Bishop Moore receiver Smith holds 20 scholarship offers
Speed, talent make him popular recruiting target
C.J. Smith is fast.
The Bishop Moore 2022 wide receiver and track sprinter, whose given name is Chandler, has used that speed to gain plenty of attention from college football recruiters. They love Smith’s ability to run past defenders and it’s all they talk about when they call to offer football scholarships.
If the injury-prone Smith can just stay healthy, he’ll likely pick up more offers and get even faster, which is a bit of a scary proposition considering he already leads the state and is fourth in the nation with his 100-meter track time of 10.6 seconds. He also already has 20 Football Bowl Subdivision scholarship offers.
“It feels dream-like. I know when I woke up to the rankings, it didn’t seem real,” Smith said. “Even just running the time, I didn’t feel like I ran that fast, so it was really a surprise to me.”
He also runs the 200 meters in 21.4 seconds and is part of the 4x100-meter relay with senior Marc Morrison and juniors Jeremy Ruiz and Sam McMinn. Their top relay time is 43.2 seconds.
It doesn’t bother Smith at all that most college recruiters only talk about his speed instead of other facets of his game. He just wants to get noticed by whatever means possible.
“No sir, not at all,” Smith said when asked if the constant mentioning of his speed was bothersome. “But I definitely want to get better at getting off the line, and then reading coverages. I had gotten really good at it, but after my injuries I kind of lost some knowledge that I can really gain back. There are a few routes that I can fix up, too, but the others I’m pretty good with.”
His speed makes him quite difficult on deep routes and even slant patterns.
“Slants are my second favorite routes after go routes,” he said. “And then the comeback routes are definitely something I can work on.”
His current top five from his list of 20 scholarships is Arkansas, South Carolina, Iowa State, West Virginia and Nevada. He based his choices on virtual phone visits and said if schools like Florida, Georgia and Notre Dame were to offer, it would change his top five quite a bit.
“I look more toward personalities and if people are happy there, that way I’ll know if I can really fit in and enjoy being there, too,” said Smith, who also wants to play in
a spread offense. “Any reason for me to go deep.”
Smith said he feels fortunate to get so much attention despite suffering a torn ACL his sophomore year, a torn meniscus entering his junior year and then another injury to his shoulder toward the end of this past season. The injuries made it somewhat difficult to put highlight film together, but Smith managed quite well.
“I just look to God and realize I am truly blessed for what he has given me,” Smith said. “Like a year back from today, I would have never thought that I’d be in this position that I am.”
Leaning on his faith helped Smith persevere.
“I leaned on [God] very heavily. There were some tough times and I had some depression with my ACL, like I didn’t do any school work. It was really my teammates and God that pushed me through, as well as my parents,” Smith said. “They told me to keep my head up and that God always has a plan for you.”
Both of his parents, St. Francis and Danielle Smith, are military veterans who met in Germany, then transferred to Fort Bragg, N.C., where C.J. was born. They then were stationed in Hawaii at Schofield Barracks on Oahu. They retired to Orlando when C.J. was 10 years old.
Smith’s father urged him to remain competitive in track and said it would help him on the football field.
“Growing up, I didn’t really like the idea of running track. I thought it was too much work,” Smith laughed. “But when I was little, my dad told me football and track was like a hand-in-hand marriage. If you are really good at both, you’re going to excel in one or the other, and I do think running track helps me a lot in football.”
Bishop Moore won the Class 5A football state title in 2015. Smith is hoping this squad
has the talent to get back to that level, but first they’ll have to get past powerhouse rival Orlando Jones High.
Smith will also have to adjust to a new quarterback this season. Senior and two-year starter Luke Hedrick will be off to Furman University, the same school where his father and Bishop Moore head coach Matt Hedrick played.
Bishop Moore will be looking at a pair of quarterbacks to run the show this season with last year’s backup Brandon Trenta (Jr., 5-11, 155 pounds) and JV quarterback Quinn Niemann (Soph., 6-1, 185 pounds).
“It will be difficult because me and Luke, ... we built a pretty strong relationship, so he really knew me and knew how to throw to me, and I knew how to catch balls from him,” Smith said. “The next quarterback I haven’t really spent a lot of time with him, but I’m looking forward to it.”
The Hornets have plenty of pieces to make some noise once again come playoff time.
In addition to Smith, there’s defensive lineman Bishop Thomas, a New Orleans import who has great athleticism for a 6-foot-3, 285-pound defender and can come off the end and play the middle. He sometimes even lines up at tight end.
Samuel McMinn (6-1, 180) offers more speed on the opposite side of Smith at wide receiver but mostly plays safety for the Hornets.
Bishop Moore also has standout H-back/ linebacker Jacob Lowe (Jr., 6-2, 229 pounds), a transfer from Windermere Prep; offensive lineman Ryan Muragin (Jr., 6-3, 290 pounds); and running back Heath Hedrick (Soph., 5-9, 175).
“I think most definitely,” Smith said when asked if this team can get back to the state championship game. “The first few games will be kind of our jell moments, just to see where we really click. But I think once we jell as a team, the sky is the limit.”