{"id":695410,"date":"2026-06-10T10:27:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T10:27:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/695410\/"},"modified":"2026-06-10T10:27:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T10:27:11","slug":"kentucky-football-player-nic-smith-dead-at-20-no-foul-play-indicated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/695410\/","title":{"rendered":"Kentucky football player Nic Smith dead at 20, no foul play indicated"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!\n  <\/p>\n<p data-layout-index=\"5\" class=\"speakable\">Nic Smith, a defensive lineman <a data-omtr-intcmp=\"fnc_sports_article_main-content_article-body_6_2256471\" href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/sports\/ncaa\/kentucky-wildcats\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">for Kentucky<\/a>, has died, the program announced. He was 20.<\/p>\n<p data-layout-index=\"5\" class=\"speakable\">Smith spent last season as a redshirt freshman with the Wildcats. &#8220;Today our hearts are broken. Our thoughts and prayers are with Nic\u2019s family, friends, teammates and everyone who knew and loved him,&#8221; Kentucky coach Will Stein wrote Monday <a data-omtr-intcmp=\"fnc_sports_article_main-content_article-body_6_2256472\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/CoachWillStein\/status\/2064074180853727550\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">on X.<\/a><\/p>\n<p data-layout-index=\"5\">According to a university spokesperson, campus police were called to an on-campus residence hall after receiving a report of a possible body. Later that day, the university announced Smith\u2019s death.<\/p>\n<p data-layout-index=\"5\"><a data-omtr-intcmp=\"fnc_sports_article_main-content_article-body_6_2256473\" href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/sports\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS.COM<\/a><\/p>\n<p> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Kentucky-football-REUTERS.jpg\" alt=\"Kentucky Wildcats helmet on the field during a football game.\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\"\/> <\/p>\n<p>A Kentucky Wildcats helmet is shown during the game against the Missouri Tigers at Memorial Stadium in Columbia, Missouri on Oct. 27, 2018. Oct. 27, 2018. Kentucky won 15-14. (Denny Medley\/USA TODAY Sports)<\/p>\n<p data-layout-index=\"5\">The school official added that the University of Kentucky 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 data-layout-index=\"5\">&#8220;This is a tremendous loss for our program and university community. We will continue to support one another and honor his memory,&#8221; Stein&#8217;s statement continued.<\/p>\n<p data-layout-index=\"5\">Smith was a sophomore in the community leadership and development program in the Martin-Gatton College of Agriculture, Food and Environment.<\/p>\n<p> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/nic-smith-kentucky-football.jpg\" alt=\"Kentucky football player Nic Smith poses during a photo shoot.\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\"\/> <\/p>\n<p>Kentucky defensive lineman Nic Smith (55) in a football stance during a photo shoot. (Photo courtesy: University of Kentucky Athletics)<\/p>\n<p data-layout-index=\"5\">His nicknames were &#8220;Happy&#8221; and &#8220;Big Happ,&#8221; according to his biography page on the <a data-omtr-intcmp=\"fnc_sports_article_main-content_article-body_6_2256474\" href=\"https:\/\/ukathletics.com\/sports\/football\/roster\/player\/nicholas-smith\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Kentucky athletic department&#8217;s website.<\/a><\/p>\n<p> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Nic-Smith-UK-football.jpeg\" alt=\"Kentucky football player Nic Smith poses during a photo shoot.\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\"\/> <\/p>\n<p>Kentucky defensive lineman Nic Smith (55) poses during a photo shoot. (Photo courtesy of University of Kentucky Athletics)<\/p>\n<p data-layout-index=\"5\"><a href=\"https:\/\/foxnews.onelink.me\/xLDS?pid=AppArticleLink&amp;af_dp=foxnewsaf%3A%2F%2F&amp;af_web_dp=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.foxnews.com%2Fapps-products\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP<\/a><\/p>\n<p data-layout-index=\"5\">He played football and basketball at Walnut Grove <a data-omtr-intcmp=\"fnc_sports_article_main-content_article-body_6_2256476\" href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/us\/education\/high-school\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">High School<\/a> in Loganville, Georgia.<\/p>\n<p data-layout-index=\"5\">The Associated Press contributed to this report.<\/p>\n<p data-layout-index=\"5\">Follow Fox News Digital\u2019s<a data-omtr-intcmp=\"fnc_sports_article_main-content_article-body_6_2256477\" class=\"c-link\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/FoxNewsSports_\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\"> sports coverage on X<\/a>, and subscribe to<a data-omtr-intcmp=\"fnc_sports_article_main-content_article-body_6_2256478\" class=\"c-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/newsletters\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\"> the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Chantz Martin is a sports writer for Fox News Digital.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles! Nic Smith, a defensive lineman for Kentucky, has died, the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":695411,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[57161,399,3349,398,140712,396,397,99],"class_list":["post-695410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ncaa-football","tag-departed","tag-football","tag-kentucky-wildcats","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-fb","tag-ncaa-football","tag-ncaafootball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/695410","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=695410"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/695410\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/695411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=695410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=695410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=695410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}