Our Honor Defend

This seventh installment of the third edition of this now 19-part series titled Better Know A Buckeye continues chronologically, considering the case of Roderick Smith.  The Fort Wayne, Indiana tailback prospect is considered to be one of the headliners of the class.  He is a big tall bruising back and always thought of himself as a Big Ten-type football player.  He realized that he would be a perfect as a Buckeye, given the strong legacy of tailbacks at Ohio State embodied further in Tressel’s run-intensive approach to offense.  A commitment followed on July 1, 2009.  This feature proceeds in usual fashion hereafter.

Height: 6’3
Weight: 220lbs
40: 4.5
High School: Harding HS; Fort Wayne, Indiana

His Recruitment: Indiana is treated as a basketball state, not a football state.  Nevertheless, the star tailback for Fort Wayne’s Harding HS team got some buzz after a junior season that culminated in 1475 yards.  Impressive as that is, it’s arguably a disappointment for Smith.  He had tallied over 3,000 yards in his freshman and sophomore years, with 1,885 of that coming as a freshman.  He was already threatening to obliterate the school and conference records and potentially challenge for the state record.  The three year stretch got the interest of some programs around the country, including Iowa, who extended an early offer.  The Buckeyes were interested as well.

I’ve gathered that the Buckeyes’ continued interest in Smith was contingent on finding out whether he had other important things in order.  Once they were assured that everything else was set, the Buckeyes began recruiting him hard.  It was not too hard for the Buckeyes to be interested in Smith, nor for Smith to listen to the Buckeyes.  As a guy from the Hoosier state, complete with Midwest sentiments, the regional power is obviously an attraction.  Smith had also visited Ohio State before his recruitment began in earnest, coming to town for the 2008 Ohio State-Minnesota game.  On the other side of things, Doc Tressel apparently felt that he had just scouted one of the best tailbacks in the country upon receiving and viewing his highlight reel.  Already February of 2009, the Buckeyes told Smith that they were very likely going to offer.  In the middle of March, they did.  The offer was an exciting one for Smith and, for all intents and purposes, put Ohio State on top of his list with indications that a commitment was now forthcoming.  It was not, but the courtship would continue.  The next step, identified by the coaching staff, was to remain in contact.

This took the form of coming to town for the 2009 spring game, the exhibition that resulted in some media attention for the enormous turnout.  He came back with positive reviews of the experience, as interested recruits often do.  “I’ve never seen anything like it,” he noted.  He attended the exhibition with his father, who was also enamored with what he saw.  The atmosphere amidst the 2009 NFL Draft, as well as the discussions with the coaching staff before the game had Smith admitting that it was difficult not to commit immediately.  No commitment immediately came, but it was clear that this was now Ohio State against the field as Smith identified July as a target date for a commitment.  For the meantime, he kept a “recruiting diary” (1, 2) with Bucknuts to record his thoughts.

His Commitment: It was July 1st and, true to his words, Smith ultimately committed to Ohio State.  Ohio State had been his leader for a while and, in terms of an offer sheet, it is difficult to imagine a better offer for which he could feasibly wait.  Seeing no point in belaboring the issue further, he committed in July.

Smith’s HS coach offered the following regarding the “landslide” decision for Ohio State in an interview with Bucknuts The Magazine:

Well, he was partial to Ohio State before the recruiting even started because he’s been an Ohio State fan,” Haydock explained. “When he was an incoming freshman, we took a 7-on-7 team over there and I happened to mention to one of their coaches, ‘Hey, this kid is going to be pretty good.’ And then we went over there the next year, too. So, they got to see him live as a 14-year-old and then a 15-year-old and then he went to one of their one-day camps (in 2008) and they got hooked on him because they got to see him and talk to him and not just base everything off of film.

“Well, once Ohio State started showing their interest, everybody else in the Big Ten jumped in in a hurry. But because of his interest in Ohio State, we didn’t push him to wait and see how many scholarship offers he could get because he knew where he wanted to go.

