{"id":692414,"date":"2026-06-08T22:57:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-08T22:57:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/692414\/"},"modified":"2026-06-08T22:57:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-08T22:57:10","slug":"college-football-star-found-dead-on-campus-what-we-know-breaking-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/692414\/","title":{"rendered":"College Football Star Found Dead On Campus \u2013 What We Know (Breaking News)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/gridironheroics.com\/college-football\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:College Football;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;College Football&quot;}\" class=\"link \">College Football<\/a> world is in shock today after reports surfaced that a young star player was found deceased at his university.\u00a0 The news was first reported on Monday afternoon and has gone viral throughout the nation.<\/p>\n<p>Here is what we know.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Jan 12, 2015; Columbus, OH, USA; Columbus Police walk the streets as Ohio State Buckeyes fans celebrate after the victory over the Oregon Ducks in the 2015 College Football Playoff National Championship game. Mandatory Credit: Aaron Doster-USA TODAY Sports\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"960\" height=\"653\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"standard-img\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/b2c5e2f9196cca4f25db2de9d8a5d578.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Mandatory Credit: Aaron Doster-USA TODAY Sports<\/p>\n<p>It was announced Monday that Kentucky defensive lineman Nic Smith had passed away at the age of 20.<\/p>\n<p>According to a university spokesman, Jay Blanton, the University of Kentucky Police Department received a call Monday morning indicating that a student <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/college-football\/story\/_\/id\/49003244\/kentucky-dl-nic-smith-dies-age-20-no-foul-play-suspected\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:had been found dead;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;had been found dead&quot;}\" class=\"link \">had been found dead<\/a> in a residence hall. Later that day, the university issued a statement announcing Smith\u2019s death:<\/p>\n<p>Blanton said the police department was working with the Lexington-Fayette County Coroner, and an initial investigation did not indicate that foul play was involved.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cToday our hearts are broken,\u201d Kentucky coach Will Stein said. \u201cOur thoughts and prayers are with Nic\u2019s family, friends, teammates and everyone who knew and loved him. This is a tremendous loss for our program and university community. We will continue to support one another and honor his memory.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Smith, who redshirted last season, was a sophomore in the community leadership and development program in the Martin-Gatton College of Agriculture, Food and Environment. His nicknames were \u201cHappy\u201d and \u201cBig Happ,\u201d according to his biography page on the Kentucky athletic department\u2019s website.<\/p>\n<p>He played football and basketball at Walnut Grove High School in Loganville, Georgia.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Nic Smith Passing - Via Kentucky Instagram \" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"960\" height=\"643\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"standard-img\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/48327539fb3775ac0dbef95ae740b55d.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Nic Smith Passing \u2013 Via Kentucky Instagram<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The College Football world is in shock today after reports surfaced that a young star player was found&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":692415,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[28657,4,450,1607,451,300274,3,300273,452,453],"class_list":["post-692414","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking-news","tag-abdul-carter","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-college-football","tag-headlines","tag-jay-blanton","tag-news","tag-nic-smith","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692414","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=692414"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692414\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/692415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=692414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=692414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=692414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}