Ohio defensive end Tyreke Smith is one of the best in the nation at his position.
The Irish football recruiting season is really heating up.
They’ve offered many defensive end recruits lately so I thought I’d reach out to one of the highest ranked recruits, at the position, on their board – Tyreke Smith, to see where he’s at with his recruitment and how things are coming along with Notre Dame.
Recently, the Irish sent Tyreke an edit on social media.
https://twitter.com/T_23_baller/status/837096899161243652
“It was nice. It was cool. I’m always trying to post edits and show love to the school. Notre Dame has been recruiting me hard,” Smith told me, regarding the edit Notre Dame sent him.
Tyreke Smith was living in Corona, California before moving back to Ohio.
“I had moved to California and I was playing out there. I moved my 7th grade year. I started 8th grade out here but I didn’t play football. I was mainly a basketball player. I didn’t really know the football teams out here.”
“My dad’s parents were sick so we had to move out here and help them.”
Smith explained to me how he played football with a few other recruits the Irish have recruited and are recruiting now, while in California.
“I played with Manuel Allen, Tyjon Lindsay and a lot of those kids out there.”
Previous to becoming one of the biggest names in Ohio high school football, Tyreke Smith was mostly known to be a basketball player. He explained how he got back into football.
“I started playing basketball and it just stuck with me, and then the football coach asked me to come out and give it a try. I used to love football so I went back out there. It came to me so easy. It kind of all fell back into place.”
Smith is also a talented tight end. I asked him if any schools are recruiting him at that position. Here’s what he had to say.
“Some schools are at camps and stuff. I broke my leg at the beginning of the season so I missed 4 games. I came back and played 4 more. The coaches wanted me to focus on one position to not put so much pressure on my leg, so I just focused on defensive end.”
“This season, I’ll play more tight end and we’ll see how it goes cause I didn’t get to play tight end that much this season.”
As a two-sport athlete, Smith explained to me how he balances both sports in order to keep improving his skill set.
“I’m in basketball season right now, but, I mean, I’m still working on my football skills. I look forward, after the basketball season, to getting in the gym and taking my skills to another level, my on the field and off the field skills. I’m excited for my senior season.”
Considering he has played considerably more basketball than football, I asked Smith which sport is his favorite or most important to him.
“Football is definitely my biggest sport. I’m probably always going to play basketball but football is definitely my main sport.”
I then asked Smith which schools are recruiting him the hardest. He explained.
“Definitely Ohio State,” he said with a laugh.
“They don’t want me to get out of the state, that’s what they keep telling me. They definitely hit me up every single day. So them, Georgia has been recruiting me pretty hard. Oregon, ever since they hopped on, they haven’t stopped. Penn State has been recruiting me hard. Penn State too.”
“Ohio State hits me up about 5 or 6 times a day.”
Notre Dame is also in close contact. He told me about their contact.
“Notre Dame also hits me up a lot. If it’s not every day, it’s definitely every other day. Coach Elko, he hits me up. It’s not just the coaches, it’s the players too. The players that are committed are definitely on board with the system that Notre Dame has to offer.”
Like many top Irish recruits I’ve spoken to, the currently committed recruits are playing a big role in Tyreke Smith’s recruitment. .
“They’re definitely helping the coaches out with their recruiting, so they’ve definitely been trying to recruit me and tell me that they’re trying to build something special down there and I’m definitely looking forward to visiting and meeting some of the recruits.”
I asked him to clarify which committed recruits, in particular, were contacting him and what they had to say.
“Markese Stepp, Braden Lenzy, he hit me up too. Phil Jurkovec, him too. We played basketball together and we’re cool and pretty tight. We visited Notre Dame at the same time so we’re pretty tight. He’s telling me that I need to come there.”
boy if you don't hurry up and make tht move🤔
— Markese Stepp (@markese_stepp) March 2, 2017
“Ovie (Oghoufo). He hit me up. They’re all basically tagging me along and hitting me up saying that I need to get down there.”
https://twitter.com/OvieOghoufo/status/837099606387347456
I brought up Notre Dame’s impressive early recruiting haul in the ’18 class. He gave me his thoughts on the situation.
“That tells me that the coaches are doing something right. The players are definitely seeing something in the school to commit and just commit on the spot and stuff like that, because they got a lot of early commits. That shows that they’re doing something right and that’s really good.”
Smith talked to me about planning on visiting again and what he looks forward to during his next trip.
“I definitely plan on visiting again. The first visit was really good. They didn’t win the game but they had a great atmosphere, they did the little walk inside the stadium, and stuff like that. All the recruits were really cool. It was a nice time to spend with the players.”
“I didn’t really get to tour the school. Next time I go there, I look forward to getting to see the school and campus and make a relationship with the new defensive coordinator.”
Academics are always important when recruiting a student-athlete to Notre Dame. Smith spoke to me about his personal academic situation.
“Academics are a big part. I won’t be playing football forever so I can always lean back on my education, so that’s always big for me. I’m interested in schools that have a good business program. I’m either trying to major in finance or electrical engineering. That’s a part of my decision.”
Here is what Smith had to say about Notre Dame as a whole.
“It’s just a good school football-wise. The fans definitely show a lot of love. The education is second to none. Their name carries a lot of weight, so it’s definitely a school that I’m looking at.”
I asked Smith what his plan is going forward concerning his decision time frame.
“I’m probably going to make my decision either right before my season, or right after. I’m not sure though. I don’t have a top group right now. I kind of need to go over all of it, the schools and try to narrow it down. It’s kind of a lot right now.”
“I want to get some visits in. I don’t want to take schools out without even visiting them, so I’m definitely trying to get to as many as I can get out to and then I’ll cut the list down.”
Notre Dame is in hot pursuit of at least one more talented defensive end for their ’18 class to join current DE commit – Justin Ademilola.
Must Read: In-Depth Breakdown Of All 8 Recent Notre Dame Offers - March 2
Stay tuned to SlapTheSign.com (@SlapTheSign) for updates on Tyreke Smith and all things Notre Dame recruiting.