“It was never about the attention. He decided early that he wanted to be a Big Ten guy and he wanted to go to Ohio State. Ohio State offered in the spring and he didn’t accept right away because he wanted to make sure. Michigan State was also in the running, but finally he said, ‘I want to get this over with and I know I want to go to Ohio State.’ ”

Ohio State’s previous efforts made Smith, the seventh commitment of the 2010 class, the lone tailback in the class to join the likes of Jaamal Berry, Jordan Hall, Brandon Saine, and Dan Herron in the Buckeye tailback stable.  This ignores Carlos Hyde (which I do for the sake of this series), who is technically part of the 2010 class as well as Corey Brown 2010, who was a tailback prospect for other programs but should be a wide receiver for the Buckeyes.  The rich definitely get richer with the addition of Roderick Smith.

Where He Excels: I have read just about every comparison conceivable for Roderick Smith.  He has been likened to Adrian Peterson, Beanie Wells, Eddie George, Robert Smith, the late Ricky Bell, Darren McFadden, Brandon Jacobs and so on.  In short: he’s big, he’s tall, and he fairly fast (sic | origin).  I’m disinclined to use these comparisons, though I will permit that the Robert Smith and Eddie George comparisons are probably the most accurate of the bunch.

Smith surprised me with how well he runs on film.  You see a guy that is 6’3 and 220lbs on paper, playing in area where the level of competition is probably not that great, and think that he’s relying on brute strength to run over people and that it probably will not translate immediately to the next level.  Instead, his film highlights a guy who runs pretty low at the line of scrimmage.  For a tall back, he does not appear to have a strong case of running high.  In short, you would think he is 5’11, not 6’3.  Very nice.

Further, you probably would not think that a guy his size can be shifty.  He is not what we expect out of Jaamal Berry, but he surprises here as well.  He demonstrates a cutback ability, lateral agility, awareness at the line of scrimmage and balance that will definitely leave the viewer intrigued for the possibilities of what his frame will allow him to accomplish with those tools.  To be honest, it will not immediately translate to the next level.  I am expecting most of this shiftiness/elusiveness to show when Smith is a senior.  Nevertheless, the force that can be generated from all of the above naturally has Buckeye fans excited that they have found the optimal tailback for what Tressel likes to do under normal circumstances.

Must Work On: I do not claim to be an expert on Indiana football, but I do have some reservations about the quality of competition he played.  Most high school football everywhere is pretty bad, but a more battle-tested prospect is likely to make a bigger immediate impact.  It is worth seeing if this is Roderick Smith.

Elsewhere, I do not think Smith really appreciates what he has.  That is, I do not think he quite knows how to use it yet.  He is big and powerful, but does not run that way most of the time.  You will not see a lot of leverage and lowered shoulders in his high school footage and he struggles to pick up his feet through the line.  He will absolutely need to correct the last point.  Surprisingly, he gets ankle tripped a lot for this guy his size (underdeveloped lower body) and generates his power from his upper body, which is generally a no-no.

Negative as this sounds, consider the following observation from Smith’s HS coach.  I found it intriguing.

“When he does have a weakness – which he doesn’t any longer – he works at it extremely hard. He’s been starting since he was a freshman and when he was a freshman he had a little bit of a fumbling problem, but he doesn’t fumble any more.

“He’s still a baby a little bit. And what I mean by baby is that he’s never been in the weight room 12 months out of the year because he’s a basketball player also. He’s still 220 pounds and is strong and benches 300 and squat near 500. So, when he gets in the weight room consistently and eats three good meals a day, he’s going to be about a 240-pound back.”

Smith has a way to go, but the ceiling, I think, is very high for a guy who will fully commit to football and maintaining a football player’s body for the first time.

Redshirt? Someone is going to have to redshirt next year if everyone remains healthy through the 2010 season.  Saine will be a senior and Herron a junior.  Jordan Hall will be a true sophomore for whom the possibility of a redshirt has already been rumormongered.  Jaamal Berry has already used his redshirt, so will have to work his way into the tailback picture.  Carlos Hyde and Roderick Smith are both viable options for a redshirt.  Hyde will probably be ahead of the curve, having the added year of physical maturity, additional time with the Buckeyes’ coaching staff and the season of postgrad military academy football.  If I had to guess, Smith redshirts in 2010 unless he demonstrates in the summer why the coaching staff would be foolish to do so.

