Carter Smith, Wolverine

 

Fort Myers (FL) Bishop Verot QB Carter Smith (image via SI)

Fort Myers (FL) Bishop Verot quarterback Carter Smith, a 2025 prospect, committed to Michigan on Tuesday. He picked the Wolverines over offers from Florida, Maryland, Miami, Penn State, and others.

Smith is listed at 6'3" and 180 lbs. As a sophomore in 2022, he completed 185/296 passes for 3,104 yards, 29 touchdowns, and 6 interceptions. He also ran 133 times for 692 yards and 19 touchdowns.

RANKINGS
ESPN: 4-star, 80 grade, #8 QB, #209 overall
On3: 4-star, 92 grade, #8 QB, #112 overall
Rivals: 3-star, 5.7 grade, #5 QB
247 Sports: 3-star, 89 grade, #14 QB

Hit the jump for more.

Smith was offered by Michigan despite Belleville (MI) Belleville quarterback Bryce Underwood being the #1 quarterback target in the class. Underwood is a 5-star and one of the top few players in the country, but things seem to be trending toward LSU for him. Michigan failed to land local product Dante Moore in the 2023 class, and they couldn't afford to put all their eggs in the Underwood basket for 2025, too. Michigan will continue to pursue Underwood, but Smith is an athletic prospect who's a 4-star in the 247 Composite and could be a solid player down the line. With offers from all three major in-state schools, he's a pretty highly valued prospect in his own right. He visited Michigan a couple weekends ago for the Purdue game and liked it enough to commit.

Smith is a long, athletic prospect. He has good speed and should be a dual-threat prospect in a similar way to J.J. McCarthy, where he's very capable with his legs to have some designed runs built into the system. He also has some physical runs and even gets out front to block for his teammates, which is again similar to McCarthy. Smith has nice arm strength and can push the ball down the field as well as fit the ball into some tight windows in the short game or the RPO game.

What Smith lacks is virtually any polish when it comes to playing the quarterback position. A two-sport prospect who could also be a Division I baseball player, perhaps his development has been slowed by playing baseball, too. He holds the ball down by his belly button, which elongates his release, and he doesn't keep two hands on the ball. He also tends to hop around the pocket in herky-jerky motions rather than using smoother footwork with shorter steps, which is going to mess with accuracy. There are even times where he crow-hops into a throw, which you can't get away with much in college (or the NFL) because of the tighter windows and the requirement to get the ball out quickly. Taking the time to crow-hop means the receiver is going to be covered by the time the ball gets there unless he's wide open on a blown coverage of some sort.

Overall, I think Smith is more of an athlete than a quarterback at this point. I do think his future will be at the quarterback position, but whether he gets polished up enough to do that at Michigan is another story. Some of his play reminds me of Zach Gentry, the New Mexico native who came to Michigan in 2015 and switched to wide receiver/tight end by the time bowl practices came around in his freshman year. But Gentry was taller and had a bigger frame, and he's now an NFL tight end. Smith probably doesn't have that position flexibility.

The Wolverines now have three commits in the 2025 class, where Smith joins CB Chris Ewald, Jr. and DT Bobby Kanka. He would be the only player other than former walk-on offensive lineman Peter Simmons to come to Ann Arbor from Bishop Verot.

TTB Rating: 69