Usage / Role
94%
Featured offensive role
lowfeatured
Player Dossier
2015-2019Minnesota
Rodney Smith
RB • 5'11" • 210 lbs • Jonesboro, GA, USA
Workhorse runnerSteady chain mover
Rodney Smith leans workhorse runner traits and 51.7 efficiency.
Impact Production
62
Solid production for a back
lowelite
Reliability
79
Regular contributor with several takeover games
lowhigh
Star Power
61
Useful peak profile
limitedstar
Career Arc
Value trend by season
Best season by Season Value: 2016 Postseason · Minnesota
1515161617181919
Snapshot
- Career Teams
- 1
- Unique Seasons
- 5
- Program Path
- Minnesota
- Peak Game
- Peak game by takeover score: Illinois
Player Story
Rodney Smith built his college career from 2015 through 2019 as a running back from Jonesboro, GA wearing No. 1, spending time with Minnesota. The clearest part of Rodney Smith's career was his backfield work: 4,122...
Read the story3★
- Committed To
- Minnesota
- Commit Date
- Jan 1, 2014
Rodney Smith, RB. Best season Best season by Season Value: 2016 Postseason · Minnesota. Rodney Smith leans workhorse runner traits and 51.7 efficiency.
Stat Footprint
Career production snapshot
- Scrimmage yards
- 4,643
- Rushing yards
- 4,122
- Receiving yards
- 521
- Touchdowns
- 33
Quick Answers
Rodney Smith quick answers
- Latest team and position
- Minnesota · RB
- Career Scrimmage Yards
- 4,643
- Tracked sample
- 5 unique seasons · 8 entries · 52 games
- Best season
- 2016 Postseason · Minnesota
- Top game
- Illinois
- Recruit profile
- 3-star · Mundy's Mill · Minnesota
- High school pipeline
- Mundy's Mill · 6 FBS recruits · 0 drafted players
- Latest roster
- No. 1 · Senior
- 2019 Scrimmage yards rank
- 1,233 scrimmage yards · RB 41st (top 7%) · Big Ten 4th (top 2%) · National 57th (top 3%)
Season Ledger
Crawlable season-by-season stats
| Season | Team | Games | Scrimmage | Rush Yds | Rec Yds | TD | Overall |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 Postseason | Minnesota | 12 | 79 | 74 | 5 | 0 | 60.8 |
| 2015 Regular Season | Minnesota | 12 | 715 | 596 | 119 | 2 | 60.8 |
| 2016 Postseason | Minnesota | 13 | 75 | 74 | 1 | 1 | 81.2 |
| 2016 Regular Season | Minnesota | 13 | 1,271 | 1,084 | 187 | 17 | 81.2 |
| 2017 Regular Season | Minnesota | 12 | 1,084 | 977 | 107 | 5 | 76.5 |
| 2018 Regular Season | Minnesota | 2 | 186 | 154 | 32 | 0 | 44.6 |
| 2019 Postseason | Minnesota | 13 | 77 | 69 | 8 | 0 | 73.7 |
| 2019 Regular Season | Minnesota | 13 | 1,156 | 1,094 | 62 | 8 | 73.7 |
Related Context
Keep exploring Rodney Smith
Rodney Smith played RB for Minnesota. Across 5 tracked seasons, Rodney Smith recorded 4,122 rushing yards, 521 receiving yards, and 2 tackles. His top tracked season came in 2016 with Minnesota.
Player insights
Lead takeaway
Best season by value score: 2016 Postseason
Minnesota paired 1,346 primary output with 50.3 efficiency.
Supporting note
2017 Regular Season role shape
backfield-heavy usage with 45.7 efficiency.
Supporting note
Career value stayed steady
2019 Regular Season tracked close to the prior stop by season value score.
Supporting note
Peak game by takeover score: Nebraska
Win driven by a workhorse rushing load. It landed in the 100th percentile of the selected season.
Analysis workspace
Season Workbench
Filter the strongest season sample, inspect game-level shape, and then drop into the full log without losing the story of the year.
Season Explorer
Understand the selected season before dropping into the full game log.
2017 Regular Season · Minnesota
Games
12
Scrimmage Yards / G
90.3
Efficiency
45.7
Usage
38.8
Consistency
79.7
Best Game by takeover score
Nebraska
Hover a point or expand a game row to keep the active game context visible here.
Active game
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Game-by-Game Trend
Follow how the selected stat changes from one game to the next. Spikes mark standout outings, while dips show quieter weeks.
Chronological game order.
Game by game trend chart. Buffalo: 78. Oregon State: 114. Middle Tennessee: 107. Maryland: 35. Purdue: 113. Michigan State: 44. Illinois: 111. Iowa: 97. Michigan: 42. Nebraska: 144. Northwestern: 103. Wisconsin: 96
Volume vs Efficiency
Each dot is a game. Farther right means the player carried more of the workload, and higher means they were more efficient with those chances.
Low volumeHigh quality
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Low volumeLower quality
High volumeLower quality
Volume on the x-axis, quality on the y-axis.
Volume versus efficiency scatter chart. Buffalo: 24 by 34.2. Oregon State: 31 by 34.5. Middle Tennessee: 17 by 68. Maryland: 18 by 20.3. Purdue: 25 by 45. Michigan State: 11 by 41.7. Illinois: 21 by 55.9. Iowa: 17 by 57.9. Michigan: 20 by 21.9. Nebraska: 25 by 58.9. Northwestern: 19 by 55.9. Wisconsin: 18 by 54.3
Split Comparison
Compare how this player performed across different situations. "Games" shows how many matchups are included in each split.
