Recruiting on the South Plains | DT Anthony Smith

This may not be a popular sentiment, but when I started to look at Smith, the more this felt like the kind of player that Gary Patterson would recruit at TCU and Texas Tech defensive coordinator Chad Glasglow has learned from his former boss.  The thing that jumped out at me when looking at things on Smith was his strength and that he's been the strongest, or near the top, of just about any player at any of the camps he's attended.  Patterson emphasizes strength and speed and for a noseguard, Smith has those two qualities without a doubt.  I absolutely love this type of pick-up.

DTN FanPost and/or FanShot:  Hat-tip to TTpilk645!

The Measurables:

ANTHONY SMITH
Position: DT
DTN Profile
Video: Clip 1 | Clip 2 | Clip 3
Rivals 5.6
Scout
ESPN 76
24/7 Sports 86
Ht: 6'0" | Wt: 291 lbs | Forty: 4.98
High School: Westfield (Houston, TX)

Smith is ranked by Rivals as the 48th best defensive tackle, Scout has him as the 47th and ESPN has Smith as the 62nd best defensive tackle.  Would love to know how the services see Smith as a pure noseguard as I don't think there's any doubt that's where he plays.  Not an overly impressive offer list with offers from Arizona St., Colorado St., New Mexico, etc.  Again, this is one of those commits from the Houston camp and the coaches got to see Smith up close and in person.

The Player Speaks:  Smith had no time for LAJ's Don Williams (kinda funny), and Williams pretty much copied and pasted a bit from an ESPN article (I'll link to it later) without giving any credit as to where he found the information. 

However, Smith did have time to text (I think) with Examiner's Jefferson Powell:

"It felt right Smith told examiner.com when asked what made him commit earlier than originally planned.   I’ve been praying about it for some time now and I had to go with what god placed on my heart to do."

"I was on the phone with J.J.  Who has already committed to Texas Tech, said Smith.  We were just talking about the visits and how it would be if we got up there together."

"After that i called coach Mainord and said I want to be a Red Raider and he went crazy."

I'm assuming this is a text based conversation and Powell is leaving the quotes as texted.  In any event, I love the fact that Smith and current Texas Tech commit DT J.J. Bynum are talking.  This happened last year, mainly due to guys like TE Jace Amaro and QB Michael Brewer (there are probably others, but Brewer was the most vocal last year with other commits) and I like that these guys are talking about what they could do together.

I also really appreciate the fact that Tommy Mainord, a receivers coach, is making a defensive player like Smith (and he's also responsible for the commitment of Bynum) feel like part of the family.  Maybe this is just me making something out of nothing, but I love the idea that Mainord and the rest of the staff, offense or defense, are all pulling together.

Smith also talked about what the atmosphere was like with the Texas Tech coaches:

"I chose Tech because of the value of the education u can get there and everyone on the staff is like family Smith added, When you are around them it feels like you’re  just at home right in the living room."

More after the jump.

The Video:  Film don't lie.

Scouting Report:  So Smith is short, but strong like an ox.  Here's the bit from the previously mentioned ESPN article on Smith, who had him as the top rising senior at a recent Houston camp:

Anthony Smith, DT (Houston, Texas/Westfield)
Smith earned second team all-district honors last fall playing alongside recent Texas signee Desmond Jackson at Westfield and is now poised to step into the spotlight entering his senior year. While Smith lacks ideal height at 5-foot-11, 288 pounds, the athletic ability he displayed Saturday is hard to ignore. He threw the power ball 49 feet, tops so far in the nation this offseason, and also clocked a 5.01 40 time and jumped 30.3 inches in the vertical on his way to the combine's top SPARQ rating at 109.41. Baylor has already offered and Smith could see his recruitment spike.

And although the latter two videos are a bit dated, from Smith's sophomore year, they mention a couple of things which are that he was the defensive line MVP and the strongest player.  The interview in the second video is okay, but I really like seeing Smith without pads whipping opposing offensive linemen with both quickness and strength. 

The teaser from the ESPN profile has this as its first sentence:

Smith is a defensive tackle with marginal height, but if you can get past that he is not a bad football player.

Don't get me wrong, taller players can fill out to even bigger players, but this evaluation almost seems to be predicated on the fact that because he's only 6'0" or 5'11" that he's marginal.  And he very well may be a marginal player, but I'll take my chances with a guy that looks to have an excellent motor, that makes plays due to his speed and strength just about any day of the week.  Just like height isn't something that you can coach, neither is work-ethic and athletic ability.  Smith's fake forty-yard dash times are all being reported as being in the 4.98 to 5.01 range, which is fast for a near-300 pound defensive tackle.  You also add a 30" vertical jump who can squat 605 and you have a pretty unique athlete.

Anthony, welcome to Texas Tech and Git Your Guns Up!

The 2012 Class:  Still filling out the list since being gone, but it's starting to look pretty.

Position	Commitment	Ht/Wt	School/State	Rivals	Rivals Rating	Scout	ESPN	ESPN Grade	24/7	24/7 Grade
QB	CLAYTON NICHOLAS	6-3/205	Cooper (Abilene, TX)	3	5.7	2	4	79	3	88
RB
WR	REGINALD DAVIS	6-1/185	Tenaha (Tenaha, TX)	4	5.8	4	4	81	4	91
WR	MARCUS JOHNSON	6-1/180	Clear Spring (League City, TX)	3	5.6	3	3	78	3	89
TE
OL	CHRISTIAN OKAFOR	6-6/320	Westbury (Houston, TX)	3	5.6	4	4	79	3	88
OL	HALAPOULIVAATI VAITAI	6-5/260	Haltom (Haltom City, TX)	3	5.7	4	3	78	3	89
C	JARED KASTER	6-4/268	Rice (Altair, TX)	3	5.6	2	3	78	3	87
DL	J.J. BYNUM	6-3/275	A&M Consolidated (College Station, TX)	3	5.6	3	3	79	-	-
DL	MICHAEL STARTS	6-5/285	La Vega (Waco, TX)	4	5.8	4	4	80	4	94
DL	ANTHONY SMITH	6-0/291	Westfield (Houston, TX)	3	5.6	3	3	76	3	86
LB	MICAH AWE	6-0/210	Mansfield Summit (Mansfield, TX)	-	-	2	3	78	-	-
LB	KRIS WILLIAMS	6-2/200	Bryan Adams (Dallas, TX)	-	-	2	-	-	-	-
DB	LA'DARIUS NEWBOLD	6-1/180	Lancaster (Lancaster, TX)	3	5.7	3	3	75	-	-
ATH	KEENON WARD	5-9/176	Snyder (Snyder, TX)	3	5.5	3	3	78	-	-
Averages				2.69	4.78	3.00	3.07	72.23	2.00	54.76