ILB Kyle Smith on What Tipped His Decision to Commit to Cal

Los Gatos linebacker Kyle Smith had been wanting to make a decision on his recruitment before his senior year, and a visit to Berkeley for the first-ever California Cookout pushed him toward the Bears.

"I’ve kinda been leaning toward Cal in the past couple weeks," "going between Cal and Oregon, then I think what really made me do it was the big family barbecue they had with all the players and commits there. The way the coaches were talking to me, we were hanging out, eating food and stuff, I talked to my parents, they said ‘yeah, it feels right here, and I made a decision."

A big factor in Smith's decision was inside linebacker coach Peter Sirmon, who he'd been close to through the last two months since Cal offered.

"We’d been talking more and more," Smith noted, "(Saturday) we got to play a lot of cornhole, he was pretty good. And he’s a great guy, it helps to have someone with a lot of experience, not only with coaching, but in college at Oregon, and in the NFL. I really like him as a coach, and that played a big part in my decision, that he’ll be there for the next few years coaching me."

For Smith, a big part of attending the cookout was getting to know future teammates

"I met two of them before, and I met four others (Saturday)," Smith said, "they all seem like really cool guys. It helps to have a great core group of guys. I’d met Blake before, and (Brad Archer). (Blake) was excited that we have another commit, especially when we have so many linebacker commits."

That group of inside linebacker commits, now with Smith, Antzoulatos, and Liberty (Gilbert, AZ) linebacker Ryan Puskas, looks to be one of the strongest position groups in the 2019 class. With that, the group is going to have plenty of competition going forward.

"It’s gonna be tough," Smith said about the crowded group, "but you have to like the competition when you’re playing college football, it’s part of it."

Smith, the second Bay Area commit in this class (along with Archer), has a shorter trip than most to get back up to Berkeley for unofficial trips, but his official trip is looking like it'll be part of a bigger group after football season.

"I was talking to the players" Smith noted, "and I think we all would want to take our official together, sometime after our high school season ends, like December."

Smith became the Bears' 17th commit in 2019, and will join former Los Gatos teammate Jake Tonges and Los Gatos alum Colt Doughty on the Bears' roster when he gets on campus.