Home Sweet Home: Travis Smith Jr.
The tall WR target chose Tennessee over UGA and Bama on July 13
Travis Smith plays high school ball for Westlake HS in Atlanta. Westlake plays in 7A, the largest classification in Georgia, and went 9-3 in 2023, losing in the second round of the playoffs.
If you listen to Dawg and Tide fans online, they’ll tell you Smith “wasn’t a take” for their programs. But if you’re listening to Dawg and Tide fans online, you’ve already made your first mistake.
Hudl Film
You can view the full film here, and I recommend watching it, the kid makes some fun plays.
I’ll deal with the criticism first. UGA and Bama fans will tell you that Smith doesn’t run well. I think this is an example of what they mean:
Sorry for the poor gif quality, but you can see at the end of the play Smith gets chased down. To be fair, he has to catch the ball, change direction, and try to outrun a defense that in their own right take some pretty nifty pursuit angles. So sure, I guess he’s not running a 4.3 40. But don’t let our barking neighbors to the south let you think he “wasn’t a take” because he doesn’t run well enough.
Even if he’s not the speediest WR you’ve ever seen, there are other parts of his game that stand out. He’s great at going up for a 50/50 or jump ball. There are several examples on his tape, here’s just a couple:
If you watch the full film, you’ll see Smith run a lot of the same kinds of routes that he will be asked to run in UT’s offense: deep choice routes out of a stack, tunnel screens, seam routes, etc. You’ll also see him be a willing blocker, which is paramount in the Heupel offense. Some examples:
Looks like this kid will fit right in at Tennessee.
Maybe Kinda Like
Robert Meachem was a more highly ranked prospect coming out of high school than Smith is, but not by a lot. I left both Da’Rick Rogers and Marquez North off the list because each was probably 20 lbs. heavier than Smith as a prospect, but the height fits pretty well. Overall, the build and rating probably best fit the profiles of Ramel Keyton, who last year wrapped up his Vol career and will enter training Camp with the Raiders this fall as a UFA; and former Vol Preston Williams, who started a handful of games at Tennessee before transferring to Colorado State and eventually playing a few years in the NFL.
As always, this is based on position, size, and recruiting rating. Not a prediction of future results.