Jahmir Smith became the 13th Notre Dame commit of the 2018 cycle when he announced for the Irish today. The 5’11”, 198-pound North Carolina speedster is a high-academic kid (as a junior, he reports a GPA of 4.43/4.0 and an ACT of 25) who reacted very favorably to his Notre Dame offer, but we never heard any visit news and it didn’t seem like the Irish gained much traction initially. In fact, recent buzz even had him leaning to USC, to the point where many recruiting observers (this one included) had considered him gone. As it turns out, he made a stealth visit to South Bend last weekend and apparently saw what he needed to see.

Also, he made a pretty cool commitment video:


Recruiting Service Rankings

247 Composite — 3 star (.8624), #554 overall, #27 RB, #20 in NC

247 Sports — 3 star (87 rating), #559 overall, #24 RB, #23 in NC

Rivals — 3 star (5.7 rating), NR overall, #17 RB, #16 in NC

Scout — 3 star, #606 overall, #32 RB, #16 in NC

ESPN — 3 star (77 rating), NR overall, #34 RB, #25 in NC

Cohort

In addition to Notre Dame and USC, Jahmir Smith also holds offers from Cal, Duke, Georgia Tech, Harvard, Louisville, Mississippi State, NC State, Nebraska, North Carolina, Northwestern, Tennessee, Vandy, and Wisconsin, among others.

Highlights

A couple of things jump out when watching Smith’s film. He has plus acceleration and change of direction; he has, as Lou Holtz used to say, phone booth moves. He’s also a very willing and effective inside runner, especially given his size, and shows good balance and vision. He looks like a very credible receiving threat too in the few passing plays that the film contains; he runs basic patterns here, but he catches the ball easily and turns upfield smoothly.

It’s always hard to tell from film, but I think Smith has good-not-great long speed. When he breaks away, it seems to generally be due to that plus acceleration getting him through a hole or to an angle quicker than expected. The good news is that he can work on that, and the agility he already shows gives some cause for optimism that he will be able to improve it.

Impact

It’s not out of the question for Jahmir Smith to get a chance to play in 2018 – if Josh Adams jumps to the NFL after this season and Dexter Williams decides to ply his trade elsewhere rather than compete with Tony Jones, the running back depth chart would be reduced to Jones, CJ Holmes, and 2018 signees Markese Stepp and Smith. On the other hand, I wouldn’t put a lot of money, if any at all, on Adams and Williams being anywhere but Notre Dame in 2018.

In addition, while Smith has plenty of obvious physical ability that could allow him to contribute immediately in some areas, I didn’t see many highlights of him in pass protection; even if he did have some practice there, he would almost certainly need more before the staff could trust him in game action. In all probability, Smith will get a chance to learn and grow during his freshman year and then step into the rotation as a sophomore.

Welcome to the Irish family, Jahmir!