This Sentell’s Intel rep has the latest with 4-star WR Travis Smith Jr. He ranks as the nation’s No. 23 WR and the No. 187 overall prospect for 2025 on the 247Sports Composite ratings. The On3 Industry Ranking has him as the nation’s No. 20 WR and the No. 154 overall recruit.
Travis Smith sat down in a row at the Georgia basketball game on Saturday with his Mom and Dad. Georgia coach Kirby Smart was sandwiched in the midst of all of that.
Check that photo in full below. Register those happy smiles.
If the top-rated receiver in the state of Georgia does become a ‘Dawg, then this photo will mean something.
If Smith goes on to haul in big catch after catch at the “X” position, then that will be elite recruiting paying off.
It is not just the V.I.D. treatment that Team Smith got at “Junior Day” last weekend, it was the early identification evaluation and offer of Smith last summer when he had no stars by his name.
Why was Smith smiling big in that photo? We will let him have the floor for a few paragraphs here.
“Man, they tend not to hide anything,” Smith Jr. said. “You know? They pretty much keep everything real on real. They tell you what your flaws are and all of that.”
“I was expecting everything to be you know ‘They have got to compare this and that’ but yeah they had it prepared but they also showed us the real and how it is going to be day-to-day in the life in Athens.”
“I kind of appreciate that in a way. They are not trying to hide anything from us. They just try to show us the real pretty much.”
The 6-foot-4, 195-pound Westlake High standout said it was memorable to watch the game with Smart.
“This is probably off-topic but number three on Tennessee was killing us,” Smith Jr. said. “Yeah, I think he had like 36 points on us. Look, Kirby and I and my Mom and Dad were just stunned. I mean after the game we were all talking about how good he was. He was good. Man. Oh yeah.”
The window of time gave him a sense of just how much Smart loves all things Georgia.
“Man he loves him some Georgia,” Smith Jr. said. “You can tell he takes pride with it and in it. What I’ve realized is the coaching staff is that most of them are a part of Georgia. They are Georgia affiliates in a way. They either attended the university as players or they just ended up coaching there. They left for a while and then brought themselves back.”
“It is obvious they are a family where it is a place for everybody if you are a ‘Dawg. That was good to see and good to realize as well.”
We’ll add a strong layer of context to those thoughts from Smith. Those weren’t responses to pointed questions. Those quotes weren’t stacked up near the top of the story to draw the reader in and down the page.
It was something just like. “You just took a visit to Georgia. What do you want folks to know about what that visit was like for you.”
Smith had an open mic. Then that’s what he started sharing.
There were more than a few moments where he drifted into some “we” and “us” stuff like he did while talking about watching fifth-year UT guard Dalton Knecht scorch the nets at Stegman.
It is a sign that he’s certainly growing comfortable with the possibility of being a ‘Dawg one day.
Georgia’s all-time receiving GOAT Terrence Edwards has trained Smith. He calls him big, fast and powerful and brings up Julio Jones in his evaluation. Smith has a strong personal “why” and doesn’t mind blocking.
If there’s a better fit for UGA in this class than Smith, I haven’t seen it yet. The commits know that, too. Especially All-American TE commit Ethan Barbour.
“Guess who was the first guy who talked to me when I literally stepped foot in Athens?” Smith said. “Ethan. He’s always trying to convince me to come. Ethan and I go back to our 7-on-7 days. It was expected. Also another hard one was Bo [Hughley]. You know Bo? Oh my gosh. Man, he was joking on me. He was working on me.”
“He was like ‘If you don’t hurry up and commit right now I’m going to have a problem.’ He was being funny but he’s really adamant about bringing me there as well.”
Where did this recent Georgia football visit rank for Travis Smith Jr?
The post-visit interview sessions can sometimes get tedious. The stock questions become tedious for both the athlete and the correspondent.
For a lot of these, it wasn’t just what Smith said, but how he said it. He said this visit now ranks at the top of his treks to Athens.
He’s had some good ones.
