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FOOTBALL J'mar article in The Athletic

DawgyDizzle

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Mar 15, 2018
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The Athletic put out a nice article today on J'mar's baseball potential. Pasted below for those who can't access it. I didn't know he turned down $350-400K out of high school!

https://theathletic.com/1840980/2020/05/28/jmar-smith-patriots/?source=emp_shared_article

J’Mar Smith had a clear path to MLB. But for now, he’ll try to make the Patriots.

J’Mar Smith willingly welcomed the chaos.

In March 2017, Smith was a true two-sport athlete at Louisiana Tech, balancing a quarterback competition in spring practice and his first season on the Bulldogs’ baseball team. He went nonstop, day after day, sometimes sprinting from the gridiron to the diamond and sneaking in a nap in an unoccupied meeting room.

Smith, who signed with the New England Patriots last month as an undrafted free agent, had pro potential in both sports. The San Diego Padres selected Smith in the 24th round of the 2015 draft and tried desperately to sign him with a six-figure bonus that was worthy of a fourth- or fifth-round pick, and major-league scouts continued to flock to Louisiana Tech to beg him to work out in the hopes to sway him to their side.

It all really came to a head late that March, though. Smith was in the process of decisively beating out two others for the starting quarterback job when he called baseball coach Lane Burroughs with an idea to reignite a pitching-deprived team that was stumbling after a hot start to the season.

“J’Mar calls me up out of the blue,” Burroughs recalled, “and says, ‘Hey, can I throw a bullpen today?’ I said, ‘Sure, whatever, man.’ I’m not in a good mood. If you want to (throw), have at it. He just wanted to win, and he wanted to help the team in any way.”

At that point, Smith was essentially a backup outfielder – far too talented to ignore but too strained on time to be an everyday starter – so he recognized an avenue for becoming more involved.

Burroughs gathered his staff to watch Smith pitch for the first time.

“It was unbelievable,” Burroughs said. “It was 90-91 mph easy. He wasn’t even trying. He’s flipping a hard breaker in there. Our pitching coach looks at me like, ‘Is this real? Are we watching this?’ So I called (Louisiana Tech football coach) Skip (Holtz) and said, ‘Hey, J’Mar threw a bullpen today. We’re probably going to start pitching him.’ It was real. He could close for us. If we give him a couple bullpens, he’s going to be 95 mph.”

Holtz just couldn’t allow it. Smith was on a football scholarship and about to take over the quarterback job for the next three seasons. He was always permitted to play baseball at Louisiana Tech, which was part of the agreement with his recruitment, but Holtz couldn’t stomach the thought of losing the impending face of the program to Tommy John surgery.

Burroughs agreed with Holtz’s logic, although it didn’t prevent him from fantasizing over Smith’s potential in baseball. Burroughs has coached eight major leaguers – including Padres second baseman Brian Dozier, Brewers All-Star pitcher Brandon Woodruff and first-round picks Chris Stratton and Hunter Renfroe – and unequivocally believed Smith had that same ability.

“He could pitch,” Burroughs said. “I told him that. I remember me and him having that conversation. I said, ‘What if a scout came to you and said we’ll draft you in the sixth round and we’ll give you $2 million to be a pitcher, but football is over. What do you do?’ He said, ‘I’ll probably take the money and go play baseball.’ I remember asking Skip, ‘Do you think he’s an NFL quarterback?’ He said, ‘I don’t know. I think he’s got the ability.’ I said, ‘Well, he’s a big leaguer. I think he can pitch in the big leagues. I think he can play in the outfield. He had the ability. It was just a matter of getting the reps.”

Smith had an enviable problem as a two-sport prodigy. But he realized the impossibility of reaching his ceiling in either by double dipping, so he fully committed to football, seizing the quarterback job and corralling more responsibility each year to refine his mechanics and knowledge of the game.

Baseball remains in his shadow, even indirectly. He went undrafted in football because it took him so long to devote himself to the most demanding position on the field, but the Patriots were hot on Smith throughout the 2019 season for a reason.

And even those on the baseball side are monitoring his time with the Patriots, ready to pounce if he ever looks over his shoulder at the sport he left behind.

‘The genetics run’

Smith was born for this.

