'08 NJ ATH Brandon Smith (Michigan Signee)

[osugrad21]

'08 NJ ATH Brandon Smith




Athlete
New Brunswick (NJ) New Brunswick

Ht: 6-foot-3
Wt: 210 lbs
Forty: 4.5 secs
Bench max: 260 pounds
Squat max: 400 pounds
Class: 2008 (High School)

RP Discussion Links: Michigan, Ohio State, WVU, Wisconsin

[osugrad21]

Rivals $ (WVU)

Brandon says he grew up as a Michigan fan but is wide open. He loves WVU's style of play.

[wadc45]

Rivals $

7/5

From the UM site...mostly about his interest in Michigan and his thinking he will still play safety in college. Will take all 5 visits.

[Sette]

Scout.com

Smith thinks Michigan is on another level then all the other schools that have offerd him.

[OSwho?]

He's probably Michigan's #2 target at safety.

Will Hill is #1, but UM's chances for Hill aren't great.

[TheMile]

Scout $

Brandon's Top 5 are Michigan, NC State, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Rutgers.

[cbt]

IMO UMs top saftiy targets are
1. Will Hill
2a. Spencer Adams
2b. Brandon Smith

[osugrad21]

Scout $

Brandon says Michigan and Rutgers have a solid lead but he will not announce until the Army game or NLOID. He would also like to visit Iowa.

[Sette]

Originally Posted by cbt

IMO UMs top saftiy targets are
1. Will Hill
2a. Spencer Adams
2b. Brandon Smith

CoachBT is that you?

[cbt]

Sette- Yes!

[osugrad21]

Originally Posted by cbt

Sette- Yes!

About time...where is SOJ? Jerome?

Get em all over here...

[cbt]

SOJ is on vacation! Will be back at end of week.

[OSwho?]

Let me ask you guys, do you see him as a safety in college?

Honestly, I do not. I think he'd make an excellent WILL or SAM LB'er though, and if he continues to get bigger it's just a natural progression in my eyes. I think he looks a little thicker than Will Hill and I think he's a step slower as well.

Who knows, I could be wrong. But I did like that Michigan took Jonas Mouton and turned him into a linebacker and made him redshirt. I felt like they should've done that with Cato June and Ernest Shazor. They definetly should've redshirted Prescott Burgess. He made such good progression from his Sophomore to Junior to Senior year, that had he redshirted and been back for 2007, I think he would've taken his game to another level.

I think in college you need fast safeties, because great corners are pretty rare to come across and you need guys back at safety that can cover alot of ground and do it fast.

A kid that ND landed, Jamoris Slaughter- would've been perfect for safety in Michigan's system.

Hopefully Stevie Brown shows everybody this year what a safety should look like.

[cbt]

Depends on what system you use. In zone blitz scheme your safeties have to be able to handle deep middle and also be able to rotate into the deep 1/3rd. All Depends on which way you roll your secondary. If you are playing cover 2, or 2 deep safeties your safeties need to be very speedy so they can cover 1/2 the field each. If you are playing 8 man front in either even or odd front, one of your safeties needs to be physical enough to roll into the box and handle both TEs and OTs coming off those nasty combination blocks. And when you get into nickel many of your rules change unless you use one of the zone blitz schemes where all is necessary is to rotate different players into different positions. But Smith does have the needed physical nature to handle WLBer, question is can handle the game moving at faster pace and less time to react. Some kids can and some have problems handling it.