South Sumter LB makes it official

Every year there's a story of a sleeper recruit that comes to Florida State's camp and blows away the Seminole coaching staff, gets a scholarship offer and then commits.

This year there were two such stories.

Cairo, Georgia wide receiver Cameron Wade didn't even wait until the camp was over to make his verbal commitment to the Seminoles. It took linebacker Kendall Smith a couple more days to pull the trigger but he did finally make it official over the weekend.

"I told them I'm committed, I went ahead and committed," Smith told Warchant.com. "It's exciting because it's always been a dream and I grew up a Florida State fan. I understand how their defense is. They have a good defense every year and I want to be a part of it."

The South Sumter linebacker selected FSU over schools like Alabama, Tennessee, Iowa State, UCF and USF.

Even though the first team all-state defender says he is firm in his decision to sign with FSU, he still wants to check out a few out-of-state schools.

"I want to visit other places because I've only been outside of Florida once and that was when I was younger," Smith said. "I want to visit Alabama, I want to go to Georgia, and probably Tennessee. I want to see how it is outside of Florida."

The hard-hitting linebacker really caught the attention of the FSU coaching staff when he turned in a blistering 4.48 40-time during last week's football camp. Smith also excelled in all the linebacker drills and made several big plays in 7-on-7 against the offense. The day after the camp, he received an offer from linebackers coach Kevin Steele through one of his teachers.

Gene Williams is the founder and administrator of Warchant.com and writes stories and features covering all of FSU's sports with an emphasis on football and football recruiting. During football season, he hosts a weekly sports radio show in Tallahassee on NewsRadio 1270 WFLA, and appears as a weekly guest on 1460 ESPN Radio in Jacksonville. Williams is also a former ACC correspondent for College Football News (weekly national newspaper), and contributes to The Osceola. Story about Gene Williams & Warchant.comClick During his junior season at South Sumter, Smith led the Raider defense with 148 tackles (98 solo), 18 tackles for loss and three sacks. Smith said he will likely play weak-side (Will) linebacker at Florida State.Here to view this Link..

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