The 6-foot-5, 205-pound receiver from Southeast Missouri State arrived to Clemson at 2 a.m., just six hours ahead of his scheduled Dec. 16 recruiting visit. He flew from El Paso to Dallas, and Dallas to Atlanta, then drove the rest.
He then watched the Tigers practice for their first-round playoff game with Texas, seeing his future quarterback, Cade Klubnik, s
Before he knew it, Smith was in Dabo Swinney’s office, getting a pitch that really didn’t need to be sold that hard. Smith is a late bloomer who stood just under 6-feet ahead of his 11th-grade year at LaGrange (Ga.) High. He sprouted as a senior but took the junior college route when his grades lagged behind.
But he made it into Swinney’s office. He hadn’t even left Clemson’s facility yet when he gave this interview Monday evening, recounting how he became Swinney’s first non-backup quarterback transfer in the “portal” era.
“Everything (Swinney) was saying, it felt like he cared so much about my story and everything that I came from, everything I overcame,” Smith said. “I started crying a little bit because not too many people where I’m from get this far.
“I told him this is what I wanted to do. This is the place I want to be. There’s no other questions. I’m not going on no other visits. I said, ‘Coach, I want to come here. I want to come to Clemson.'”
With that, Smith was making a bit of a splash for a program that has barely dipped a toe into the transfer portal.
Ahead of the 2022 and 2023 seasons, the Tigers added reserve quarterbacks Hunter Johnson and Paul Tyson. Ahead of this season, Clemson was the only non-military academy not to add a single transfer.
