Landing Trey Smith was one of the biggest recruiting wins of Butch Jones’ tenure at Tennessee. Smith was a near consensus five-star recruit and ESPN rated him as the No. 1 recruit in the 2017 recruiting cycle.
Tennessee beat out Alabama, Ohio State and others for Smith and the Jackson, Tennessee native went on to have a storied career. Battling medical setbacks, Smith twice earned First Team All-SEC honors.
But if it wasn’t for former Tennessee quarterback Josh Dobbs, who never played with Smith, the five-star may have never made it to Tennessee.
“Trey, he’s like low maintenance,” Dobbs said in a video Smith shared on social media Thursday night. “Doesn’t need much to get by. Nothing. Trey comes on his official visit. It’s the last week of December of official visits so he’s the only recruit. Our coach is like, ‘yo, we need this kid.’
“We’re going to the bowl game season where it’s about to be my last game at Tennessee. I’m about to leave campus, right? I’m counting the days, I just finished finals. I’m going to make sure this kid has a good weekend and there’s not a soul on campus. Trey comes to my house and we had the football team over. Had the guys over. We’re having a grand time and I’m like, ‘Trey, what do you need right now to make this a great night?’”
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So what did the low maintenance Smith want to complete his recruiting trip? It was a classic offensive lineman answer.
“Trey goes, ‘I just need some pizza, man,’” Dobbs continued with a laugh. “So I call and go, ‘I’ve got Trey Smith here. We’re trying to get him to commit. Y’all want a five-star commit? I just need like 12 pizzas at the house.’ I couldn’t get just one only for Trey because we’ve got the whole o-line there so I gotta get everyone a pizza. So they pulled up at like 11:30 dropped off some pizza, man, and Trey had a great time and committed to Tennessee.”
Smith, who is conversating with Dobbs in the video confirmed the legitimacy of the story while adding, “bring that pizza. bring those pizzas” with a big smile.
Both Smith and Dobbs are in the midst of professional careers. Dobbs is entering his seventh season in the NFL, returning to the Cleveland Browns where he began last season before the Tennessee Titans signed at the end of the 2022-23 season.
Smith is entering his third season with the Kansas City Chiefs after the franchise selected the talented offensive guard in the sixth round of the 2021 NFL Draft. Smith has started all but one game for Kansas City in the first two years of his professional career.
