Ben Smiley III is a four-star defensive tackle in the class of 2019 and the No. 24 player in the country at his position, per the 247Sports Composite. For about a half-hour on Thursday, Smiley was committed to Virginia, where he was the Hoos’ highest-rated verbal commit. Now he isn’t committed to anybody and likely won’t be for a while.
A 4-star DT committed to Virginia and decommitted, all within 31 minutes
These are hard decisions, and he’s got time.
Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports
Smiley tweeted right around 5 p.m. ET on Thursday that he was committed to UVA. Cavs blog Streaking The Lawn grabbed a screenshot, which includes an iPhone notes screenshot announcing the news 4:55 p.m. The actual tweet came shortly thereafter:
This excited UVA’s defensive line coach. Why wouldn’t it?
At this point, it’s been approximately 21 minutes since Smiley’s commitment. Probably a little less, though we don’t have the exact time he tweeted on hand. Things are good!
Ten minutes after that Twitter celebration from the D-line coach, bad news:
A total of 31 minutes after drafting the iPhone note about his commitment, Smiley was back on the market. He’ll remain uncommitted for a while, probably.
It usually takes a prospect well into the college football season to go on all five of his NCAA-allotted official visits, which schools pay for. He can’t sign until at least December, and he’s good enough that he’s not at risk of running out of options by playing the field for a while.
Here’s STL on where this brief spell leaves the player and the school:
If Smiley ends up somewhere other than Charlottesville for his college ball, it’s a quarter-hour that will enter the Ronald Curry Wing of the Virginia Athletics Letdown Hall of Fame.
There’s no reason to conclude that this will necessarily turn to doom and gloom just yet. Yes, some of the most resource- and championship-rich programs in the country will have the chance to court Smiley. But they were going to do that right up until signing day even if Smiley announced a verbal commitment now.
That last thing’s a key point. Virginia doesn’t get a lot of players rated as highly as Smiley. The Hoos are going to have a hard time landing him, but they were going to have a hard time landing him anyway. Smiley is from Virginia, but the other schools in a top-10 list he announced earlier in May are all traditionally better recruiters than the Hoos: Alabama, Texas A&M, Oklahoma, Penn State, and Miami are among them.
Shortly after the decommitment, Smiley had this exchange with a Penn State QB commit:
Will this work out fine for Virginia? Sure.
