. Smiley invited him on a hunting trip at an Alabama hunting lodge last year and the two frequently go fishing whenever Smiley returns home.

As soon as Flott arrived at Southeast Bulloch High, Smiley knew the program was going to reach new heights and he believes Flott helped take him to a new level on the field as far as toughness and execution was concerned. Smiley wound up leaving such an indelible mark on his high school alma mater, which at the time he was there only had a total of about 450 students, that he became the first athlete in school history to have his jersey number retired, and Flott considers it well-deserved.

"Justin is I guess the premier athlete to graduate from Southeast Bulloch High School, there's no doubt about that," Flott said. "He could fill a lot of needs in high school. He was a big ol' friendly country boy but tough and everybody knew not to mess with him on the field. He didn't push his weight around or anything, he was just a great kid and one of those unusual people who had a goal and worked towards it. He had a goal to play professional football because his cousin, Dusty Ziegler, was a professional football player (for the Buffalo Bills and New York Giants).

"One of my first recollections of Justin was when he walked into my office as a sophomore and he was 6-foot-31/2 and probably about 230 or 235 pounds with average grades at best. I was doing interviews with all of the players individually and Justin just announced off the bat he wanted to play college football, and I told him, 'You've got to do two things. Number one is you've got to hit the books. You've got to bear down and get serious in the classroom. Number two is you've got to set up a cot in that weight room and you're going to have to gain a lot of muscle.' "

Proving he was a good listener, Smiley improved his grades, got his weight up to 300 pounds of mostly muscle and was able to power clean 365 pounds. He went on to set the Alabama record for the heaviest hang clean with a lift of 415 pounds and his strength and desire became the stuff of legend in Tuscaloosa and then again in San Francisco.

As a show of appreciation for what his high school football coach did for his career, Smiley invited Flott to a game in Jacksonville between the Niners and the Jaguars at Alltel Stadium. Flott, two of his sons and one of their friends accompanied him on the trip and Smiley arranged for them to stay at the TPC at Sawgrass resort in Ponte Vedra Beach. Now Flott is looking forward to making a trip to South Florida.

"Miami's got a good one in Justin," Flott added. "He's just a real great young man and he's generous. He's going to be loyal and he wants to win real badly, and I would like to see him win because the very first professional football team I became a fan of was the Miami Dolphins under Don Shula.

"I think Justin's going to do wonders for Jake Long (Miami's first overall pick in last month's NFL Draft). He's going to set the bar for him and do the best to wear him out. Justin's not going to try to bully anybody but he's got a lot of pride in what he does."

The lure of Parcells and Sparano, who was an offensive lineman and one of the more respected offensive line coaches in the NFL before taking over as head coach in Miami, was a very strong one for Smiley as he explored his options in free agency. He has already developed a high level of respect for the way the new Dolphins regime is going about their business, starting with the offseason conditioning program.

Being that he was the very first signing of all of the unrestricted free agents, Smiley had the advantage of making his way to South Florida early and getting a jump on what to expect at the practice facility and especially inside the weight room.

"I'm really excited because towards the end of last year my shoulder was banged up a little bit and I got that under wraps and I'm feeling great," Smiley said. "But one thing it kind of hindered me from doing was running and conditioning, and from day one we started down here we were running full tilt. His (Sparano's) conditioning program is by far the toughest one I've been involved in. It's kind of refreshing because you know once you go out there and you put on those pads that you're headed in the right direction."

And Smiley is confident is that he can be one of those on the offensive side of the ball to lead his teammates in that direction.