Why OSU football alum Darnell Smith took his first athletic director job at a school with no facilities, no coaches and no athletes

Darnell Smith always wanted to be a college athletic director.

Over the past decade or so, he had opportunities to fulfill that goal. Several schools wanted to hire the former Oklahoma State football player. They made nice pitches. They offered compelling reasons. But something he’d heard from his mentors kept popping into his head.

“You’ll know it,” they would say, “when you know it.”

None of the schools felt quite right — until Texas A&M San Antonio.