Neal: Anthony Smith being rewarded for loyalty to Gophers

Anthony Smith went shopping on Facebook Marketplace last year and purchased a 1995 BMW. And then he went to work.

“I made the heated seats work again,” he said. “The power seats worked again. I put a whole new dashboard in. I put, like, a Bluetooth radio in it. Put new brake lines in it.”

Where did you learn all that, Anthony?

“My grandfather, [Ron Cheskey],” he said. “He’s like MacGyver. That’s where it comes from. He can put anything together. Just give him a hammer and he will get it done.

“Funny story. Coming from Pennsylvania for the first time, I was moving in. We had taken our RV and the air suspension broke. And all it took him was a broomstick, a two-by-four and willpower to get it fixed.”

There are more layers to Smith, the Gophers 6-6, 285-pound fourth-year defensive lineman. Gophers coach P.J. Fleck gushed during Big Ten football media days in Las Vegas last month that Smith can put a “$3.65 suit together better than anybody.”

“This comes from being a younger student athlete. You don’t get paid as much,” Smith said. “So just going around, walking around with my teammates and finding stores of what I like. It’s like $5 for a pair of jean shorts. Who’s gonna pass up on that?”

Coming out of high school in Shippensburg, Pa. — where he also excelled in basketball — Pittsburgh, Penn State and Ole Miss all showed interest in him. Fleck got Smith to visit Minnesota first, and Smith was hooked once he toured the campus and met with his future coach.

“My only and first official visit was to Minnesota,” Smith said. “And I knew when I was leaving there that it was going to be my forever home. So it wasn’t that I got away. I just knew that Coach Fleck and I were going to build a great relationship over the next few years.

“And it has held true, obviously.”

Smith is part of a shrinking classification in college sports. He came to Minnesota in 2022. And he hasn’t left. He didn’t portal his way to another school. He didn’t chase the NIL bag. He turned down overtures from elsewhere.

He selected the Gophers and hasn’t looked back. He frequently used the word “connected” to describe the team vibe he enjoys.

“Coach Fleck has been the real anchor of this team. I love that man. I bleed maroon and gold.”

That has allowed the Gophers to see Smith transition from basketball to football.

A late-season surge — he had four sacks over the final six regular-season games — saw him finish with 11 ½ tackles for loss and six sacks, earning All-Big Ten honorable mention honors. Along with super sophomore safety Koi Perich, Smith has been named to the watch list for the Lott Trophy, which goes to the nation’s best defensive player.

Fleck and the Gophers have also seen Smith grow as a person. His green thumb is real, as he’s decorated his apartment with various plants. He likes to snowboard, which must be a sight to see a man his size riding down a hill. During the summer, he spends as much time as he can on local lakes.

Smith’s personality has grown, too. His anguished expression revealed how hilarious it was to see Fleck getting dumped with mayonnaise following the Gophers’ victory over Virginia Tech in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl. Smith had a sack and two tackles for loss.