Wins110.8 · Games = 5 · +35.1 vs Losses
Losses75.7 · Games = 7 · -35.1 vs Wins
Game Log
Dense stat lines with inline explanations and season-linked highlights.
12 games
Featured metric
Scrimmage Yards
Top game by takeover score
Nebraska
Best efficiency game
68 vs Middle Tennessee
| Result | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sat 11/25 | vs Wisconsin | L 0-31 | 16 | 82 | 5.10 | 0 | 2 | 14 | 5.3 |
| Sat 11/18 | @ Northwestern | L 0-39 | 18 | 96 | 5.30 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 5.4 |
| Sat 11/11 | vs Nebraska100 rush yards | W 54-21 | 24 | 134 | 5.60 | 0 | 1 | 10 | 5.8 |
| Sun 11/5 | @ Michigan | L 10-33 | 18 | 38 | 2.10 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 2.1 |
| Sat 10/28 | @ Iowa | L 10-17 | 15 | 82 | 5.50 | 0 | 2 | 15 | 5.7 |
| Sat 10/21 | vs Illinois100 rush yards | W 24-17 | 19 | 103 | 5.40 | 0 | 2 | 8 | 5.3 |
| Sun 10/15 | vs Michigan State | L 27-30 | 11 | 44 | 4 | 0 | — | — | 4 |
| Sat 10/7 | @ Purdue | L 17-31 | 21 | 88 | 4.20 | 0 | 4 | 25 | 4.5 |
| Sat 9/30 | vs Maryland | L 24-31 | 18 | 35 | 1.90 | 1 | — | — | 1.9 |
| Sat 9/16 | vs Middle Tennessee100 rush yards | W 34-3 | 16 | 107 | 6.70 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 6.3 |
| Sun 9/10 | @ Oregon State | W 48-14 | 30 | 92 | 3.10 | 1 | 1 | 22 | 3.7 |
| Thu 8/31 | vs Buffalo | W 17-7 | 23 | 76 | 3.30 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3.3 |
Player Story
Rodney Smith story
Rodney Smith built his college career from 2015 through 2019 as a running back from Jonesboro, GA wearing No. 1, spending time with Minnesota. The clearest part of Rodney Smith's career was his backfield work: 4,122 rushing yards, 879 carries, 29 rushing touchdowns, and 521 receiving yards across 52 career games in the available record. His largest box-score season came in 2016 with Minnesota. Those numbers show where he fit, how often the ball or action found him, and how his role developed over time.
The value of the career arc is that it connects production to role, not just a name on a roster. His career also includes 521 receiving yards, 2 tackles, and 798 return yards, giving the story more than a single-category snapshot. With 52 career games in the available record, his career has enough shape to show both opportunity and production across Minnesota.
The arc is straightforward: Rodney Smith moved through the depth chart, found a larger role, and turned that opportunity into production that can be understood through standard football numbers.
Career Arc
Track team changes, role shifts, and season-to-season movement.
- 1
Minnesota
2015-2019
Opening stop
Season Value Progression
20152015201620162017201820192019
| Season | Team | Primary | Efficiency | Usage | Delta |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 Postseason | Minnesota | 794 | 45.6 | 25.9 | — |
| 2015 Regular Season | Minnesota | 794 | 45.6 | 25.9 | 0 |
| 2016 Postseason | Minnesota | 1,346 | 50.3 | 35.5 | 552 |
| 2016 Regular Season | Minnesota | 1,346 | 50.3 | 35.5 | 0 |
| 2017 Regular Season | Minnesota | 1,084 | 45.7 | 38.8 | -262 |
| 2018 Regular Season | Minnesota | 186 | 50.1 | 21.2 | -898 |
| 2019 Postseason | Minnesota | 1,233 | 51.7 | 30.6 | 1,047 |
| 2019 Regular Season | Minnesota | 1,233 | 51.7 | 30.6 | 0 |
Signature Performances
Top Games
#1 Featured game
vs Illinois
Week 6 · W 40-17 · Conference game
Win driven by a workhorse rushing load.
215
Scrimmage Yards
95.3 takeover
215 scrimmage yards and 41 usage.
#2
@ Maryland
Week 7 · W 31-10 · Conference game
154
Scrimmage Yards
92.3 takeover
Win with 154 yards from scrimmage and efficient touch value.
154 scrimmage yards and 34.5 usage.
#3
vs New Mexico State
Week 1 · W 48-10
174
Scrimmage Yards
89.6 takeover
Win driven by a workhorse rushing load.
174 scrimmage yards and 39.1 usage.
#4
vs Ohio
Week 4 · W 27-24
152
Scrimmage Yards
89 takeover
Win with 152 yards from scrimmage and efficient touch value.
152 scrimmage yards and 34.5 usage.
#5
vs Purdue
Week 10 · W 44-31 · Conference game
163
Scrimmage Yards
88.7 takeover
Win driven by a workhorse rushing load.
163 scrimmage yards and 45.6 usage.
Top Seasons
#1 Season by Season Value
2016 Postseason · Minnesota
1,346 primary output · 50.3 efficiency · 35.5 usage
81.2
#2
2016 Regular Season · Minnesota
81.2
1,346 primary · 50.3 efficiency · 35.5 usage
#3
2017 Regular Season · Minnesota
76.5
1,084 primary · 45.7 efficiency · 38.8 usage
Milestones
16
100+ rush yards
5
150+ scrimmage yards
6
2+ TD games
Next best actions
Keep exploring Rodney Smith
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