It was the fall of 1997 and unlike the present, no one was talking about Catawba College’s DeVonte Peterson or Radell Lockhart as potential NFL material.

Rather, they were speaking of a redshirt freshman from East Rutherford High School named Rashad Smith, another defensive lineman who was setting the South Atlantic Conference on fire. Going into the sixth game of the season against Presbyterian, he led the league in sacks and already had 10 tackles for losses.

“He was on track to be, what we thought, the conference Freshman of the Year,” Bennett said.

During the game, a runner headed Smith’s way. No problem, he thought. I’ll add another tackle to my list.

Teammate Rodney Hope was thinking the same thing. He came flying over the top, missed the Blue Hose runner and instead plowed into Smith’s helmet. It crammed into the bridge of Smith’s nose forcing him to the ground with a heavy thud.

Rashad Smith didn’t pick himself up.

“That’s because I couldn’t get up,” Smith remembers now.

Smith had suffered a concussion. He clutched his face mask, thinking it was his face.

It would take time to recover from a now-dizzy world that was suddenly hard to comprehend.

Even harder to comprehend was what happened the following week at practice. Smith was sitting in a chair talking to a friend. Nearby, teammates were clowning around, throwing a football as hard as they could. One errant throw — believe it or not — drilled the unassuming Smith in the temple. He went down again.

His season — and possibly his career — was over.

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Rashad Smith was scared. One day he’d wake up and everything would seem fine. The next, he’d wake up and think ballpeen hammer was M.C.’s brother. He just didn’t know. Things were fuzzy. He was sleepy and tired.

“It was weird,” the 6-2, 285-pound defensive lineman said. “You are yourself but you aren’t yourself. You don’t understand what’s going on around you. Things move extremely fast and other times things move real slow.”

It wasn’t so much Smith’s memory. It was his reactions. He had no balance for six months.

Smith decided to forego the 1998 season. He talked with head coach David Bennett and defensive line coach Jim Tomsula but the great thing, he said, was, neither talked about football. They talked about life.

“Itold him not to play,” admitted the affable Tomsula. “When you start talking spines and brains ...”

By this time, Smith had been told there was a small bruise on his brain.

“It was minor,” he said, “but it was permanent. My family didn’t want me to play.”

Smith had many sitdowns with Bennett.

“He never mentioned football,” Smith said. “Coach Bennett was like a father figure. He talked about family and God and how I felt.”

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Smith didn’t feel good — period. But Catawba’s football family always lifted his spirits nad let him know daily he was still a big part of this team.

Tomsula made him his student coach in 1998. Buddies Lockhart and Peterson would cajole him.

“They’d tell me, ‘I’m going to get a sack for you’ and almost every time they said that, they did it,” Smith marveled. “They’d say, ‘Don’t worry about it, We’re with you.’”

Throughout the fall of 1998, his love for football remained steady, but his equilibrium was anything but.

When training camp for the 1999 season, doctors gave Smith the OK to hit the field.

“But he just wasn’t ready emotionally,” said Bennett. “He didn’t feel right.”

Smith sat and observed again. He watched his closest friends lead Catawba to the national playoffs and an 11-2 season.

The head games still haunted him.

“Doctors had cleared me,” Smith said, “but I said it’s just not worth it. I was shook up. So I said, I’m not even going to think about it.”

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Deep inside, though, Smith knew he’d rejoin the team, even if Tomsula and Bennett had their doubts. Peterson, the All-American hulk, knew it too.

“DeVonte was the only one I told,” Smith grins now.

“Yeah, I knew he was coming back,” Peterson said before practice Wednesday afternoon. “Itold him to just keep lifting.”

So despite a minor tremor in his right hand, Rashad Smith put on the pads again in his senior season.

“It’s in my heart,” Smith says with a big smile. “The eagerness came back.”

The first couple of days of training camp, he had headaches, but he says it was because he wasn’t used to the equipment. “But after that, it was all fun. It was back to normal.”

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Especially when Livingstone entered Shuford Stadium for the 2000 season opener. Smith was again a starter and the only heads games he was playing came against the Blue Bear offensive linemen.

“It was like having your brother back with you,” said Peterson.

And what about that first tackle, Rashad?

“Man, it was an adrenaline rush,” he said. “I just jumped up screaming and high-fived Radell.

“I was back.”

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An NFLscout was at practice Wednesday, watching Lockhart and Peterson. He probably didn’t even notice Smith.

Bennett had to think back to 1997 when his freshman was considered one of the SAC’s top diaper dandies.

If he hadn’t had the concussion, Bennett firmly believes, the scouts would be talking about Peterson, Lockhart ... and a guy named Rashad Smith.

“I’m just happy I’m on the field,” Smith says, deflecting the “what if” questiions.

Going into Saturday’s Homecoming, there are no more head games for Smith — except the ones he plays with the poor offensive lineman across from him.

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Ronnie Gallagher is the sports editor of the Post.