“This is pretty much [number] one,” he said. “You know? Because I actually got to spend one-on-one time with most of the staff. I’ll say this is one because this is probably the most [time] I’ve had to get to conversate and just talk things out with the whole staff.”
He felt that it was the same ‘ol Georgia. There is usually a moment when a junior prospect feels the recruiting intensity ratchet up when the early signing period is over and the January “Junior Days” show up. That’s because their class is now on deck and the next to sign.
Smith said he didn’t sense anything elevated. That’s because the ‘Dawgs have recruited him like he was signing next week for about seven months now.
“Not really,” he said. “The thing is I know they want me. Every single person I have talked to they explained that to me. But Coach BMac and I were just talking Just going through game plans and things like that.”
“Every conversation was worthwhile. There wasn’t one that fell below the others. Everything I got from each coach was meaningful.”
He laughed when asked which member of Team Smith loved the visit the most.
“All of them,” he said.
The ‘Dawgs have told him that his favored No. 10 would be his if he wants to claim a locker inside Butts-Mehre.
“They’ve told me 10 is going to be waiting on me,” he said. “No worries.”
The staff also discussed his timeline.
“I’m planning on graduating early and being an early enrollee,” he said. “Getting enrolled in January. The normal time period for early enrollees. That’s definitely the plan.”
Georgia football Junior Day: What else stood out to Travis Smith Jr?
It was a lively weekend. Star-studded. Georgia defensive coordinator Glenn Schumman dropped a big boom when he announced new safeties coach Travaris Robinson as a new addition to the staff.
Smith just found the time to soak it all in.
The presentation where the staff rolled out the number of Georgia players alive in the NFL playoffs got his attention.
“I’ll just say this,” Smith Jr. said. “Being able to look around the room with all the 4-stars and 5-stars and it was just amazing to see. You put in that room some special guys that have great talents. What really kept my eye on that was I never realized how fluent the Georgia offense was compared to the league.”
That “offensive montage” was his favorite part of the visit.
“They showed us literal plays of players doing the exact same play when they were playing at Georgia and translating that to the NFL. The exact same play. The same route. The same blocking scheme. It was everything. That showed me that they are really going to prepare me for the NFL if I choose to go there.”
How does Georgia receivers coach Bryan McClendon do in recruiting him?
When “BMac” wants to score buckets for the ‘Dawgs like that UT guard recruiting Smith on every visit, what does he do?
“It is something about us and he can sell we’re both from Atlanta,” Smith Jr. said. “We’re always hitting on jokes. He also talks business as well. It is never just a buddy-buddy type thing. I can see him as being my coach and telling me my rights and wrongs. It is a great portion of both sides. It is definitely a guy that I feel comfortable with for sure.”
He told DawgNation that he’s trying to narrow down his process. He did think about releasing his top eight schools, but that feels too bloated.
“I’m starting to think and believe that is unnecessary,” he said. “I’m pretty sure I’m able to pinpoint down more on who I love. That top eight won’t be needed. It will be narrowed down to about a top four or a top three before I end up committed.”
Are the ‘Dawgs in that group yet?
“You’ll see,” Smith said while letting loose at least two good giggles.
That might be a loaded question for Smith right now. It is probably wise for him not to “pinpoint” that right now.
There was a safer question tapped for a follow-up: Is there anything he loves about Georgia yet?
“Love about Georgia?” Smith Jr. replied back. “I want to say everything but there’s nothing specific I can really pinpoint on that yet. When I get that official visit, I think I’ll have that down. But nothing just yet.”
“You know I love the staff, the team, you know us winning and everything like that. If I was able to get around everybody I would think I would fall in love with it even more.”
Clemson coach Dabo Swinney came to visit Smith at Westlake on Tuesday.
Smith said he plans to visit Tennessee this weekend for another “Junior Day” event. He said he also has a visit set for Florida on Jan. 27. Those are the only other school visits he has planned at this time.
SENTELL'S INTEL
(check on the recent reads on Georgia football recruiting)
