Tre Smith, known by his teammates and coaches as “Mr. Redline,” has been a leader on and off the field since the day he arrived in Tucson with Brent Brennan from San Jose State. Even with a shoulder injury limiting him to just five games last season, Smith has continued growing and developing into the leader on and off the field that the prestigious moniker represents. Now, as he and the Wildcats turn their attention to the 2026 season, Smith, who is entering his sixth and final year of college football, doesn’t have his focus on making a Big 12 Championship game and a Rose Bowl. Of course, that’s the goal, but Smith says he’s going to take things day by day and enjoy the journey.
“I would say this season – just staying present and living in the moment,” said Smith during Arizona’s local media day. “With that being said, right, it kind of leads to the process instead of the outcome. So, it’s nice to have big goals and aspirations, but I don’t think any of that matters if you don’t live in your process and focus on your process. So, just enjoying every day, you know, maximizing every day, emptying the tank, and see where we get from that.”
After being in college for the past five years, Smith certainly has a mature approach, not just to the game, but to life itself. Head coach Brent Brennan is challenging the team to enjoy the journey rather than fixate on the outcome and Smith is taking that to heart as he gears up for his last dance as a Wildcat.
“I also feel that that’s just the truth to life, not even just football or what we preach here in the building. You can have the biggest dream in the world, but if your process is horrible, it’s not going to come true. That’s just the facts,” said Smith.
“So being in the process, being in the moment, I feel that also just helps you appreciate where you are, outside of doing the things that you need to do, because if you’re always just living, looking at the dream, you miss this whole giant step in your journey, and it’s like, we live for the journey. We don’t live for this one moment, because when you get there, you’re gonna look back and be like, wow, all of this is what formed me into who I am today, and is what got me here.”
Smith, who was a 2023 All-Mountain West First-Team selection during his final season at San Jose State, had every reason to have a ‘know-it-all’ attitude when he arrived in Tucson. Between joining an entirely new program in 2024, to getting a new position coach and suffering the season-ending injury in 2025, it hasn’t exactly been smooth sailing for Smith since arriving in the Old Pueblo. But it’s that mature, process-oriented approach to life on and off the field that has impressed his coaches and teammates, including defensive line coach and Arizona Wildcat legend Joe Salave’a, since the two connected over a year ago.
“For a guy that’s played a lot of football, his ceiling is still moving. He could have easily been an older veteran that doesn’t want to be coached, he doesn’t want to learn. But man, he’s totally the opposite. I think he brings that element that we need in the program, not just the room, but the program. An older guy that’s always in the front, leading by his action. A great teammate, a guy that you can count on. And so we’re gonna expect a little bit more from Tre because if he’s a good player, he’s got to be the hardest worker. And I’m not worried about that.”
Smith’s leadership didn’t happen overnight, but rather, is the culmination of years of experience and adversity. And as the Wildcats look to build Desert Swarm 2.0 in Tucson and prove the 2025 season wasn’t just a fluke, head coach Brent Brennan, who’s been with Smith since the beginning of his collegiate career, knows he can call on him to lead the charge this season.
“It’s been really fun to be a part of his process and I’ve been with him for all of it,” said Brennan at the start of fall training camp. “You know, I think that’s a unique thing at two different stops. But the football with him is kind of the easy part because he plays so hard and he’s talented and he’s twitchy and he’s long. You know, that’s the easy part.”
Brennan credits a pair of former San Jose State players and Mountain West Defensive Players of the Year that helped shape Smith into the person he is today.
“When he got there, he fell in with the defensive line group that was like hyper-committed. We had two defensive players of the year in that group, Cade Hall and Junior Fehoko, and they kind of showed Tre the way. Really within six months or a year, Tre was the one player that you saw every single day in the building, like every single day, and it’s still that way. They kind of helped him develop that work ethic, and now you see that showing up every day here, and now he’s bringing that to our team.”
Hall and Fehoko showed Smith the ropes, but when adversity struck last season, defensive coordinator Danny Gonzales says it was then-sixth-year senior Treydan Stukes who guided him through a different kind role during the season.
“Everything that Treydan [Stukes] did, Tre is doing right now,” said Gonzales. “The best part of Stukes getting hurt in ’24 was Tre being able to see his leadership role and how that didn’t affect his day-to-day even though he wasn’t playing. Tre took that on last year for the front pieces. He was the same guy even though he wasn’t playing. After surgery, he was the same guy. He’s back in the building two days after surgery mandating that they do everything right, that they’re on time, that they are getting extra.”
“I think servant leadership is the best kind of leadership, and that’s what Treydan was, and that’s what Tre is,” added Gonzales. “I think that where we have to develop, Tre needs to get Mays [Pese], Mays needs to get Prince [Williams] and continue that so that we can build a Desert Swarm around here that’s not just a one-hit wonder.”
Time will tell if Arizona’s defense can recreate its success from a year ago. If you asked Danny Gonzales, he’d say yes. But if you ask Tre Smith, do you know what he’ll say? He’ll tell you he’s focusing on “process instead of the outcome.”