UGA taps back into Hapeville Charter with offer to Smith

Georgia already has shown a tendency to recruit prospects from the same high school under the Kirby Smart regime, most recently with Trey Blount, Jamaree Salyer and Andrew Thomas at Pace Academy.

The Bulldogs are at it again.

After landing a pledge from four-star defensive back William Poole out of Hapeville Charter Academy, Georgia has extended a scholarship offer to one of his teammates in the defensive backfield. Christopher Smith, a defensive back prospect in the class of 2018, received the official call from the Bulldogs on Nov. 16.

“Getting an offer from the program felt great, and I’m looking forward to building relationships with the coaching staff,” Smith said.

With the offer now under his belt, Smith holds a total of 11 scholarship offers. He said that Georgia would currently be among his leaders, but he has yet to narrow his list to a few contenders.

Smith was a part of Georgia’s biggest recruiting weekend of this season against Tennessee, in which the program hosted more than 50 prospects. With 92,746 fans filling the stands of Sanford Stadium, a true representation of a Georgia game day was on display, and Smith was impressed.

“The campus is beautiful,” Smith said. “But most importantly I liked the intensity of the fans and their passion. The atmosphere is unreal.”

Hapeville Charter has a talented defensive back corps with Smith and Poole as they’ve led their team to a deep playoff run this season, currently in the quarterfinals. While they’ve had success on the gridiron, the relationship between the two goes a bit deeper.

With the two a year apart, Smith is able to gain knowledge from Poole as the Georgia pledge has ended his recruiting process.

“That’s my big brother; he helps me a lot,” Smith said. “Sometimes he gives me tips and advice on recruitment, but he mostly just tries to let me handle my recruitment on my own. He just lets me know how to deal with haters, to stay humble, and just do what’s best for me not anyone else.”

Poole added that while he has discussed Georgia’s program with his younger teammate, he believes that it’s best for him to not sway Smith’s mindset and allow him to make his own decision.

“We’ve talked about Georgia, but not anything like trying to recruit him to go there,” Poole said. “He’s still early in the process. I’ll never tell him to go to Georgia or anywhere else. He has his own decisions and his own path. It would be good though.”

The 6-foot, 195-pound cornerback is rated as a three-star prospect, according to the 247Sports.com composite rankings. Smith is ranked as the 40th-best prospect at the position nationally, and the 31st-overall prospect in the state of Georgia.

Each Friday night, Poole is amazed at Smith’s abilities and enjoys playing alongside him.

“His effort on every play in and out, as well as in practice and how playing the cornerback position seems so natural to him,” Poole said. “All of the things that he does I just sit back and think ‘wow.’”

Georgia has two committed prospects for the class of 2018 in offensive lineman Max Wray and outside linebacker Adam Anderson. With Poole and Richard LeCounte being the only defensive back prospects committed to the program thus far in the 2017 class, Georgia would welcome Smith’s addition to replenish depth at the position.

Georgia’s coaching staff has been in frequent contact with Smith in an attempt to obtain a close relationship and draw him to Athens for his collegiate career.

“They always let me know how much they like me and how they see me fit,” Smith said. “Sometimes (running backs coach Dell) McGee gives me a little daily motivation.”

This story was originally published November 24, 2016 at 11:33 AM with the headline "UGA taps back into Hapeville Charter with offer to Smith."