Alabama Football: 5 breakout freshmen to watch in 2018

Here’s a fascinating one. Smith was one of the nation’s top prospects at corner when he  enrolled at LSU in 2015. He played his true freshman season in Baton Rouge, appearing in ten games and racking up four tackles, before announcing he was transferring to Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College.

Playing a year at a JUCO allowed Smith to transfer back into the SEC, and he had a whole buffet of suitors. He earned the second-highest rating of any JUCO prospect in the class of 2018, per the 247 Sports composite, and chose the Tide over in-state rivals Auburn.

Smith committed in the early signing period and enrolled early, allowing him to get a leg up on the other incoming competition. With bushels of talent and SEC experience already, the buzz around Smith isn’t just that he’ll make it into the rotation at corner – he may start in his first year in Tuscaloosa. As if the Tide hadn’t snatched enough secondary talent from LSU already!