Garrison Smith, the 6-foot-3.5, 255-pound four-star defensive tackle/end from Douglass High School in Atlanta, Ga., finished his junior season with a whopping 108 tackles, 27 for loss, 14 sacks and seven fumbles caused. ?I have good quickness off the ball and can change direction well,? Smith said. ?I have great power and play with heart. I love the game!?
He also has some great strength and says he can bench 405-pounds and squat 500.
?I still want to get more fundamentally sound,? he said. ?I?d like to be more disciplined and just be stronger in every part of my game.?
Smith, ranked as the No. 2 defensive tackle in the country by Scout.com, says he has 24 scholarship offers and continues to deny any real favorites. ?I haven?t really been thinking about it,? he said. ?I haven?t narrowed down my list or anything.
?I?m going to be talking it all over with my parents and we?re gonna see what everyone has to offer,? he said. ?I want a program that is solid and has great coaches and players that I can get along with.
?As long as I?m playing football and getting an education I?ll play in any environment, anywhere,? he said. ?I don?t care if it?s a big city, a college town, hot or cold.?
But one thing that will matter to Smith is his faith. ?I want God to help guide me to make the right decision,? he said. ?I give all the glory to God and my Christian faith is very important to me and that?s something I?ll be looking to see at the schools as well.?
In fact, that?s one thing positive point that he?s heard about
Ohio State. ?I?ve heard they have a lot of Christian-faith players,? he said. ?That?s a plus.? The Buckeyes have offered but Smith?s never been to Columbus.
He?s been to junior days at
Georgia,
Tennessee and
Alabama and those are the only schools Smith?s visited. All have offered as well as
LSU,
Oklahoma,
Florida,
Ole Miss,
Auburn,
Florida State,
Georgia Tech,
North Carolina State,
North Carolina and
Clemson, among others.
?The Georgia Junior Day was really good,? Smith said. ?They are very high intensity and I love how hard they practice.
?Coach
Mark Richt is a good man and a great guy,? he said. ?His players really respect him and he?s just so cool. He?s really involved with his players and is available to talk to and wants to help them grow as people and as players.?
But Smith is equally generous with praise for the new Tennessee coaches. ?They are really smart,? he said. ?They are so focused on winning and you just know they are going to succeed.
?The coaches at Tennessee are also pretty intense,? he said. ?Coach
Lane Kiffin gets really fired up and he really knows how to motivate you. Off the field he?s a normal guy, but when it?s about football he?s totally different.?
Another coach who made a positive impression on Smith during his Junior Day experience was
Nick Saban of Alabama. ?He?s doing great there,? he said.
?I love the history and tradition of Alabama,? he said. ?I love learning about the history of college football and Alabama with coach
Bear Bryant was the best. Now it seems like coach Saban is building his own history there.?
Despite his love for college football, Smith says he never followed a specific team while growing up. ?There were too many to just have one,? he said. ?I just love watching football and no one really stood out.?
His parents don?t have a preference either. ?They?ll help me, but they don?t have a favorite school,? he said.
Smith says he used to throw shot (51?) but stopped to focus on football. ?I pretty much stopped playing other sports because I wanted to dedicate myself to football,? he said.
Don?t expect Smith to be narrowing down his list any time soon either as he doesn?t anticipate being able to attend any camps this summer. ?I have a job and I?ll be too busy working,? he said. ?I work at Six Flags and run the games there. It?s fun but I don?t have a lot of extra time.
?I?m just gonna take recruiting day-by-day,? he said.
Smith says he?d like to major in business and reports a 3.5 core GPA and a 1280 SAT