His father, Kenny Smith, was a Saints third-round draft pick in 2001 as a defensive lineman and had a couple stints with the Patriots between 2007-09. J’Mar Smith is from Meridian, Miss., a baseball-rich town where former Red Sox pitcher Oil Can Boyd grew up.

Smith was Meridian High’s starting quarterback as a freshman, and coach Larry Weems even said Smith could have been their best wide receiver. But he was too good at quarterback, and as a senior, Smith had 26 touchdown passes and no interceptions in 298 attempts.

“He was very gifted,” Weems said.

Former Louisiana Tech assistant coach Tim Rattay, who was in charge of Smith’s recruitment, was enamored with the cannon-armed high schooler. Rattay recalled a jamboree game when Smith was under constant pressure, hung tough in the pocket and never talked down to his offensive line on the sideline.

“He was always very calm,” said Rattay, an NFL quarterback from 2000-07. “He always had a great presence about him, even in the tough times.”

Smith also played on a talented Meridian team that sent a few others to Division I football, including Dolphins second-round pick Raekwon Davis, and there was no question they all followed their quarterback. Smith displayed the necessary intangibles that matched his athletic prowess.

Holtz and Rattay pegged Smith as their No. 1 target, and they hung on for dear life when Mississippi State, Memphis and Houston made late runs before his commitment.

“It was a battle,” Holtz said. “I remember the excitement. He was the quarterback we wanted.”

But that was just one hurdle for Holtz’s staff to clear. Smith also had to play out his senior season in baseball, and that was an unpredictable obstacle.

He had the right genes on the diamond, too.

“Kenny (Smith) was a heck of a baseball player,” said Weems, who coached the father-son tandem two decades apart. “They had a baseball park at the city field that must have been 390 feet straight away with an apartment building on the other side of the street. (Kenny Smith) hit one out there on those apartments. The genetics run.”

‘He had that it-factor’

Padres scout Steve Moritz was in his first year on the job in 2015 when an opposing team’s scout brought up J’Mar Smith’s name over dinner, so Moritz dug deeper.

But the universe worked against Moritz, who traveled from Atlanta three times to watch Smith play, only to have all three games rained out. As the spring wound down, Padres crosschecker Andrew Salvo recommended that Moritz invite Smith to the team’s prospect workout.

“We had a bunch of kids on that field that day who got $1 million or more coming out of high school and getting drafted, and J’Mar’s body, athleticism, charisma – he had that it-factor,” Moritz said. “You’re immediately drawn to him.

“If it wasn’t the best arm there, it was in the top three or four. His arm stood out. It was that damn good.”

Smith worked out in the outfield, infield and at catcher in someone else’s gear, and he was impressive enough that Padres general manager A.J. Preller demanded a further look. So instead of attending a college regional, Moritz was rerouted to Meridian to put Smith through a private workout.

The Padres weren’t sure if Smith could hit with consistency as a pro, but his bat speed and raw power were enticing enough to fantasize over his big-league impact if he improved his contact over the years. Under the premise Smith would actually play baseball year round under that scenario, there was more than enough reason for optimism.

Then there was the matter of positioning. Smith identified as a catcher, but Moritz said he could have played center field or maybe shortstop. They liked his athleticism, bloodlines and intangible qualities enough to get him into their system and let it all sort out.

That June, when the Padres drafted Smith they genuinely believed in their ability to sign him and prevent him from attending Louisiana Tech. They offered Smith a signing bonus in the range of $350,000-400,000, which would have been the equivalent of fourth- or fifth-round money.

Salvo and Moritz compared Smith’s situation to the Padres’ decision to use a 19th-round pick in 2016 on A.J. Brown, who is now with the Tennessee Titans.

“We’ve got to take a flyer here,” Salvo explained. “If this hits, and they want to play baseball and it all comes together, you have a chance at a steal in that part of the draft.”

These weren’t one-sided negotiations with the Padres attempting to woo an unwilling partner. Smith did have a predetermined signing bonus in mind to join the Padres, according to all involved, but they didn’t get close enough.

“I just remember when (the Padres’ offer) was below that (number), I took a deep breath,” Holtz said.

“J’Mar is one of those guys – and I don’t say this lightly – he brings everybody up,” La. Tech baseball coach Lane Burroughs said. (Ivan Pierre Aguirre-USA Today)
 
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