Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/76097
Irish Prevail For Indiana's Best Player BY JASON SAPP F side linebacker according to 247Sports, found himself returning to South Bend every month since March leading up to his verbal commitment to the program on COMMITMENT PROFILE JAYLON SMITH June 2, and there was a reason why — it is where he eventually planned on living. The 6-3, 218-pound five-star recruit said he knew he wanted to commit to the Irish March 3 at Notre Dame's mini junior day, and eventually announced his decision June 2 during the Athletes With Purpose/Rede- fining Athletic Standards Football Camp sponsored by the Bedrock Youth Academy and Next Level at Trine University in An- gola, Ind. His other visits to campus this spring and summer included a spring practice April 4, campus visit May 12 and a reunion of a number of Irish commits June 14. "When I saw it I knew," Smith told ort Wayne (Ind.) Bishop Luers star Jay- lon Smith, the nation's top-ranked out- Smith is rated as a five-star prospect, the nation's No. 1 outside linebacker and the No. 5 overall player in the country by 247Sports. PHOTO COURTESY 247SPORTS Michigan, Nebraska, Ohio State (where his brother, Rod, is a redshirt sophomore run- ning back), Oklahoma, Oregon, Tennessee, USC and others. Smith, who is rated as the No. 5 overall 247Sports' Steve Wiltfong. "But sometimes when you first see something and you're so [excited] about it, later on, it doesn't end up being so cool. I wanted to make sure that's where I wanted to go. It never wore off. And I wanted to get back to Ohio State and give other teams a shot and see if anyone was better than Notre Dame." No program was able to pass the Irish, player in the land, notched 51 tackles, 18 stops for loss, eight sacks and two forced fumbles as a junior to clinch his second con- secutive first-team all-state accolade. With the plethora of programs in pursuit of Smith, Notre Dame continued checking off the boxes of what he was looking for in a school. "Just the fact that nobody could compare and that included Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Florida State, Georgia, Miami, AUGUST 2012 76 to them academic-wise in the Midwest," he said, citing reasons for his choice. "How I bonded with their team, and being around a