Bama’s Smith makes good on potential

By Robert Rousseau  |   Sunday, June 22, 2008  |  Comments( 0 )

Alabama Crimson Tide
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All of the good college football coaches understand that recruiting is hardly an exact science. The stars attached to players' names only indicate their athletic ability; to an extent, anyway. In other words, heart and work ethic are missing from the equation entirely.

Nevertheless, if you believe the notion that the more sought after the prospect, the better the athlete he is and assume that those with heart are evenly spread among those with a lot of fanfare coming out of high school, some big-time prospects will assuredly shine like the sun.

Such is the case with Alabama Crimson Tide left tackle Andre Smith.

Smith was a huge offensive guard prospect coming out of Birmingham, Ala., in 2006. In fact, he was considered the best guard in the entire class by Rivals, the top prospect coming out of Alabama, and the second-ranked prospect in the nation.

Now that’s a lot of fanfare. But that’s what you get when you're a 6-foot-4, 300-pound athlete who can bench press 400 pounds, squat 555 pounds, and are the only offensive lineman to ever win Alabama’s Mr. Football honor.

With the Tide, Smith has lived up to the hype.

He started all 13 games at left tackle as a true freshman in 2006, leading the team with 831 snaps on the season. He also led the Tide with 62 knockdown blocks and was honored with Freshman All-America selections by the Sporting News and Rivals.

As a sophomore, Smith again started every game at left tackle. Further, he was named the Alabama co-player of the week after its Vanderbilt, Houston, Mississippi State, and Louisiana-Monroe games. What’s more, he was a co-winner of the SEC’s Jacobs Blocking Trophy (best blocker in the SEC) and made the Coaches' First-Team All-SEC team.

Now Smith has been named to Playboy’s 2008 Preseason All-America Team, and deservedly so. Heck, the guy even shared the 2008 Paul Crane Offensive Lineman Award with Mike Johnson for his performance during spring practice this year.

"I was honored to be selected as a Preseason Playboy All-American," said Smith.

Well, the bottom line is that Alabamans should feel somewhat honored to get the chance to watch Smith play; after all, he has "NFL star" written all over him.

Right now, though, he’s just making good on all of that recruiting potential.

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About Robert Rousseau

Robert Rousseau is a sports writer that has been published in a variety of print and online venues. He’s been writing for RealFootball365.com for almost three years now. When Rousseau isn’t writing about college football he tends to be penning mixed martial arts pieces for MMAFighting.com or ...
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