Mountain Ridge senior defensive tackle Tre Smith, right, who signed his NCAA National Letter of Intent at the University of Maryland, joined Tony C., left, on “The Morning Rush” Thursday on ESPN Radio AM 1230.
Tre Smith, Maryland Terps had each other at hello
MIKE BURKEAllegany Radio Corporation Sports
Wednesday was a big day for Mountain Ridge High School and
University of Maryland football, and Mountain Ridge senior, soon to be
University of Maryland freshman, Tre Smith was a big reason why.
The 6-foot-3, 300-pound defensive tackle signed his NCAA National
Letter of Intent to attend Maryland on a football scholarship Wednesday
morning on NCAA early-signing day, and did so with his family by his
side and before the entire Mountain Ridge student body and community, as
he became the third Miner in just seven years to receive a scholarship
from an NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) school — West
Virginia’s Jarrod Harper (2012) and Navy’s Sefa Pua’auli (2018) being
the previous two.
One day later, Smith and Ryan Patterson, the Mountain Ridge head
football coach, joined Tony C. and me on “The Morning Rush” on ESPN
Radio AM 1230 and 102.1 FM. Smith, a large, kindly young man who seems
wiser than his years, was understandably still on Cloud 18 (twice as
high as Cloud 9).
“It hit me,” he said when he signed his name to the document, “that
I have the opportunity to go to the next level and play the game I
love. I thank God. I work hard, I pay attention in practice, I study my
playbook. I love football, and it all came together (Wednesday).”
It all started roughly one year ago to the day he signed, when
Smith, at the urging of Mountain Ridge assistant coach Chad Knippenberg
put together a highlight film from his junior season and, before too
long, was receiving his first offer from Temple University.
“Coach Knippenberg helped me make a highlight tape,” he said, “we
got it out there and the first offer I received was from Temple, and I’m
like, `Oh, wow. I can go do this at the next level.”
More offers came — Syracuse, James Madison, Kent State, Villanova,
Old Dominion, Richmond, Elon and Delaware State. But in the end, Smith
chose Maryland because, “That you can drive there so easily made it
important. It was close to home and I wanted to pick someplace close for
my parents so they can always come see me play.”
Just as former Fort Hill great Ty Johnson had done four years
previously, Smith attended a Maryland camp and received an offer from
the Terps. It was a case of having each other at hello, once Maryland
saw Smith’s size, athleticism and speed, and Smith getting to know and
like the Maryland coaching staff, and College Park, very much.
“The Maryland coaches … They are so chill about anything,” Smith
said. “They will take time to talk to you about personal things; they
are very smart, they talk to you about academics, and they talk to you
about football.
“Nothing is more welcoming than College Park. It’s beautiful, the people are beautiful. That’s why I picked Maryland.”
Once Smith met Maryland head coach Mike Locksley, he discovered
what hundreds of recruits before him have long known. Whatever the “it”
is in being able to connect with aspiring college football players
seeking a home for the next four to five years, Locksley has it.
“I honestly don’t know,” Smith said with a laugh, “but he has it.”
Whatever it is, it worked wonderfully with St. John’s five-star
wide receiver Rakim Jarrett, rated by recruiting services as the No. 2
wide receiver in the national class of 2020 and the No. 20 overall
player. Jarrett was all but sealed and delivered to LSU entering the
early signing period. The only problem for the top-ranked Tigers was he
wasn’t signed.
On Wednesday, Jarrett flipped his verbal commitment to LSU and signed with Maryland.
It was a major get for Locksley and the Terps, and news of
Jarrett’s flip permeated the signing day buzz on a national scale all
day because he was the third-highest rated recruit signed by a Big Ten
school on Wednesday and the first five-star recruit to sign with
Maryland since offensive tackle Damian Price in 2014. The Terps would
finish the day with the No. 27 recruiting class nationally and the No. 6
class in the Big Ten, according to 247 Sports.
“I was following it most of the day,” Smith said, “and when I saw (Jarrett signed with Maryland), I was shell-shocked.”
The Mountain Ridge senior then sheepishly pardoned himself for the
unintended pun, then added, “It’s crazy for me to be part of this
class.”
Smith said he relied on his parents, Tausha and Cleveland Smith,
through the entire process and originally announced his commitment to
Maryland on Sept. 18, his parents’ wedding anniversary.
