From the moment Taylor Smallwood arrived at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga earlier this year, he has done nothing but put his head down and gone to work.
Smallwood joined the Mocs as they were coming off a 2023 season that ended in the second round of the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs after contending for the Southern Conference title, and while many of the key players from that UTC team were back, there were also key losses.
One of those situations provided a possible opening for Smallwood, a junior transfer from Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania.
Although there was a ton of potential talent at cornerback, there was a dearth of experience in the position group, and so the 6-foot-2, 201-pounder from Lawrenceville, Georgia, felt that learning the team culture and defensive system while just putting in the work every day would give him a chance to have a role for the Mocs in 2024.
That approach has paid off for Smallwood, who has earned one of the two starting spots at cornerback for UTC.