Depending on which recruiting service you rely on, the player rated by some as the nation’s top prospect has very good odds of ending up playing his college football in the SEC.

Offensive lineman Trey Smith of University School of Jackson, Tenn., has narrowed his list down to a fortunate six: Tennessee, Ole Miss, Alabama, Ohio State, Clemson and Notre Dame.


Smith, without giving away too much information, broke down his thought process with ESPN’s Tom VanHaaren:

“My dad is a business man, so he had a spreadsheet for me to narrow it down,” Smith said. “We put in boxes with a scale of one to 10 with things like a good offensive line coach, a good relationship with the coaches, opportunity to prepare me for the NFL and opportunity to play. We just had out list end evaluations of each school, and whoever was the top six on the list was my top six.”

According to Smith, one school stood out from the pack – although he wouldn’t specify the school by name.

“Another school came close, but there was a clear No. 1,” Smith said. “It was quite shocking because that was one of my top schools, so it was interesting.”

The 6-foot-6, 299-pound Smith is rated as a five-star prospect, the No. 3 overall prospect in the nation, the No. 1 offensive tackle and the No. 1 overall player in Tennessee, according to 247Sports.

Here are some highlights of Smith during the weekend’s The Opening camp (wearing #73):