“I leaned on my parents a lot,” he said. “In fact, I tried not to
listen to anybody but my parents. I had a sit-down with them and the
input they gave me was that this was about what’s best for me. They
guided me, but they stressed, `This is your future. Do what you have to
do.’ ”
One other person, other than his parents, Smith has relied on is
his cousin, Jarrod Harper, the most accomplished player in Mountain
Ridge football history, who went through the same recruiting process
Smith just did before signing with West Virginia where he starred in the
Mountaineers’ secondary.
“I talked to Jarrod after games,” Smith said. “I talked to him
after practices and he told me to be honest with myself about parts of
my performance I wasn’t pleased with. He told me to focus on that in the
next practice, work hard on fixing it and then put it to use in the
next game.”
As hard as Smith has worked since he was in middle school to reach
this point, he understands, beginning with this point, he ain’t seen
nothing yet.
“I’m going to work my butt off,” he said. “I love being in the
weight room. On the field, there is still much more I can learn. I need
to get more versatile with my hands and get better at going sideline to
sideline.”
With a laser-timed 40-yard dash of 4.84 seconds, sideline to sideline shouldn’t be a problem for the 6-foot-3, 300-pound tackle.
“I have to learn to manage my time,’ Smith added. “Time management is a big key in a student-athlete’s life.”
Nobody is going to College Park these days with their eyes closed.
The times have been tough for Maryland football, most recently as this
season, as the Terps finished Locksley’s first season as the head coach
3-9 after winning the first two games of the season. Locksley, however,
is the man Maryland believes will bring in the kind of players and
talent that will remedy the downturn Maryland football has been on.
Smith is not only one of those players, he believes, with a lot of hard
work, brighter days are ahead.
“I believe the recruits coming in now will turn around the program
in 2020,” he said. “We want to get to the postseason bowl games and win
the Big Ten title and, as Coach Locks says all the time, ‘Play as a
family of one.’
“I’ve never had any doubts about Maryland. I trust Maryland. I
trust Coach Locks with my life. I talk to Ty (Johnson). He told me how
good Maryland is.”
Johnson, who graduated from Maryland last December after putting
his name all through the Terps football record books, is currently
playing for the NFL Detroit Lions, which is not lost on Smith, who plans
to major in kinesiology.
“Playing in the NFL has been my goal since I was a little boy,“ he
said “We’re related to (1982 Heisman Trophy winner and former NFL star)
Herschel Walker, so that’s been my dream.”
Smith was also attracted to the Maryland football facilities that
are currently being upgraded, having just taken a construction tour on
one of his last visits.
And, oh, by the way … Smith loves The Maryland Look — the
uniforms, further proving the brand people at Under Armour, the sports
apparel giant which Maryland has been the flagship school for since the
company‘s inception, were spot-on in designing the uniforms with the
players’ likes in mind rather than boosters’ and older (ahem)
supporters’.
“I definitely like them,” he said. “I love how they incorporated the state flag in the uniform.”
When Tre Smith’s name went on that paper on Wednesday and it was
sent to College Park, not only did it make him a Terp, it made him a
member of the legendary Big Ten Conference as well.
“It’s crazy,” Smith said. “I never thought it would happen. In my
opinion, it’s the toughest conference. It’s breathtaking … It’s all like
a dream. I’m still letting it all sink in.
“It’s busy. It’s going to be hectic, so I’ve got to be prepared …
If it’s needed, I’ll hop in in a heartbeat. I think I’ll get some
playing time (as a freshman). I feel I can make an impact.”
Ryan Patterson, who next fall will coach his first game as the
Mountain Ridge head coach without Tre Smith in his program, believes
Smith will be making an impact in a lot of different ways, for a lot of
years to come.
“Tre is one of the rare kids who studies the game and knows and
appreciates the history of the game,” Patterson said. “He has a deep
appreciation for the history of the game and will keep passing it along
to others. And, as a coach, that’s exciting for me.”
Mike Burke writes about sports for Allegany Radio and Pikewood
Digital. He began covering sports for the Prince George’s County
Sentinel in 1981 and joined the Cumberland Times-News sports staff in
1984. He was the sports editor of the Times-News for nearly 30 years.
Contact him at [email protected] or on Twitter @MikeBurkeMDT