Roquan Smith explains why he never signed a National Letter of Intent

When he was coming out of high school, Roquan Smith was one of the best recruits in the country. He’d eventually end up with the Georgia Bulldogs, but never did sign his National Letter of Intent to go to school, a very odd move at the time.

At the time, before transfers were allowed freely, signing the NLI locked players into a school. As Smith recently explained on Pardon My Take, he’d seen a coach leave from a school he had been getting recruited by, which made him decide to avoid completely committing to one school in particular.

“I think times are different right now,” Roquan Smith said. “But when I was coming out — so, like initially, I had committed to UCLA, but then the coach was leaving. So, it was kind of like a sticky situation where I was like, ‘Okay, is this coach going to be there or is he not going to be there?’ Then I’m like, for myself, ‘Why am I going to tie myself to this school and a coach really can get out of it if he’s going to do it?’ So, if you have the leverage, and you have the opportunity — like, I was a pretty well-known recruit and had options for a lot of different places.”

Coming out of high school at Macon County in Georgia, Roquan Smith was a four-star recruit in the Class of 2015. He was also the 59th-ranked player overall and the seventh-ranked linebacker in that recruiting class. So, he had plenty of options coming out of high school, regardless of whether or not he signed a National Letter of Intent.

“So, I’m like, ‘Okay, if a school truly wants me, then I’ll just sign the financial aid papers to the school that I want to go to. When I get on campus, that’s when I’ll be there.’ So, if anything happened,” Smith explained. “I’d be able to protect myself in a sense.”

Perhaps a bit ironically, Georgia head coach Mark Richt would be fired by Georgia. So, Roquan Smith did have to go through a coaching change without the freedom of movement that players today are given. In the end, it did work out, though, with Kirby Smart taking over in 2016.

During his college career, Smith would go on to win the Butkus Award in 2017 and was the SEC Defensive Player of the Year and a unanimous All-American that season. Along the way, he’d help lead Georgia to the College Football Playoff and a national championship game appearance. After that, he’d make the move to the NFL, becoming a first round pick in 2018. So, by not signing a national Letter of Intent, Smith didn’t seem to lose any opportunities.

Today, Smith is one of the best linebackers in the NFL. Going into his fourth season and third full season with the Baltimore Ravens, the hope is that he can help get Baltimore to the Super Bowl.