UCF's Kevin Smith Offers Promise To Florida Recruits

The University of Central Florida is headed to a bowl—and so is the sensational Kevin Smith.

Having amassed over 2000 rushing yards with the turf of the Conference USA title game versus Tulsa still to be chewed up, Kevin has quietly high stepped ahead of every state of Florida running back heretofore.

He has also joined the ranks of Ladainian Tomlinson and other top backs out of the mainstream colleges that were passed up as finalists for the Doak Campbell Award. He just wants to play and be coached well. 

I'd say "small" college if it weren't for the fact that UCF has over 40,000 students. I'd say "little known college" if it weren't for alumni like Dante Culpepper and Assante Samuel and a coach named George O'Leary.

This school is sports sleeper 101.

There is a lot of talk about knowing how to recruit out of the South, and Florida in particular. Be it Bowden or Spurrier, be it now or way back when, what you can count on for the future is that the man-children and their moms and dads are listening to another college coach now. They like what they hear about the education and the area too. 

Florida State is getting older but not wiser. The University of Florida is doubting itself. And the University of Miami, with probably the richest vein of solid gold prospects in its own backyard, is struggling to to get its strut back.

While the University of South Florida (Tampa) is ahead of UCF Orlando in its overall developement in the college "big" leagues, don't be surprised if The University of Central Florida and George O'Leary leap frog in the recruiting department.

If Kevin Smith (who will play on Sunday) stays another year (which is the current rambling) many eyes will be on this team and this school. They will not be only the eyes of NFL scouts—they will be the eyes of players who want nothing to do with the depth charts of the teetering top three. 

That vein of gold prospects? You just might see them painting three letters on football jerseys in Orlando...