He was previously the associate head coach and offensive coordinator at the University of Hawaii, where he also played college football.
[1][2] Following his playing career at Hawaii, Smith signed professional contracts with the Green Bay Packers and Baltimore Ravens in 2002 and 2003, respectively.
After Rolovich departed Hawaii to be the next head coach at Washington State, Smith was considered by the public eye to be a possible successor to Rolovich at Hawaii before Todd Graham was named the Rainbow Warriors head coach a couple of weeks later.
[9] In his first season with the Bobcats Smith coached running back Sieh Bangura to Freshman All-American honors[10] and MAC Freshman of the Year honors[11] while improving the Ohio passing attack to 23rd nationally, up from 108th in previous season.
[14] In 2024 the football team had a third straight ten win season and his unit led the MAC in total offense.