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USC Lands One of the Top Linebackers on the West Coast in Cameron Smith

Granite Bay native Cameron Smith commits to the Trojans.

By Evan Budrovich
Cameron Smith--Twitter

After putting himself on the national stage in the Oakland Nike Football Training Camp, Granite Bay High School four-star linebacker Cameron Smith has committed to play for linebackers coach Peter Sirmon and the USC Trojans.

The four-star prospect landed a scholarship offer during Elite Junior Day in early February, and after wavering off his claim that USC was the favorite this month, he eventually decided that he would call Southern California his new home.

The addition of Smith to the eight-man 2015 class improves USC's stock to 7th overall according to Scout.com and an equally impressive 8th overall by 247sports.com. Steve Sarkisian's bread and butter now consists of four top 100 players, which is currently second most in the country, including five four-star prospects.

Smith's composite rankings have him listed as the third-best inside linebacker in the country and the 15th-best prospect in California. He's listed at 6'3 and 225 pounds, expect closer to 240 pounds by next year, and has shown an incredible ability to play the middle linebacker position especially during last weekend's Nike Football Training Camp.

Interestingly enough, Smith follows in the footsteps of former Trojan linebacker Dallas Sartz, one of his coaches at Granite Bay (Calif.) High School and he has already developed a great relationship with linebackers coach Peter Sirmon. All that said for Cardinal and Gold, Smith also spoke with SB Nation about his affection for USC.

"Their tradition with linebackers and Brian Cushing. Their linebackers coach Peter Simon and Clay Matthews -- all of the above," he said. "It's just a great school, the education is unreal, and it's a good fit. -SB Nation Recruiting

SCOUTING REPORT by Derrell Warren (@yssd), West Coast Recruiting Analyst

Smith is a linebacker recruit blessed with phenomenal size. He’s an instinctual player with good versatility. This trait shows up on tape in his ability to affect the game in multiple facets.

As far as the foundation of Smith’s game is concerned, his primary role projects to be as an interior thumper. That said, he’s a coordinated athlete with body control, who flashes some change of direction in close quarters

Smith can break down upon filling gaps and plays with great with great leverage. He explodes into the legs and torso of ball-carriers, driving them backwards on contact. He surrenders little, if any yards after contact.

At this stage, Smith projects best operating from b-gap to b-gap as opposed to being asked to run plays down in space. He functions best versus perimeter runs scraping along the line of scrimmage, and then cleaning up runs that have been forced back inside by teammates who have kept outside containment

WELCOME TO USC

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