Smith talks Stanford commitment
Back in early April, 2014, Stanford extended its first scholarship of the 2016 class to a then-sophomore tight end from Texas, Kaden Smith.
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A little more than a year later, Smith took the Cardinal up on its offer.
The top tight end prospect committed to Stanford on Saturday morning while on a campus visit.
Smith initially planned to visit The Farm last week to partake in the program's Junior Day, but was forced to postpone his trip after getting sick. The extra week may have been just what Stanford needed to gain the four-star prospect's commitment.
"I had to cancel my trip last week because I got sick, so I moved it to this weekend," Smith said. "And last week I wasn't really sure if I was ready or not, but after Friday and hanging out with the players and seeing the coaches another time, it kind of assured me I wanted to commit there."
Smith's commitment wasn't an impulsive decision, however. Far from it, in fact. He's been high on the Cardinal for some time.
"I've been thinking about it for a while," Smith said. "I think I might have been leaning toward Stanford for a quite a while but I was just waiting to pull that commitment. The only thing that kind of slowed me down was the admissions process but I'm not too worried about that."
Smith arrived in the Bay Area for his visit - his fifth to The Farm - on Friday.
"First, I stayed with a player, Austin Hooper," Smith said. "We went to his class and I hung out with him for a while. We went out to eat with a couple of other players. Just hanging with the guys, it was great."
"Saturday I stayed with Dalton Schultz and almost did the same thing with him, hung out, went and hung out with some football players."
Smith informed Stanford's coaches of his decision on Saturday morning a few minutes before announcing his choice over Twitter.
He first told his future position coach, Morgan Turner, before informing the rest of the coaching staff.
"I just got done eating breakfast and so I went up to the coaches' offices," Smith said. "I was talking to Coach Turner before the spring game after they had meetings. I just wanted to let him know that I was interested and wanted to commit to Stanford, so we went around and told the other coaches and they were pumped."
Smith and Turner stopped the offices of David Shaw, Mike Bloomgren and Tavita Pritchard to share the news. Bloomgren's reaction was particularly memorable.
"They were all pretty excited," Smith said. "Coach Bloomgren went crazy for a bit, it was pretty cool."
Ultimately, Stanford's academic opportunities and frequent use of the tight end were among the factors that proved too difficult to pass up.
"They had the best education i was looking for," Smith said. "They use multiple tight ends in a game, three, maybe four next year. And just the campus life, it is great, something that I'm looking for."
Smith saw evidence of Stanford's emphasis on the tight end position firsthand during the Cardinal's spring game. Hooper led Stanford in catches and receiving yards.
"(During the spring game I saw that) definitely that they'll use them," Smith said "They obviously didn't show a ton of stuff because it was just the spring game but they got the tight end the ball a lot."
Due to Stanford's talent at the position, Smith might wait a year after arriving on campus to be a part of the Cardinal's gameday offense.
"It's kind of early but I think I'll redshirt because they'll have four tight ends and I think it's best if I redshirt," he said.
Smith has been in touch with a number of Stanford's other 2016 commits and prospects. Now that he's committed, he'll do a bit of recruiting himself.
"I know quite a few of the guys and I've been talking to some of the uncommitted kids who are interested in Stanford," Smith said. "And Stanford's high on a lot of kids' lists so I'm interested in seeing how it all turns out. Yeah, I'll help recruit."
Smith received a copy of the Stanford application on his visit. He plans to work on it this spring and to submit it "by summer so I find out if I'm in during the summer."
The Rivals 250 prospect has not yet decided what other visits he will take before Signing Day.
"I'm not really sure yet," he said. "I haven't talked to my parents about that yet. But when the time comes I'll probably figure it out."
Smith does know that, in the midst of a recruiting process that began in his freshman year of high school (Clemson offered him in the spring of his freshman year), he's glad to have his college commitment behind him.
"It feels really good," Smith said. "Since I've been doing the recruiting process since freshman year I was kind of getting tired of it. I knew where I wanted to go."