Blue White Illustrated

T he decision is out of the way for Ri- vals100 linebacker Brandon Smith. Now his attention turns to his sen- ior season, and a5er that a January en- rollment at Penn State. Smith, who will be a senior this fall at Louisa County High in Mineral, Va., recently talked to BWI's Tim Owen about his recruitment and what lies ahead with the Nittany Lions. Here, edited for length, is what he said: BWI Now that the recruiting process is done, what's di4erent, if anything? Or is it just back to normal for you? SMITH Everything is pretty chill as far the whole quote-unquote recruiting process. I've already given my decision, so all I'm really doing is just talking with the [Penn State] coaches and small talk- ing with them every now and again, whenever we're both free. BWI You're one of the 3rst big recruits to come out of your high school. How did you learn to navigate your recruit- ment, and did you have any examples or anyone to turn to? SMITH There were de3nitely a lot of ups and downs, as far as getting pulled one way or another just because of the way you feel at the moment, so dealing with that [was a challenge], but really just talking with Kerry Wynn [helped the most]. He graduated in the 2000s from Louisa and he went on to Rich- mond and now he's playing with the [New York] Giants. I've just been talking back and forth with him and getting his side of it and seeing how he dealt with it. That's just really been good to not only me but my family as well, getting a chance to see their perspectives by talk- ing with him and his family. BWI You took a lot of visits before your commitment. If you can, recap some of those experiences. SMITH We've been on the road a lot. There have been a lot of miles. There have been goods and there have been bads; I'm just not saying which ones were which. It's just a learning experi- ence for everybody, seeing the pros and cons for every school and learning more information in the process of [visiting] these schools. Really, it's helped a lot being able to sit down, make a decision and basically go to the drawing board. BWI You had all that to think about when making the decision. You saw Penn State early on and then throughout your recruitment. What was it that you kept going back to, that maybe other places were unable to match? SMITH Really it was just the connection between the coaching sta4 and our fam- ily. I mean, one of the visits we [brought at least eight] people who came with us from our family, and they all loved it. Everybody in my family loved the visit and vice versa. Every coach loved the family, so we had that connection right out of the gate. Then I loved the campus. Easy access to anything really you'll need as far as food outside the actual football facility. As far as the dorm rooms and stu4 like that, it was right around the corner from the football facilities. Not too far from your classrooms, so that's what I like as well – how everything is positioned. BWI You never really came out with a top 3ve or a top 10 before making a deci- sion, but looking back, was there a school that came in second place? SMITH Outside of Penn State, it was re- ally just Ohio State and Texas A&M. Those were the other two out there that I was going towards. For those schools, you really just got the same type of con- nection with their coaches like you do at Penn State. Everybody was connected and on the same beat, so to say. BWI You made the visit to Texas A&M, went home, took a little bit of time and I N T E R V I E W B R A N D O N S M I T H We want to be the best, and we want to make a run in college football' ' DECISION TIME Smith announced on May 22 that he would be attend- ing PSU in January. He chose the Lions over Ohio State and Texas A&M. Photo courtesy of Rivals.com

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