As soon as Leland Smith enrolled at Fullerton College in California, he wanted to get out.

Fullerton, see, is a two-year community college, and Smith is of Division I lineage: his mother played basketball for TCU and his father played football at Grambling State. The sophomore receiver began his collegiate football career as a TCU walk-on, wearing the purple of the Horned Frogs as his mom had dreamed, but the competition on a national runner-up proved too stiff; he needed a chance to play.

He settled at Fullerton, known as the “TCU bounce back” guy to teammates, and figured his next opportunity would come quickly.

“I had these high hopes and these ambitions about how easy it would be to come to JUCO and go crazy, and then get out,” Smith said.

He was wrong about that, at least at first.

In his first game with the Fullerton Hornets, he was held without a catch in the first half and rode the bench the rest of the game. It was a hard fall for Smith, who had at least caught a pass in his lone opportunity for action at TCU, in a spring game.

“I had to realize, and had to humble myself and learn the hard way that I was gonna have to put more work in than I thought.”

The results came slowly at first; Smith had one catch for 39 yards in his next game, but then racked up more than 150 yards across his next two. Then came a step back – only one catch in his fifth game.

The day after games, he would work odd jobs as security at a music festival, referee for youth flag football, a bit of modeling, and even as an extra on the popular Netflix show “All-American” – he caught a touchdown on an episode in season six. He lived in a two-bedroom apartment with five roommates.

It all paid off in a two-week stretch in his second month at Fullerton. Smith racked up 152 yards in his sixth game, and the next week put up the kind of performance that does not go unnoticed, even from a suburb of Anaheim at a tiny school: 212 yards and three touchdowns against Palomar.

He was Facetiming Purdue associate head coach Cory Patterson on his way to a lift the next week, and Patterson offered him a spot at Purdue, just four days after his breakout in the Palomar game.

“I told my coach I had to use the restroom real fast, just so I could go and post it and call my mom,” Smith laughed.

Smith is one of a handful of Boilermakers who used the transfer portal to reach the dream of Power Four football; cornerback Botros Alisandro and wide receiver Jaden Dixon-Veal are other JUCO products, and left tackle Corey Stewart starred at Ball State before coming to Purdue his senior year.

The change in circumstances is striking. Smith said he would frequent Sam’s Club while at Fullerton, buying three rotisserie chickens and packs of tortillas and shredded cheese that became quesadillas and tacos in his air fryer; for two weeks those ingredients formed his lunches.

Now, he eats meals from a multimillion dollar team facility.

The jump in competition, too, is like entering another world. Stewart said he would take plays off in practice at Ball State, success “naturally happened,” for him.

“It kind of opened my eyes to, ‘Oh this is how it’s gonna be,’” he said. “So I got to get to this type of speed and level.”

Smith, always a deep threat who led the JUCO level in yards per catch at Fullerton, has struggled to sustain the success that got him noticed by Purdue, Mississippi State and Miami, among others, last October. His season high since Purdue’s only win against Indiana State is 15 yards against Nebraska. He lost an opportunity to change the game against Illinois, when game-changing chances have been scarce, with a first-quarter drop after he’d freed himself down the sideline.

Purdue’s record, at 1-6, is also far from the team success Smith became accustomed to when his teams lost three times across two years at TCU and Fullerton. Before that, in high school and at lower levels, Smith knew only success.

“Things are difficult right now,” he said. “But nothing worth having comes easy. We fight our own challenges, but we understand that we're all growing stronger from it.”

Stewart is hanging in there, too: “Ain't nobody gonna come save us.”