Highlights: I believe the junior year film is all you are going to find.

He also discusses his commitment during his signing day ceremony below.

Miscellany:

• Harding is in the same conference (Summit Athletic Conference) as Bishop Luers, the high school of incoming Buckeye shooty hoopster DeShaun Thomas.  Smith, who also played basketball as one of his three sports, battled Thomas throughout high school.  You can watch some footage here.
• The previous school record for career rushing yards was 3,899 yards.  Smith had 3,085 yards after his sophomore season.  His 6,655 career rushing yards broke the school and conference records, but fell short of the area record (7,303) and state record (7,560).
• Track was his other sport.  He apparently had a long jump of 23 feet, which, for a guy his size, is kinda scary.  I ran cross country, not track; true perspective eludes me.  However, a quick comparison to results in my current state of Alabama suggests that Smith’s feat would make him a state champion down here.
• Smith acquired offers from places like Michigan State, Tennessee, Iowa, Purdue and Michigan before choosing the Buckeyes.
• Smith was a two-way player as most really good HS players tend to be.  He also played safety for the Harding Hawks and recounted a performance against conference foe Snider.

“My best game this year was against (Fort Wayne) Snider,” Smith said. “I only had 105 rushing yards, but I had about nine tackles, a forced fumble and some hard hits. I played well at running back and strong safety that night.”

• He has a younger brother, Jaylon, who is just beginning high school.
• Favorite NBA team is the Atlanta Hawks and favorite player is Joe Johnson.  He says that LeBron James is his second favorite player, but will probably have to adjust his preferences when he enters a state where the King is king.
• Smith is called “Roderick” and “Rod” interchangeably.  I was kind of hoping that I would be yelled at by a family member again for using one over the other¹.
• Pre-compiled stats, courtesy of Bucknuts:

* Vital Statistics: Smith is one of the most prolific rushers in Indiana high school history. In his four-year career at Harding, Smith had 1,000 carries for 6,655 yards. As a senior, Smith had 1,855 yards on 285 carries (6.5 average) with 19 touchdowns. As a junior, he rushed for 1,200 yards and 14 scores. He benches 300 pounds and can squat 400.

* Rankings: Smith is rated as a national top-150 prospect by ESPN.com. That site ranks him as the nation’s No. 56 prospect overall and also as the nation’s seventh-best cornerback. SuperPrep considers Smith as an All-American, ranking him as the 11th-best prospect in the Midwest and the nation’s No. 11 running back.

I think Roderick Smith is now better known, or something.

He will now be put on the board accordingly.

Class of 2010
Name	Position	Hometown	Better Known?	Name	Position	Hometown	Better Known?
Darryl Baldwin	DE	Solon, OH		James Louis	WR	Delray Beach, FL
Drew Basil	K	Chillicothe, OH		Scott McVey	LB	Cleveland, OH	05.03
Corey Brown 2010	ATH	Springfield, PA		JT Moore	DE	Youngstown, OH	02.15
Christian Bryant	DB	Cleveland, OH		Andrew Norwell	OL	Cincinnati, OH	03.29
David Durham	LB/DE	Charlotte, NC	04.12	Verlon Reed	ATH	Columbus, OH
Taylor Graham	QB	Wheaton, IL	05.08	Bradley Roby	DB	Suwanee, GA
Adam Griffin	ATH	Columbus, OH		Roderick Smith	RB	Fort Wayne, IN	05.13
Chad Hagan	LB/S	Canonsburg, PA		Jamel Turner	DE	Fork Union, VA	03.08
Johnathon Hankins	DT	Detroit, TSUN		Tyrone Williams	WR	Cleveland, OH
Carlos Hyde	RB	Naples, FL	06.29.09

1. This is, by far, my proudest moment on the blog. [↩]