Anthony Smith enters his final season at Minnesota with a spotlight that keeps getting brighter, and for good reason. The Gophers’ senior defensive lineman has become the kind of player who can tilt a game on his own, and as the 2026 season approaches, he’s being treated like the centerpiece of PJ Fleck’s defense.
The praise has piled up all offseason. Phil Steele pegged Smith as an All-American and a first-team All-Big Ten pick, and last week Cleveland.com named him its preseason Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year. That kind of recognition matches what Smith did over his last 13 games, which ranked among the best stretches in modern Gopher history.
Smith finished 2025 with 12.5 sacks, becoming the first Minnesota player to reach double digits in sacks since Willie VanDeSteeg in 2009. He heads into this fall sixth on the school’s all-time sack list with 19.5, and another big year could put him atop the mountain.
He also piled up 17.5 tackles for loss last season, the sixth-most in a single season in program history, bringing his career total to 31. That’s already eighth all-time at Minnesota, and 14 more TFLs would move him to No.
That’s the kind of production that makes a defensive lineman indispensable, especially in the Big Ten. A player who can wreck a drive, a quarter or a whole game changes everything for a defense.
Smith doesn’t even need to repeat last season’s numbers to leave his mark on the record book. If he gets to 14 tackles for loss and 10 sacks, he’ll keep climbing into first place in Minnesota history.
That’s a tough ask for just about anyone. Smith, at 6-6 and 280 pounds, is the one Gopher built to chase it.
There are still a couple of questions heading into the season. One is consistency.
Smith was dominant at home, but his road performances dipped at times last fall, with five of his six lowest PFF grades coming away from Dinkytown. Those games included Ohio State, Iowa, Oregon and Northwestern, all of which featured NFL draft picks at offensive tackle.
Even so, the challenge remains the same: prove he can bring the same damage on the road that he brings at home.
The other issue isn’t really about Smith at all. Minnesota leaned on him heavily in 2025, and defensive coordinator Danny Collins put 671 snaps on his star lineman.
That was the second-most on the Gophers’ defense, and no other defensive lineman reached 500. On a per-game basis, it was the most snaps any Big Ten defensive end played in the conference.
For 2026, getting Smith back into the 500-to-525 snap range would be the ideal setup, which means Jaxon Howard or Adam Kissayi needs to earn Collins’ trust, along with defensive line coach CJ Robbins, before the opener.
Collins said Smith’s work behind the scenes over the last eight months has stood out just as much as the production.
"He's just such a special person, right? He's leading our team in community service.
He's doing all those things, and then to practice the way he practices, and lift the way he lifts, and prepare the way he prepares. I mean that that's how it's supposed to look," Collins shared to 247Sports.
"There's been guys here that have been projected to be the first taken in their position in the draft, and they've done it like Tyler Nubin. And then there's been guys that have projected to be, and they're not drafted at all.
We want that pressure, and I know Anthony wants that, but he's not allowing that to get into his play at all. He's focused on being the best version of him every single day, and I know that's like cliché to say.
But that's real. And when you watch him practice, and you watch him play, that's what you see.
A guy that is obsessed with his process, and I love that because at the end of the day, all the preseason awards are great, but we're focused on the process. And when you focus on the process, then you're going to get the postseason awards.
He truly wants to be a first pick in the draft, not even just a first-rounder. To have a guy like that, with that mentality, that sets the tone for our defense."