A week after receiving a scholarship offer from USF, Gunnar Smith has decided he liked his unofficial visit to the Tampa school so much last week that he was comfortable making it his future home.
The 6-foot-5, 190-pound Smith committed to the Bulls on Friday and will join former high school rival Timmy McClain from Sanford Seminole in the USF quarterbacks room.
Smith downplayed the fact that he’ll be teaming up to play with a guy he wanted to do nothing but beat during high school. McClain begins his freshman season at USF in August, a year ahead of Smith. Interestingly, USF also recently offered McClain’s younger brother Andrew McClain, a rising junior quarterback at Apopka.
“It’s not really a factor or me,” Smith said of McClain being there.
The bottom line was that he was excited about the offer, his first since his sophomore year and only commitable offer to date. He said he could definitely see himself playing for the Bulls.
“It definitely felt great because it always feels good to get recognized, but it was fun for sure,” Smith said of last week’s visit and his subsequent scholarship offer. “It’s a great campus, great atmosphere. I loved it.
“It’s a great accomplishment for sure.”
The main recruiters involved with Smith through the process have been USF offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach Charlie Weis Jr. and head coach Jeff Scott.
“We had kind of a private workout and I was throwing for the coaches and stuff, and I guess they like what they saw and gave me an offer,” said Smith, whose only other scholarship offer had come from Kentucky during spring football of his freshman year. That offer disappeared when Kentucky fired the staff of Mark Stoops after last season.
