Miami Northwestern LB/DE Mike Smith Is One Of The Latest Local Recruits To Choose The Canes.

Miami (Fla.) Northwestern High School DE/OLB Mike Smith (6'2/215) was close to committing a few months back, but he decided to hold off until he knew that the University was definitely the right choice for him. Well, on Saturday he pulled the trigger and committed to ‘Canes.

"I feel great about it," Smith said. "It felt like home when I went there; I was just trying to find that in a college."

Once he committed, the coaches told him that he is just one of the many more local prospects they hope will commit to Miami.

"They were glad to have me on board, trying to make an effort to recruit prospects from South Florida," Smith said. "It's time to bring it home, back to Miami."

While attending Al Golden's camp, Smith was able to learn more about the school itself.

"What stood out to me was the classroom sizes, I can get hands on training," Smith said. "A private college is like a regular high school class, I don't have to go to a big auditorium with 500-800 students."

The versatile defensive playmaker currently holds 11 other offers, and is being heavily recruited by Clemson, Louisville, West Virginia and Wisconsin. Smith also plans to take a few unofficial visits this summer.

"I plan on taking some visits," Smith said. "I know right now for sure, I want to visit Clemson."

Since his commitment to Miami, Smith has been in contact with other school's coaching staffs, and this is what they've been telling him.

"They basically tell me congrats on the commitment and everything," Smith said. "That they are still coming at me hard and if anything happens and I de-commit to come to their college."

Miami wants Smith to play both defensive end and outside linebacker. They also told him he could receive a great deal of minutes as a true freshmen.

"They told me that if I come in and work as hard as I normally do, I should be able to start freshmen year," Smith said. "It'll be hard though, I'll have to work at it."

Michael Smith-Miami Northwestern-DE-Class of 2014 (via Charles Fishbein)