Road to Success

Illinois defensive back Kendall Smith got spun like a top and twisted into a pretzel.

No, not by opposing receivers in pass coverage.

By life in the Illini football program.

Smith arrived in 2017 as a member of Lovie Smith’s first recruiting class, a three-star wideout from Bolingbrook. As a true freshman, he contributed to special teams only. As a sophomore, he was moved to safety but didn’t really get any closer to starting. The next three years included one redshirt season and two others as a seldom-used cornerback. Why didn’t he get to play more? To Kendall, it sometimes made no sense at all.

“Especially the past few years when we haven’t been the best, how could I not be playing?” he says now. “It was definitely frustrating. I had some hard times, some hard days.”

But in Year 6 in Champaign — and back at safety — Smith, 23, finally is starting for the first time and is making a dramatic impact on a 6-1 team with the top-ranked defense in the land. His four interceptions are one off the national lead.

“I’m having a great time,” he says.

Tight end Michael Marchese, 24, likewise is in Year 6 with the Illini. He came in as a walk-on safety from Vernon Hills (Stevenson) and played special teams for a few seasons — a couple of starts mixed in along the way — before being switched to linebacker in Year 4. Eventually, Bret Bielema arrived, gave him a look at tight end in the spring of 2021 and put him on scholarship, something Marchese had hoped would happen sooner.

“Yeah, there were times [feeling overlooked] would suck,” he says. “Guys in the locker room would come up, ‘Dude, I don’t know what’s going on. This is brutal for you.’ ”

Photo by Justin Casterline/Getty Images

But look at him now: Marchese is tied for the team lead in touchdown receptions with two — his only visits to the end zone since high school, when he and twin brother Henry were catching passes from Aidan O’Connell, now Purdue’s top quarterback.

“It’s been kind of crazy, the journey,” Marchese says. “It’s kind of surreal.”

It’s kind of wonderful, isn’t it? This breakout season at Illinois has more-decorated players — running back Chase Brown, defensive lineman Johnny Newton, cornerback Devon Witherspoon and others — in starring roles, but the Illini wouldn’t be in the driver’s seat for a Big Ten West title if not for a bunch of guys who’ve proved they can cut it, after all, in the big-time of college football.

Put two sixth-year dudes from Chicagoland — “great friends,” they both say — high on that list. Smith and Marchese waited extra-long for this little taste of the spotlight.

“I will say it helped me grow as a man in general, this whole experience,” Smith said. “Most people wouldn’t want to do it again. I would. It has changed me for the better overall. It’s been quite the journey, but I’m grateful for it.”

So is his mother, Vonetta Wade. For five years — even when Smith was redshirting — she went to games, home and away, and cheered for the sons of other moms and dads. It’s not always easy to sit in the stands and bury parental disappointment so it doesn’t show.

Smith loved football since he was a toddler, Wade says. He was only 10 when his father died in a motorcycle accident, and football was where he poured his delicate, complicated feelings; it led him to view the sport as a calling. Heading into the 2020 season, Smith’s fourth year on campus, he was sure he was going to start, but Game 1 came and he hardly played at all.

“His heart was broken,” Wade says. “It’s the worst feeling to see that.”

Mom cried. She prayed. She continued to encourage him.

“And now, to be on the other side of that?” she says. “Oh, it’s finally happening! It’s so exciting. It feels so good.”

Henry Marchese went to Iowa on scholarship, while twin Michael — “I loved seeing that for Henry,” he says — carried on a family tradition of walking on. Older brother Jimmy walked on at Illinois. Oldest brother Joe walked on at Maryland. Dad John walked on at Iowa way back when.

“Forget the scholarship,” John says. “What matters is the respect of his teammates, and Michael has always had that.”

But we can all imagine how it must feel for a player — a walk-on — to be rewarded, recognized, validated with a scholarship. Jimmy, a linebacker, got the nod a few years into his college career while the family was attending a Christmas morning mass in New York City in 2017; they were there to cheer on Henry and Iowa in the Pinstripe Bowl at Yankee Stadium. Jimmy slipped out of the pew, answered his phone and received the thrilling news.

Michael’s scholarship moment came in a meeting in front of the whole team — storybook stuff, even if a tad belated.

“He earned that,” John says. “One more [new] position and he’s up there with Red Grange!”

With that killer wisecrack came a hearty laugh. And a happy season for the Illini continues.