Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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Smith racked up 39.5 tackles for loss and 17 sacks among the 127 total stops he made during his final two prep seasons. photo courtesy U.S. Army All-American Bowl where we went." No one expects Smith to be the mouthpiece Te'o became at Notre Dame during the past four seasons. On the field and in the locker room, he does his best work by remaining on the periphery. His competitive drive elevates those who play around him and makes him a different kind of leader. "Do I think he's going to come in and be the vocal leader like Manti was on the field? No, I don't think so," Irish head coach Brian Kelly said. "But his actions and the way that he prepares himself and the way he plays the game, I think a lot of people will want to model after him." The next step is proving he can do it in pads. If there's a knock on the Parade All-American's résumé it's that he has yet to show the strength he'll need to match up physically with 300-pound linemen at the college level. Smith finished his final high school game weighing less than 220 pounds. Ledo, who was once a record-setting running back at NAIA power Saint Francis, knows the power a first impression can have on the course of a career. He plans to help Smith add 15 pounds of toughness and muscle before he gets to campus. "Our expectation," he said, "is that they're going to be so blown away by this kid that they're not going to know what to do." *** The hero-making machine of modern sports spins faster all the time, making it nearly impossible for a budding star to blow anyone away. Of all the things Te'o accomplished at Notre Dame, his most impressive feat was living up to the hype. Smith's biggest challenge is to do the same. He says he's lived with that pressure since his freshman year at Bishop Luers when he started at linebacker for a state championship team. The