Smith is a Spartan

Brett Smith was of two minds; one wanted to decide early, the other wanted to wait. In the end, Smith, a 6-foot-3, 195-pound quarterback prospect from West Salem High School in Salem, Ore., went with his first instinct and verbally committed to San Jose State Monday night over offers from Eastern Washington, New Mexico State and Wyoming.

Smith, the No. 6-rated prospect in the state of Oregon and the No. 32 prospect overall in the Scout.com Northwest Hot 100 was thinking he wanted to make an early decision, then backed off and thought he might play a few games to see if any more offers might materialize.

Then he started thinking again about the schools that had offered and San Jose State kept coming back to him. "They had shown genuine interest from the very beginning," Smith told Scout.com Tuesday. So he took a last-minute unofficial visit to San Jose this past weekend with his father Kevin.

"I loved it," Smith said. "I told my Dad, 'I want to commit here'. San Jose State was our first trip and that was the place where I was feeling them the most. I already liked them enough to think about committing before even seeing it, but I wanted to see the place. I loved it, so I figured, why wait?"

He did wait a little bit, until he got home and was able to consult the rest of his family before telling first-year head coach Mike MacIntyre Monday night around 8:30 that he was ready to commit. "I told him I wanted to be a Spartan and he was pumped," Smith said. "Then I called coach Flip (SJSU QB Coach John DeFilippo) and he was pretty stoked too. It was a lot of fun."

Ultimately it was the coaches that persuaded Smith - not only with their dogged pursuit of him, but also their pitch. He mentioned a conversation he had with MacIntyre in his office during the unofficial visit that was the 'turning point' in his decision to become a Spartan.

"Everything he was saying, I was buying into all of it," Smith said. "I really believe they are the ones to turn that program around."

He also had plenty of praise for DeFilippo. "He's the man," Smith said of his future position coach. "He's been to a lot of big-time places and he really knows his stuff. I feel like with him, I can grow and mature as a quarterback and be the best player I can.

"I really feel like they know what they are doing and they've been through it all. With the recruiting classes and the kids they have coming in and seeing the place, I think the program is headed in the right direction."

Coming from the northwest, Smith admitted he won't have any problems with the California sunshine either. "San Jose is a great city," he said. "When you're going out for a workout in January and you're wearing shorts, that says a lot."

One of the reasons Smith was a coveted quarterback is because he plans on enrolling mid-year. So he'll take his official visit to SJSU during the season and then get ready to make the move from Salem to the Bay Area. "I just want to be there so I can explain how I feel about the place," he said. "You want to get guys too. I want to do the best job I can to recruit. That's the biggest thing that's natural for me as a quarterback. You have to be a leader on the field and I plan to take that off the field when I go back there."

Brett Smith Scout.com Profile