After he drifted out to sea in a kayak, ex-South Carolina QB Eric Smelley details his harrowing experience WHIO TV 7 and WHIO Radio [Video]

Former South Carolina quarterback Eric Smelley said that he was starting to give up hope that he would be found after his kayak had drifted miles off shore while fishing.

Smelley, now a high school football coach in Alabama, was rescued after a U.S. Coast Guard search effort to find him in the Gulf of Mexico on March 28. Smelley and his family were vacationing in Panama City Beach and he had rented a kayak to go fishing that day.

However, Smelley was stranded for more than 12 hours after he had drifted out to sea thanks to strong winds that day. He told the Tuscaloosa News that he lost some optimism when a Coast Guard helicopter flew over him and kept going. Thankfully, he was located a short time later.

“I turned to start paddling in a little bit,” he said. “As soon as I started my first attempt …