Blue White Illustrated

R ico Smith has some rules for his house- hold, one being that nothing gets taped to bedroom walls. There has been only one exception. It's been almost eight years since his oldest son came to him with a lo3y desire. Having fallen in love with football, a young Brandon Smith told his dad that he wanted to grow into one of the best ath- letes his Virginia hometown had ever seen. He wanted to go to college on schol- arship and eventually play professionally. Rico stopped him right there. "We have another rule in the house that you don't talk about the NFL or anything beyond college," he said. Academics came 0rst, but if Brandon was indeed that ambitious, Rico wanted him to put his intentions in writing. So Brandon penned a letter telling his future self to maintain good grades, to work dili- gently on and o2 the 0eld and go to lengths that others refused. Most of all, he needed to prove wrong anybody who might doubt his dreams. He wrote it all down, tacked the paper on his wall by his bed and read it every day until he became one of the best high school prospects on the East Coast. "He spoke it into existence at the age of 10," Rico recalled. "He said one day, 'I'm going to be the best football player to ever come out of Louisa County and I'm going to be one of the best football players in the entire country.' " A few dozen scholarship o2ers later, Brandon Smith is set to begin his career at Penn State as an early enrollee. He's the highest-rated defensive recruit in the Nittany Lions' incoming freshman class, but it wasn't easy getting to this point. In order to assess Brandon's commit- ment toward his goals, Rico challenged him in a variety of ways. He started by en- rolling Brandon into high school courses when he was still in eighth grade. That summer, the younger Smith attended football camps meant for high school up- perclassmen. The following year, he com- muted to a military academy as a freshman, attending classes by day and working out at night in the most challeng- ing environments the Smiths could 0nd. "I know this may sound crazy, but we put him in situations where he's either going to pass or fail, and a lot of times we put him in situations to fail because we wanted, from an academic and athletic standpoint, to see how bad he wanted it," Rico said. "We put him in a situation to fail, not to hurt him, but to [encounter] failure. If he was willing to work through it and to keep pushing, then we as parents were willing to provide the resources to achieve some of his goals, not knowing that it would be to the extent that it is now." The 0rst sign that they were on the right track came from the head coach of Fork Union Military Academy, where Smith spent his 0rst year of high school. Mickey Sullivan, who had previously tutored Christian Hackenberg, spotted the young player's potential right away. "He told Brandon at the end of his ninth-grade year that you are special and you have the ability to be one of the great ones," Rico recalled Sullivan saying. At that time, Smith played a 1ex tight end/wide receiver position. When he moved back to Louisa County for his sophomore season, he forced his way into a linebacker role. By the third game of the season, he was starting at middle line- backer, tallying 17 tackles and a pair of sacks in his debut. There was no looking back – unless it was to review game 0lm. Rico is a network engineer for a bank. He has a football background, too, having played at Fork Union himself. So as Bran- don progressed into his high school career, Rico combined his two specialties to help his son better understand the game. "We started a tradition that even stands until today," Rico said. "He's watching be- tween 0ve and six hours of 0lm [on a Thursday night before a game]. Then he's also getting tested. With me being an IT computer geek, I created a spreadsheet for all the [opponent's] plays and I put formu- las in there that will give you what they run on 0rst down, on second down and which formation, so Brandon had the task of watching 0lm and entering that data into the spreadsheet, and then he got quizzed." Because of the sacri0ces he began mak- ing in eighth grade, Smith has been able to graduate early and will enroll at Penn State in January. Rico describes his son as "laid back" and "mild-mannered," but Brandon has been driven to achieve his goals. He has also received help from a network of mentors that includes coaches, uncles and friends, and his family has a strong reli- gious faith, which they say has helped keep him pointed in the right direction. Said Rico "The way things have worked out and how things have transpired, it's just incredible." ■ An ambitious plan brings Smith to Nittany Lions | THE SMITH FILE STATS Finished senior season with 128 tackles, six sacks and 16 tackles for loss... Caused three fumbles HONORS Named a four-star recruit by Rivals.com, as well as the No. 57 overall recruit nationally, No. 2 outside linebacker and No. 2 prospect in Virginia... Named the Gatorade Virginia Player of the Year... Received Central Virginia Defensive Player of the Year honors... Was a first-team Fredericksburg All- Area and All-District selection CLICK HERE to see video of Smith in action.

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