CHAMPAIGN — Derrick Smith credits his dad for getting him involved in multiple sports growing up.

The idea behind playing baseball and getting into boxing, along with his time spent on the football field, was to broaden his athletic skill set as much as possible.

It worked.

Smith has seen that varied athletic background come in handy now that he’s turned his focus solely to football in college.

Smith’s time on the baseball diamond growing up in Jacksonville, Fla., has aided his ability in tracking the ball in passing situations. All his work in the squared circle as a boxer has helped him when he goes to jam a wide receiver. Maybe even absorb the physicality of a run blocker he’s trying to shed to get at the ball carrier.

“My dad put me in boxing when I was in middle school, and ever since then I stayed with it,” Smith said Tuesday. “My dad was big on just putting me in everything to build my attributes up. … All that became a part of football.”

Illinois football coach Lovie Smith had to wait a year to put those skills to good use. Derrick Smith sat out the 2019 season after a late transfer — just eight days before the Illini’s season opener a year ago — from Miami.

Derrick Smith is now eligible and will likely play a key role for Illinois come its Oct. 24 season opener at No. 19 Wisconsin. A safety his first two seasons at Miami, Derrick Smith is the top contender to replace graduated safety Stanley Green in the Illini defensive backfield even after he spent his sit-out year as a “linebacker.”

Derrick Smith’s safety-to-linebacker-to-safety shuffle is more semantics than anything else. Lovie Smith considers his linebackers “big, strong safeties.”

That’s particularly true when it comes to strong safeties and outside linebackers in the Illinois coach/defensive coordinator’s 4-3 scheme. On the positional family tree, Lovie Smith called those two spots “first cousins.”

Movement between those positions has been fluid on the Illinois roster before Derrick Smith arrived. Delano Ware received reps at linebacker some in 2019 after starting his Illini career at safety. Dawson DeGroot, who has opted out of the 2020 season, made a similar move.

“The prototype at strong safety and outside linebacker, it’s a similar athlete that we play with,” Lovie Smith said. “When you’re new coming in, we’re going to move you around a little bit and see where the best place for you will be. That’s just kind of standard on what we do.

“We did move him around a little bit. Last year he was on the (practice) squad, and we were just looking at his athletic ability. After we’ve had a chance to work with him, we feel pretty good about him being where we have him now, and that’s the safety position.”

Illinois will jump into its rescheduled training camp in earnest Wednesday with the first padded practice of the year. That’s where Lovie Smith is banking on seeing more of what he did a year ago in terms of Derrick Smith’s physical play. How would the veteran Illinois coach describe his new 6-foot-2, 220-pound redshirt junior safety?

“He’s a hitter,” Lovie Smith said. “As far as his skill set, he’s a little bit bigger safety. That would tell you he should be pretty good in run support, which he is. We’re expecting big things for him that way. He also has a good skill set as far as passes are concerned — good hands.”

Derrick Smith is already anticipating that first opportunity to get physical at Wisconsin’s Camp Randall Stadium in less than a month. A year away from playing has only intensified those feelings.

In that regard, he’s an apt replacement for Green. The now-former Illinois safety was well known for his style of play. Both in the fact he caused a lot of fumbles by knocking balls loose and an unfortunate penchant through the first three years of his career for targeting penalties.

“Hitting is definitely one of my strong points,” Derrick Smith said. “Definitely. That’s just something that’s been there with me since I was a little kid. I’m an aggressive player.

“I really like any type of contact. Anything with contact, I love it. I’m just a very physical person in general. I still box in the offseason. I put the gloves on sometime here and there just for a little conditioning.”

Derrick Smith will get those opportunities to be physical lining up at safety. He’d be fine at linebacker, too, but safety is where he played in high school and where he totaled 24 tackles in 25 games at Miami.

“I really haven’t played for real since high school,” Derrick Smith said. “I feel like I’ve got an opportunity come Oct. 24 to show what I’ve got. … I like being around the ball. They figured safety was the best position for me because of my athleticism. I could play either or. It doesn’t really matter to me. If I’m around the ball, I feel like I’m going to be a big impact.”

Scott Richey is a reporter covering college basketball at The News-Gazette. His email is srichey@news-gazette.com, and you can follow him on Twitter (@srrichey).