It was love at first sight, sound and everything else for five-star receiver recruit and new Longhorn Jake Smith.
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The standout wideout has always been committed to playing at Texas, saying he fell in love with UT as soon as he went to watch the spring game last year.
“I fell in love with the atmosphere, the fans, the culture, the program, the campus, the barbecue, Bevo — pretty much everything all at once,” Smith said. “I knew after that day this is where I had to be.”
Two character traits define Smith — five-star wide receiver recruit Jake Smith — his extreme athleticism and excellent work ethic.
“Hard work will always beat talent when talent fails to work hard. Jake is a great example of that,” his head coach at Notre Dame Prep, George Prelock, said of Smith.
As far as his athleticism goes, it’s come quite naturally to him and and a result, football
is not the only sport in which he has dominated in over his high school career.
As a sophomore, Smith was looking for a spring sport to play that would allow him to better his endurance, hand-eye coordination and physicality across the board, and to make him a better player on the gridiron.
“Lacrosse seemed like the perfect fit,” Prelock said.
It proved to be, as Smith not only became a better athlete, but led the Notre Dame Prep Lacrosse team to two consecutive state titles as the squad’s leading scorer.
In addition, Prelock says that when he took over as the head varsity coach, he was told that Smith was a good football player, but even better at baseball.
“He came in and everyone thought, ‘Is he going to play all four years of football?’ Because at the pace he was going, a lot of people said by his senior year he would have already been drafted for baseball,” says Prelock. “Then if you asked Jake, his best sport was soccer.”
As a result, playing all three of those sports not only added to his skill set, but also increased his tremendous work ethic.
Texas fans and coaches alike should be encouraged by the fact that Smith’s great work ethic can translate directly into improvement and big numbers.
According to Prelock, the area in which he has developed the most over the course of his senior season is on his routes and ball framing. However, those skills were not improved by just showing up for practice and games — they were enhanced over many hours of voluntary workouts and taking time to better his skills.
“He’s worked extremely hard and done certain things to make sure his hand-eye coordination is outstanding,” Prelock said. “There was one point in the season when he was dropping some passes in practice, which as a competitor that upsets you. So he took a tennis ball and began training with it, because he figured, ‘If I can frame a tennis ball, I can absolutely frame a football.’”
What’s more impressive, is his knack for consistently having big games.
Current Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Christian Kirk grew up in the Scottsdale area and as a senior, posted 1,000 yards rushing and 1,000 yards receiving on his way to a scholarship at Texas A&M.
Smith did that as a junior. He brought his stats up to an even higher level this past season on his way to the Gatorade National Player of the Year award, earned as an important leader on a team that had just two returning starters.
“He was really instrumental in not only producing on the field, but making those around him really be able to have their moment to step up to the plate,” Prelock recalled.
Smith also is one of those athletes that held himself to a higher standard than what was expected, always striving to become stronger, faster and at that elite level that makes the top recruits stand out for the rest.
“After practice, he’s staying after for 30 minutes to throw with the quarterback,” Prelock remembered. “In the offseason, he did some competitive camps just because of the notoriety he got after his junior year presented him with the opportunity to face the best competition the country had to offer.”
In addition, because of the long seasons Notre Dame Prep has put together due to successful playoff runs and how much endurance a player needs at the end of a 14-game season, Smith believes his experiences will help him during the longer seasons at Texas.
“I’m used to going out there every day now for over six months, because of our successful seasons, so I’ll be ready to endure long and tiring practices everyday,” Smith said
As Smith heads to campus to join a very young wide receiver unit which is highlighted by returning veteran Collin Johnson, who will be a senior, there is no doubt that this electrifying athlete can contribute in big ways very soon.
Not only will Smith be contending for a large amount of playing time and should be a key in future seasons at wideout, he also hopes to see time in the backfield as a running back.
This freshman is every coach’s dream, an athlete who is versatile, hard-working and without a doubt a leader.
As Prelock put it, “He’s competitive, likes a challenge and works extremely hard. When you have that and you’re driven, the sky’s the limit.”
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