Eastern Kentucky’s Kaden Smith named UAC preseason defensive player of the year

Kaden Smith put Eastern Kentucky at the top of the United Athletic Conference’s preseason defensive board, earning the league’s Defensive Player of the Year honor during media day. The recognition also put three other Colonels, Derek Taylor, Brayden Latham and Quaid Luginbill, on the preseason all-conference team.

EKU Football and Eastern Kentucky University Athletics both highlighted the award on social media, underscoring how central Smith has become to the program’s preseason identity. The UAC also posted the honor directly, writing: “The Preseason Defensive Player of the Year: Kaden Smith, @EKUFootball.”

Smith’s name has been building across the league’s preseason lists. He was also placed on the Buck Buchanan preseason watch list, another sign that his profile now stretches beyond Richmond and into the broader FCS conversation about the top defensive players in the subdivision.

For Eastern Kentucky, the award lands at an important point in the program’s place within the UAC. The league is still relatively new, formed after the ASUN-WAC football partnership evolved into the United Athletic Conference, and EKU has been one of the programs helping define what that race looks like. In that setting, a preseason defensive player of the year nod is more than individual hardware. It is a marker that one of the league’s most important units might be the one carrying the Colonels into the title chase.

That matters because the UAC’s path to postseason relevance runs through the league race and the automatic bid that comes with it. If EKU’s defense is good enough to center the preseason conversation, Smith is the kind of player who can shape whether the Colonels are playing for position in October or controlling the league picture deep into the fall. With Smith, Taylor, Latham and Luginbill all getting preseason conference recognition, EKU enters the season with its defensive core already receiving notice before a snap is played.