Darrin Smith looking to make history with UConn commitment
Just under two weeks ago, Darrin Smith made a bit of history as the first official visitor to UConn of the new Randy Edsall era. Now he’s ready to make some more history for the Huskies on the football field.
The high three-star all-purpose back committed to UConn on Thursday evening and became the program’s first offensive commitment in 2019. For a program that has struggled to put up strong offensive numbers over the past few seasons, Smith’s versatility already has the staff thinking about ways to get him on the field quickly and getting the ball in his hands.
“I just talked with the offensive coordinator and everyone’s really excited,” he said. “He basically told me that I am going to go out there and play right off-the-bat because they really need offensive weapons. He said that they’re going to play me everywhere like I did this past year - play a lot of running back but be able to change to a different spot and be a guy that can spread the field.”
Smith’s experience on his official visit was part of what clenched his decision to commit to UConn. While he had been buying into the message that the staff had been selling him as to why he would be a good fit for the program, seeing all sides of it in person was a heavy motivator.
“Really, it was just the coaching staff that impressed me,” he said. “The campus really surprised me and my parents with how beautiful it was up there. Everything was really new, all the people were really great and there was nothing I wanted to pass up on up there.”
His confidence in the coaching staff’s experience also played a major role. In addition to coaching for nearly 20 years, Edsall also had two stints with NFL teams - three seasons with the Jacksonville Jaguars and another with the Detroit Lions.
“The coaching staff has a lot of NFL experience,” he said. “They were at UConn once and winning bowl games and playing a high level of competition and then went to the NFL … now that they’re back, they have another chance of being back on top.”
Before Smith publicly acknowledged his commitment to UConn, he tweeted - then deleted said tweet - that he is going to be the top recruiter in Texas. Even though that’s no longer on his timeline, it doesn’t mean he’s not holding true to that - and had started even before making his commitment to the staff.
“They just offered Nolan Matthews at Reedy from right up the road that I told them to offer,” he said. “I feel like you’re going to start seeing a lot of UConn offers being spread around in Texas. I know what Texas has, so you’ll most definitely see that.”
Prior to his official visit, things seemed as though they were trending towards Smith choosing TCU. He knows that many will still be watching to see if the Horned Frogs or another more regional program might come in and steal him away from the Huskies, but few can appear to offer him the opportunity that he feels he has in Storrs.
“I still have a great relationship with Coach (Curtis) Luper,” he said. “I just feel if I go to TCU, they have so many weapons right now on offense. With (Darius) Anderson and the other running back [Sewo Olonilua], they each have two more years. I just really want to play early my freshman year, I don’t really want to sit.”
Smith admitted that he would take a look at other programs that could potentially offer him a similar situation to what he feels awaits him at UConn, but for now, he said that he’s ‘locked-in’ and excited for his future there. As far as he’s concerned, he’s serious about being the face of a program that is looking to find its way back to formidability.
“I want put my name up there and get everything going,” he said. “I want to do something different than what everyone else is doing because everyone thought I was going to commit to TCU and stay close to home, but with this I can change the game and bring something new.”