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Mar. 27—Every team wants the next Tom Brady. Oklahoma State true freshman quarterback Maealiuaki Smith isn’t that, but the comparisons are inevitable.
Smith played high school football at Junipero Serra in San Mateo, California. He is the school’s first Power Five quarterback since Brady in 1995 and first player ever to graduate early.
OSU coach Mike Gundy couldn’t talk about him during his early signing day press conference in December because Serra’s ceremony was two hours later. The News Press asked Gundy before the first spring practice on Tuesday why his staff recruited Smith.
“Versatile, moves well, mature, is going to have good size,” Gundy said. “We’re a ways away, but I like the toolset and what the potential could bring.”
Smith was the starter at Inderkum High School in Sacramento as a freshman and transferred to Serra as a sophomore. He was the backup to a three-year varsity starter.
“He struggled through not starting, which I think is really healthy in today’s world, where a bunch of quarterbacks are spoon-fed and handed things,” Serra coach Patrick Walsh said. “He had to work.”
Serra didn’t lose a Northern California game in Smith’s junior and senior years. It lost two state championships to Mater Dei and St. John Boscoe, which Walsh called junior NFL teams.
“They don’t really count for me, frankly,” he said. “It doesn’t sound right coming out of my mouth that way, but when the business plans of certain high schools are polar opposite, you get blowouts in state championship games that way.”
ESPN listed Smith as the No. 22 quarterback in the Class of 2024, and On3 had him as the No. 36 player in California.
He chose Oklahoma State over reported offers from 19 other Power Five programs, including one from Florida State before his first high school snap. Walsh said another college scout watched Smith make two…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/oklahoma-state-potential-star-qb-035900950.html
Author : Stillwater NewsPress, Okla.
Publish date : 2024-03-28 03:59:00
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