Northwestern may be Deion Smith’s latest offer, but his relationship with the Wildcats staff goes back a long time - and the Big Ten school might just be the team to beat in his recruitment thus far.

Smith has already been on campus once recently and said that of the coaches that have been recruiting him to this point, it’s NU head coach Pat Fitzgerald that he has the best relationship with.

“Northwestern has been on me since my sophomore year, they’ve been watching me for a while,” he said. “At the end of my junior year, we had an available day so we just went up there. The academic advisor really told me a lot - she was telling me about the engineering program, and also just how taking one class could send me down a lot of different avenues.”

Smith recalled watching Northwestern’s win in its bowl game to close out last season against Pittsburgh, 31-24 in the Pinstripe Bowl and calls them the ‘sneaky’ team in the running for him at the moment.

“There’s a lot of nice people there,” he said. “They’re education savvy but I know if I go there, it’s endless possibilities.”

Smith Also holds FBS offers from Iowa State, TCU and Utah, but expects Arkansas, Boise State, and Oklahoma State to be the next group of teams ready to come through with offers.

On Iowa State

“I’ve been feeling a lot of hospitality from them,” he said. “It’s a different group of people, but they feel like family and I like the running backs coach, I talk to him a lot. I haven’t been on any visits yet, but just based on the communication, they seem like some nice people.”

“I don’t feel like [wins/losses] from the past couple of seasons is a factor, it’s just a matter of where I fit in at,” he said. “I just want to be someplace I can showcase my talents.”

On TCU

“I went up there for a junior day and I plan on going back,” he said. “They truly felt like family. Everybody talked to me, I had a lot of communication with everybody, I loved it. I feel like something’s building there, I like the culture.”

Northwestern isn’t typically one of the teams from outside of Texas seen trying to lock up players early, but Fitzgerald and company have clearly identified something early on about Smith they think is a strong fit for them offensively.

The Wildcats aren’t foreign to picking up quality players from the Lone Star State - Earnest Brown and Austin Hiller were both quality pickups in last season’s class. Whether or not NU can continue to fend off other programs is going to be a tall order as Smith would like to continue adding offers before perhaps thinking about naming a top-five before the start of the season.

In the meantime, the Northwestern does have one added aspect about its program that has caught Smith’s attention.

“I also liked that they have a lot of jerseys. A lot of jerseys,” he said. “But it’s a nice place, I really like it up there.”