Five reasons to like Evan Smith's commitment to Northwestern

MORE: Northwestern 2022 class l Smith 'shell-shocked' by Northwestern offer l Smith returns for Northwestern official visit l Smith gives Northwestern official visit a '10'

Northwestern landed the 12th member of its 2022 class on Saturday when athlete Evan Smith announced his commitment to the Wildcats.

Smith, from Birmingham (Ala.) Oak Mountain, chose Northwestern over finalists Duke and Tulane. He took official visits to Northwestern on June 17-19 and to Duke on June 24-26, but he pulled the trigger for the Wildcats on July 3.

Smith is listed as an unranked quarterback by Rivals but will play cornerback for Northwestern. The interesting thing is that he has never played the position before. He traveled to Evanston for an on-campus evaluation in early June and impressed defensive backs coach Matt MacPherson and defensive coordinator Jim O'Neil enough to earn a scholarship offer on the spot. He then came back the following week for his official visit.

What's more, Northwestern was the only program to offer Smith as a corner. Eight of the 11 schools on his offer list recruited him as a wide receiver, while Army and Navy wanted him as a quarterback to direct their triple-option attacks.

Here are five reasons we like this pickup for the Wildcats:

1. He has a big upside: Players are recruited in large part for their potential, and when you consider that Smith has never played cornerback before, very few prospects have his kind of upside. (Or his type of learning curve, either.) Corners need speed and fluid hips, among other qualities, and Smith showed coaches enough of both of those things during his workout to earn an offer. But he also had to show them the ability to be coached -- to take direction on drills he's never done before and employ them on the field. Speed, he has: you can see it on his highlight tape (below), where the smooth strider easily runs away from defenders as a QB.

2. He's a quarterback: There are a lot of reasons to recruit quarterbacks to play other positions at the next level. First and foremost, they are often the best athletes on their high school team. They are also typically natural leaders who have a sound understanding of the game -- both the offense they operate and the defense they attack. Plus, the Wildcats have a strong history of employing high school quarterbacks as defensive backs, including guys like cornerback Nick VanHoose and safeties Brendan Smith and Brad Phillips.

3. He will play cornerback: Northwestern had a need at cornerback after losing two of them who had eligibility left after the 2020 season. Greg Newsome II opted for the NFL and Cameron Ruiz entered the transfer portal. The Wildcats have addressed that need by adding three CBs in this class: Smith, and three-stars Octavian Smith and Braden Turner. (Interestingly, both of the Smiths [no relation] are high school QBs, though Octavian also played corner.) The Sky Team can now claim half of this dozen-member class: the three CBS, plus safeties Devin Turner, Robert Fitzgerald and Trevon Howard.

4. He is from the South: Don't look now, but the Wildcats are suddenly making inroads in the Deep South in states they rarely targeted in recent years. Smith is the second Alabamian in this class, joining Turner, and the third in the last two cycles, counting WR Jordan Mosley. Northwestern also added incoming freshman WR Calvin Johnson (yet another former high school QB) from Mississippi in its 2021 class. Texas and Florida have always been recruiting hotspots for the Wildcats, but forays into other states -- they brought in two North Carolinians in 2021, too -- are encouraging.

5. The Cats did a great job recruiting him: Think about what Northwestern had to do to land Smith. First, they had to see his potential as a cornerback, a spot no one else was recruiting him for. Then, they had to convince him to pay his own way up to Evanston for an evaluation at a position he never played in his career. They also had to sell a quarterback, who has his hands on the ball on every play, on playing defense, where he will rarely touch it. Finally, they had to persuade him to pick NU over Duke.

Northwestern's 2022 class was ranked 32nd in the nation by Rivals before Smith's commitment.