Clayton Smith practiced as a tight end on Wednesday. The sixth-year senior will play both ways for Arizona State during the upcoming college football season.
He has never played on offense before!
This unexpected college football experiment comes out of necessity. Head coach Kenny Dillingham wants to exhaust all of his options after a poor performance during the first few weeks of fall camp.
Clayton Smith is a defensive lineman.
As a native of Texas, Clayton Smith was ranked as one of the top-50 players in the college football recruiting Class of 202 as four-star edge rusher. He ultimately committed to Oklahoma over schools like Ole Miss, Penn State, Michigan, Oregon and LSU.
Unfortunately, his time in Norman did not go according to plan. Smith did not play as a freshman and missed all but four games due to an injury during his redshirt freshman season in 2022.
The need for a fresh start led him to enter the transfer portal. Smith committed to Arizona State in 2023 and immediately made an impact on defense for the Sun Devils. The 6-foot-4, 255-pound defensive lineman recorded 81 total tackles in three seasons with 13 sacks, 18 tackles for loss and one forced fumble.
Because of the injury at Oklahoma, Smith was allowed to return to college football for a sixth and final season in 2026. He received a medical hardship waiver from the NCAA that presented him with an extra year of eligibility.
Arizona State moved its sixth-year senior to tight end.
Kenny Dillingham and his staff did not expect to get Clayton Smith back. They completely overhauled his position group during the offseason, which pushed him further down the depth chart.
With that in mind, Arizona State decided to give Smith a shot on offense. The Sun Devils listed him as an “Athlete” on the spring practice roster and put him with the wide receivers. The goal was to get him comfortable as a pass-catcher. He showed a lot of promise at his new position in the spring but he ultimately moved back to defense for the start of fall camp.
And then the tight end group had a bad day on Tuesday. Dillingham decided to shake things up.
Smith returned to the tight end position on Wednesday.
They worked a lot on blocking.
The staff is trying to get him familiar with the other side of the ball.
He is hard to miss when he is out on the field with smaller offensive players.
Kenny Dillingham wasn’t joking yesterday. Clayton Smith is running with the offense today.@DevilsDigest https://t.co/MvVeXhexnK pic.twitter.com/oUMMaGQPi9
— Adam Beadle (@therealbeadle) August 19, 2026
Dillingham was excited by what he saw from Smith. Arizona State is going to work him into the mix whenever possible.
Although this is not a good sign for the tight end room in Tempe, it is fun to watch as a fan. I hope we get to see a 255-pound defensive lineman catch a few touchdowns in the fall!