Nolan Smith dominant in testing at Nike’s The Opening

The Opening annually plays host to many of the most dominant high school athletes in the nation. But no one has been as dominant as Georgia commit Nolan Smith.

Smith has shown a unique combination of explosiveness and brute strength on the field. Yesterday the outside linebacker from Savannah backed things up in combine testing, posting the highest score in SPARQ testing among the elite prospects gathered in Texas this week. Smith put up an excellent 4.55 forty yard dash, and a 4.08 shuttle. He also aced the powerball throw, hurling a 6.6 pound weighted ball 44.5 feet from his knees. The difficulty of this, and the coordination and strength required to do so is hard to explain unless you’ve personally tried to do it. To put it in perspective, human/fast twitch muscle fiber hybrid Nick Chubb threw it 43 feet in 2013. Lorenzo Carter threw 41.5 feet at the same event at almost exactly the same weight as Smith.

Smith also posted a jaw-dropping 42.4 inch vertical jump, approaching what I like to call “Boss Bailey territory”, a rarified realm guys this Big shouldn't be able to propel themselves into from a standing start.

Smith measured 6’3, 232 pounds and definitely looks the part of the versatile 3-4 linebacker, big enough to play with a hand in the dirt or to move in space. But as important as his skills are, Smith has begun to look like one of those players other blue chip prospects are going to want to play with. And he’s been working hard on both his IMG Academy teammates and other elite prospects he hopes to bring along to Athens. Until later...

Go ‘Dawgs!!!