[SIZE=14pt]
Decisions, decisions [/SIZE]
Rome High’s Toryan Smith enters final season as one of the nation’s top college recruits
07/17/05
Erik Green, Rome News-Tribune Sports Writer
Rome High senior football standout Toryan Smith has received 32 scholarship offers from some of the nation’s top college programs. D. Patrick Harding / Rome News-Tribune
Toryan Smith grinned and passed around his cellular phone that was flipped open to a text message he’d just received.
“You’re still one of our top guys,” read the message that concluded with salutations from new University of Florida coach Urban Meyer.
That was the second message Smith, a rising senior at Rome High, had received from a college coach in three days.
Notre Dame coach Charlie Weiss text-messaged him from the Major League Baseball All-Star game in Detroit just to say hello.
NCAA rules prohibit college coaches from calling recruits before September, but they allow text messaging — technology at its best.
This is what life has become for Smith, who Weiss has publicly called the best linebacker in America.
Day-in and day-out letters pour in from every major school in the country, including Georgia, Michigan, Alabama, Florida and Auburn.
All totaled, Smith has 32 scholarship offers from Division I schools with Tennessee and Southern California expected to offer soon.
So Smith must be walking on air knowing he could play anywhere in the country?
“I don’t think it’s been as easy as people think,” said Charles Smith, Toryan’s father. “You take a guy who, from the first day of spring practice in eighth grade, has been a starter — it’s been a lot of pressure.”
On top of that, Charles played on the University of Georgia’s 1980 National Championship team and most expected Toryan to follow behind him to Athens.
But Toryan, who like hundreds of other Greater Rome prep players begin preseason workouts Monday, isn’t sold on the idea.
In fact, he isn’t sold on anyone just yet.
“I really am looking at the advantages and disadvantages of every school,” said Toryan, whose has official visits set up at Oklahoma, Michigan, Nebraska, Notre Dame and Florida.
“I want to keep my options open as long as I can and narrow it down as it gets closer to signing day.”
Charles and Toryan decided it would be the best financially for the official visits to be made at schools out of basic driving distance.
They plan to visit places like Georgia, Tennessee and Alabama in the fall, which are only a few hours away by car.
Considering what they have gone through together over the years, waiting to name a school until they are certain about Toryan’s future is understandable.
Father’s footprints
To know Charles Smith is to love him, most would tell you. He wears a big grin most of the time to go along with his larger than life appearance.
He was, by all accounts, a great football player at East Rome, although he would tell you he was more of a hard worker than an athlete.
When you ask him about his work ethic and where it came from, giant tears stream down his face as he thinks about his grandparents who raised him.
“They didn’t know much about football,” he said, as his bottom lip trembled. “But they had values. And I think I went through what I did so I could give that to (Toryan).”
Football saved his life, Charles said, and he left it there — no need to expand.
Football had saved a lot of kids before Charles and many since, so for those like him it is much more than a silly game.
It is a means to an end, an open door to something many never experience: a family.
And all Charles wants for his very talented son is for him to be a contributing member of the greater family.
“First, I want him to be a good person,” Charles Smith said. “I like hearing people say Toryan is respectful and a hard worker. Doing well on the football field is gravy.”
Early impressions
Many people caught their first glimpse of Toryan as a ninth-grader at Rome High.
He started on the defensive line for the first time in his life that year and was an honorable mention All-Area selection.
The time between then and now has been a blur for both Toryan and Charles.
“It came so fast,” Toryan said. “We used to talk about playing college football and so far, so good.”
He never expected to be one of the top recruits in the country or having his picture featured in Oklahoma’s recruiting magazine.
“I figured I would get a few regional looks,” he said. “But I’m getting calls from everywhere and it is a little overwhelming.”
For Charles, who went through the recruiting process himself eons ago, the actions of schools like Florida and Notre Dame helped end his skepticism about the whole process.
“When Urban Meyer and Charlie Weiss fly into Richard B. Russell airport at 7 in the morning tells me something,” Charles said.
“That means they were up at 4 or 5 a.m. to get here. When they make that kind of effort to come see you, it’s amazing.”
In a few months the text messages will likely drive Toryan crazy and the coaches will finally be able to call, adding to his misery.
But you’ll never hear the shy 16-year-old complain about the attention.
“Lots of people go to camps just to get one look from a college,” he said. “I would much rather deal with it than not. I do feel like I have a big target on my back. I just want to live up to the hype.”
So far, so good.
Link
