Usage / Role
31%
Rotational defensive role
lowfeatured
Player Dossier
2020-2025UCLA
Gary Smith III
DL • 6'2" • 340 lbs • Shelbyville, TN, USA
Ball-hunting defenderSplash play profile
Gary Smith III shows a ball-hunting defender profile with 18.7 disruption score.
Impact Production
37
Developing production for a defensive lineman
lowelite
Reliability
31
Sporadic game-to-game production
lowhigh
Star Power
59
Useful peak profile
limitedstar
Career Arc
Value trend by season
Best season by Season Value: 2021 Regular Season · Duke
202122232425
Snapshot
- Career Teams
- 2
- Unique Seasons
- 6
- Program Path
- Duke • UCLA
- Peak Game
- Peak game by takeover score: Northwestern
Player Story
Gary Smith III built his college career from 2020 through 2025 as a defensive lineman from Shelbyville, TN wearing No. 58, spending time with Duke and UCLA. The clearest part of Gary Smith III's career was his...
Read the story3★
- Committed To
- Duke
- Commit Date
- Jan 1, 2020
Gary Smith III, DL. Best season Best season by Season Value: 2021 Regular Season · Duke. Gary Smith III shows a ball-hunting defender profile with 18.7 disruption score.
Stat Footprint
Career production snapshot
- Tackles
- 112
- TFL
- 9.5
- Sacks
- 4.5
- Passes defended
- 2
Quick Answers
Gary Smith III quick answers
- Latest team and position
- UCLA · DL
- Career Tackles
- 112
- Tracked sample
- 6 unique seasons · 6 entries · 41 games
- Best season
- 2021 Regular Season · Duke
- Top game
- Northwestern
- Recruit profile
- 3-star · Central · Duke
- High school pipeline
- Central · 3 FBS recruits · 0 drafted players
- Latest roster
- No. 58 · Senior
- 2025 Tackles rank
- 40 tackles · DL 56th (top 6%) · Big Ten 110th (top 15%) · National 922nd (top 15%)
Season Ledger
Crawlable season-by-season stats
| Season | Team | Games | Tackles | TFL | Sacks | QB Hur | PD | TD | Overall |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 Regular Season | Duke | 7 | 9 | - | 0 | - | - | 0 | 37.8 |
| 2021 Regular Season | Duke | 8 | 24 | 2.5 | 1 | - | 1 | 0 | 43 |
| 2022 Regular Season | UCLA | 8 | 18 | 2.5 | 1 | - | 1 | 0 | 37 |
| 2023 Regular Season | UCLA | 8 | 21 | 3 | 2 | - | - | 0 | 40 |
| 2024 Regular Season | UCLA | 0 | 0 | - | 0 | - | - | 0 | - |
| 2025 Regular Season | UCLA | 10 | 40 | 1.5 | 0.5 | - | - | 0 | 23.8 |
Related Context
Keep exploring Gary Smith III
Gary Smith III played DL for Duke and UCLA. Across 6 tracked seasons, Gary Smith III recorded 112 tackles. His top tracked season came in 2025 with UCLA.
Player insights
Lead takeaway
Best season by value score: 2021 Regular Season
Duke paired 4.5 primary output with 18.1 efficiency.
Supporting note
2025 Regular Season role shape
impact-led usage with 18.7 efficiency.
Supporting note
Career value is trending up
2025 Regular Season improved on the prior stop by season value score.
Supporting note
Multi-stop career journey
Production spans 2 team stops, with role shifts visible across Duke, UCLA.
Supporting note
Peak game by takeover score: Northwestern
Loss with 2 impact plays across the defensive snap sheet. 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.
2025 Regular Season · UCLA
Games
10
Havoc Plays / G
0.2
Efficiency
18.7
Usage
4
Consistency
3.3
Best Game by takeover score
Northwestern
Hover a point or expand a game row to keep the active game context visible here.
Active game
Hover over a point
Hover or select a game to keep its context visible here without the page shifting around.
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. Utah: 0. UNLV: 0. New Mexico: 0. Northwestern: 2. Michigan State: 0. Indiana: 0. Nebraska: 0. Ohio State: 0. Washington: 0. USC: 0
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
High volumeHigh quality
Low volumeLower quality
High volumeLower quality
Volume on the x-axis, quality on the y-axis.
Volume versus efficiency scatter chart. Utah: 5 by 20.8. UNLV: 5 by 20.8. New Mexico: 5 by 20.8. Northwestern: 7 by 49.2. Michigan State: 2 by 8.3. Indiana: 2 by 8.3. Nebraska: 6 by 25. Ohio State: 3 by 12.5. Washington: 4 by 16.7. USC: 1 by 4.2
Split Comparison
Compare how this player performed across different situations. "Games" shows how many matchups are included in each split.
