Relationships and loyalty matter to Sam Smith, Jr.
So the Wauseon wide receiver decided he didn’t want to waste anybody’s time or efforts to woo him. At 10:27 a.m. Sunday, he made his college decision Twitter official by sending a tweet affirming his commitment to the University of Toledo, becoming the first member of UT’s 2023 recruiting class.
“I wanted to show them that this is the place I want to be,” Smith said. “I could have maybe gotten Big Ten offers or gone to a bigger Power Five school, but Toledo is the right place — the location, the academics, and the athletics. It helps that I really believe that they believe in me and will put me in the right position to make plays.”
The 6-foot-4, 205-pound Smith, a junior, is a quarterback’s dream, complete with size, athleticism, and hands that make him one of the best pass-catchers in northwest Ohio. In 2021, he had 36 receptions for 727 yards and nine touchdowns, helping lead Wauseon to an 8-4 season and a 41-7 first-round playoff upset of Wooster Triway.
Smith had 11 catches for 290 yards and three touchdowns in Wauseon’s two playoff games, including six catches for 220 yards and three touchdowns against Triway.
“Sam has a great frame on him,” Wauseon coach Shawn Moore said. “His size is going to be right up there with anyone who’s playing Division I football. He’s been working on adding some weight. The combination of speed and size is really exceptional, and he’s only going to get better.”
The overtures from Toledo began after Smith attended a UT camp last summer. Recruiting coordinator Ricky Ciccone was the first person to reach out, then wide receivers coach Kevin Beard and quarterbacks coach Robert Weiner got involved. Smith took an unofficial visit to Toledo and eventually connected with head coach Jason Candle.
Toledo was Smith’s only official offer, although he attended camps at Miami, Ohio, and Eastern Michigan, and he visited Akron. The biggest competition for the Rockets came from an FCS school with barely 5,000 undergraduate students: Harvard University.
Smith, a 4.0 student who scored a 29 on the ACT and plans to major in engineering, visited the Cambridge, Mass., campus, but the pull of FBS football and Toledo’s output of NFL players was too much to pass up.
“Toledo checks off all the boxes, academically and athletically,” Smith said. “Their coaches are top-notch. They started really early on me, so I have some really good relationships.”
A position change could be in the offing for Smith, who is open to playing safety or outside linebacker. With his size, he could also be a lethal tight end, although his No. 1 preference is to be a downfield vertical threat at wide receiver.
Those details will be ironed out once he arrives in Toledo sometime in 2023. Until then, Smith is thankful that he doesn’t have to spend the summer of 2022 attending football camps. Instead, he can concentrate on working out in the weight room, making Wauseon the team to beat in the NWOAL, and preparing for the future at UT.
“Toledo for me,” Smith said, “is the perfect fit.”
First Published February 14, 2022, 9:47 p.m.
