Last week, I had the pleasure of talking with Greg Smith’s dad, Mr. Greg Smith. Mr. Smith told me about Greg, the process of choosing Jacksonville State, and of Greg’s younger brother, Garrison Smith.
Greg earned his undergraduate degree already at Georgia Tech. As talented as he is on the football field, you must take note of his achievements in the classroom. This has given Greg an advantage in diving into the playbook for JSU. Greg is in Graduate School at JSU now, pursuing an advanced degree.
After looking at Jacksonville State and Portland State, Greg chose to transfer to Jacksonville State. In his sophomore year, Greg led Georgia Tech in receptions and yards for Coach Chan Gailey. The next season, with Coach Paul Johnson coming in and changing the offense, Greg was moved to running back.
Greg has the talent and the ability to move on to the next level. He wanted to transfer to a program he could play without sitting out a year. The choice narrowed down to Portland State and Jacksonville State. The Portland State trip was nice. They met with Head Coach Jerry Glanville. He is quite a character. He used to be the head coach for the Houston Oilers and Atlanta Falcons. They throw the ball over 90% of the time because they use the “Run & Shoot” Offense. Portland State is a 4-hour plane ride though. Then another 4 hours back home. Also, Offensive Coordinator Mouse Davis retired June 1st of this year, so they will have a new coach calling the offense.
Jacksonville State offered another choice closer to home. It’s a talented team this year. It’s just a short drive. It allows the Smith’s to see Greg play several times this year and see his younger brother play his senior year of high school, too. After visiting the campus and talking with the coaches, JSU became the obvious choice.
I also had the opportunity to meet Greg’s younger brother, Garrison (pictured here with Mr. Smith). Garrison is entering his senior year at Douglass High in Atlanta. Heavily recruited, Garrison is the #2 rated defensive tackle in the nation. Garrison was in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution last week as they did a special section on the top 11 prep football players in Georgia. After getting many offers, including offers from Alabama, Florida, Florida State, Oklahoma, LSU, and USC; Garrison recently verbally committed to UGA. Congratulations to Garrison and the Smith Family.
We are extremely glad to have Greg Smith here at JSU. We’ve seen over the past two Saturday scrimmages a 54-yard and a 60-yard touchdown reception. Greg brings speed, work ethic, leadership, ability and attitude to JSU. He will be a great asset to the team. We wish him the best for this season, and at the next level.
It says a lot about Coach Crowe, Coach Letson and our WR coach when G. Smith came here despite our APR issues. I hate RP is going to be suspended for the Tech game as I know Smith was looking forward to that. I guess I should be proud of the fact that JSU holds its players to higher disciplinary standards than peer institutions, but it doesn't seem to be getting us anywhere. In any event, I think fans are going to be pleasantly surprised to see that we have two very good quarterbacks behind RP.
ReplyDeleteIvory never lost a high school game and was probably JSU's most highly recruited player in 07. He would have started in his first game for JSU, but for RP transferring. Ivory is being pushed by Brooks Robinson. Don't let his pigmentation fool you, he is one of the fastest players on the team and possesses a good arm. I'd love to see the coaches figure out 5-10 plays each of these guys run to perfection and work both of them into the gameplan.