He was a defensive anchor for a pair of Lousia County football teams that went undefeated in the last two regular seasons and have won back-to-back-to-back Jefferson District championships. The 2018 JD defensive player of the year has been one the top recruits in both the state and country for quite some time, drawing offers from Alabama, Texas A&M and Clemson to name a few — the kind of offers that mean you can pretty much play whereever you want. This spring Brandon Smith settled in with a verbal commitment to Penn State. With some hard work in the classroom, the Lions senior is now set to graduate at the end of December and enroll a semester early in Happy Valley.
“I’m very excited to start the next chapter of my life,” Smith said. “Spending these last few moments in this high school, it really means a lot.”
On Tuesday surrounded by friends, family and coaches, one of the Central Virginia’s most decorated football players, a All-State Class 4A selection and the 2018 Gatorade State Player of the Year, closed the book on what’s been a tediously long recruiting trail. With the ink dry on his National Letter of Intent on Wednesday morning as part of the NCAA’s latest move up of the signing period for football players, Smith made it official with the Nittany Lions. He’s finally one of them now.
“Hitting the ground running and easing into it is the biggest difference between starting in the summer and enrolling early,” Smith said.
Measuring in at 6-foot-5 and 235 pounds, Smith was the linebacking treasure in the state and fittingly enough, now winds up at the school widely known since the 1980’s as “Linebacker U.” From Matt Millen to Lavar Arrington to Paul Posluszny, the program is synonymous with big name linebackers. By enrolling early, Smith will get a multi-credit head start on his academic career, giving him some flexibility going forward and time to get well acquainted with life as a student athlete instead of just getting thrown into the mix from summer training camp into the fall semester. It also means he can practice with the team during the spring and get a feel for how he fits into what Penn State coach James Franklin and his staff have designed for him.
“I’m ready to start and to try and put my name up there with the greats (at Penn State),” Smith said.
After a strong sophomore season where Smith helped Louisa to an 8-3 record, he became a highly-regarded recruit across just about every single Division 1 program in the country. As a junior, the linebacker helped to lead the Lions to a 14-1 Class 4A runner up campaign. This year as a senior the five star recruit racked up 135 tackles and was the catalyst for a team that was retooling at about every position except his own. Louisa cruised to an 11-0 record before falling in the Region 4D semifinals to Eastern View.
“There are 33 of these five star recruits in the country and to have one at Louisa County, coaching Brandon, man, it’s been a lot of fun,” said Louisa coach Will Patrick. “I think he left a work ethic behind for these kids — that’s the thing, it’s a thing about Brandon that a lot of people don’t realize between the accolades, all the media attention, being such a good player but it’s the Tuesday’s at the end of practices when we’re running wind sprints, he’s always out front. Always.”
While much of the 2018 season was about turning the page from a massive senior class that paved the way to a magical run in 2017. Smith’s transition to college now appears to officially mark the beginning of a new chapter of Louisa football. The good news for coach Will Patrick is that while filling Smith’s absence is near impossible, his play in the last three years set the kind of precedent programs are proud to have. Smith’s senior year sets the bar awfully high. It’s now up to the next wave of athletes in Mineral to try and match or outdo Smith’s high school accomplishments. Obviously that’s much easier said than done.
“The rising seniors they’ve seen what he’s done,” Patrick said. “The generations to come are going to try and follow him, the five star recruit from Louisa County that’s going on to Penn State and that did it the right way, worked hard on and off the field, in the classroom. It just shows you that whether you’re playing at a huge 6A program in Virginia Beach, Florida or Texas or some small podunk school in Virginia, if you can play and work hard, you will be found. These schools will find you.”