Wins0 · Games = 1 · -0.2 vs Losses
Losses0.2 · Games = 9 · +0.2 vs Wins
Game Log
Dense stat lines with inline explanations and season-linked highlights.
10 games
Featured metric
Havoc Plays
Top game by takeover score
Northwestern
Best efficiency game
49.2 vs Northwestern
| Result | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sun 11/30 | @ USC | L 10-29 | 1 | 1 | — | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | — | — |
| Sun 11/23 | vs Washington | L 14-48 | 4 | 4 | — | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | — | — |
| Sun 11/16 | @ Ohio State | L 10-48 | 3 | 2 | — | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | — | — |
| Sun 11/9 | vs Nebraska | L 21-28 | 6 | 2 | — | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | — | — |
| Sat 10/25 | @ Indiana | L 6-56 | 2 | 1 | — | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | — | — |
| Sat 10/11 | @ Michigan State | W 38-13 | 2 | 1 | — | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | — | — |
| Sat 9/27 | @ NorthwesternSplash game | L 14-17 | 7 | 2 | — | 1.50 | 0.50 | — | 0 | — | — |
| Sat 9/13 | vs New Mexico | L 10-35 | 5 | 3 | — | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | — | — |
| Sun 9/7 | @ UNLV | L 23-30 | 5 | 2 | — | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | — | — |
| Sun 8/31 | vs Utah | L 10-43 | 5 | 1 | — | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | — | — |
Player Story
Gary Smith III story
Gary Smith III built his college career from 2020 through 2025 as a defensive lineman from Shelbyville, TN wearing No. 58, spending time with Duke and UCLA. The clearest part of Gary Smith III's career was his defensive production: 112 tackles, 9.5 tackles for loss, 4.5 sacks, and 2 passes defended across 41 career games in the available record. That gives Gary Smith III's career enough real context without stretching the story beyond the available production.
Career Arc
Track team changes, role shifts, and season-to-season movement.
- 1
Duke
2020-2021
Opening stop
- 2
UCLA
2022-2025
Final stop
Season Value Progression
202020212022202320242025
| Season | Team | Primary | Efficiency | Usage | Delta |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 Regular Season | Duke | 0 | 5.4 | 0.9 | — |
| 2021 Regular Season | Duke | 4.5 | 18.1 | 3.9 | 4.5 |
| 2022 Regular Season | UCLA | 4.5 | 15 | 3.7 | 0 |
| 2023 Regular Season | UCLA | 5 | 17.2 | 3.7 | 0.5 |
| 2024 Regular Season | UCLA | 0 | — | — | -5 |
| 2025 Regular Season | UCLA | 2 | 18.7 | 4 | 2 |
Signature Performances
Top Games
#1 Featured game
@ No. 51 Northwestern
Week 5 · L 14-17 · Conference game
Loss with 2 impact plays across the defensive snap sheet.
2
Havoc Plays
83.1 takeover
2 disruption/tackle impact with 83.1 takeover score.
#2
vs Stanford
Week 9 · W 38-13 · Conference game
2
Havoc Plays
74.5 takeover
Win with 2 impact plays across the defensive snap sheet.
2 disruption/tackle impact with 74.5 takeover score.
#3
@ Virginia
Week 7 · L 0-48 · Conference game
2
Havoc Plays
72.2 takeover
Loss with 2 impact plays across the defensive snap sheet.
2 disruption/tackle impact with 72.2 takeover score.
#4
vs Colorado
Week 9 · W 28-16 · Conference game
3
Havoc Plays
69.2 takeover
Win with 3 impact plays across the defensive snap sheet.
3 disruption/tackle impact with 69.2 takeover score.
#5
vs Bowling Green
Week 1 · W 45-17
2
Havoc Plays
64.7 takeover
Win with 2 impact plays across the defensive snap sheet.
2 disruption/tackle impact with 64.7 takeover score.
Top Seasons
#1 Season by Season Value
2021 Regular Season · Duke
4.5 primary output · 18.1 efficiency · 3.9 usage
43
#2
2023 Regular Season · UCLA
40
5 primary · 17.2 efficiency · 3.7 usage
#3
2020 Regular Season · Duke
37.8
0 primary · 5.4 efficiency · 0.9 usage
Milestones
5
Impact games
5
Splash games
0
10+ tackle games
Next best actions
Keep exploring Gary Smith III
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