Finally, the path between Iowa football and Canada is no longer one-way traffic: after sending such fine Iowa football specimens as Drew Tate and Jovon Johnson (reigning CFL Defensive Player of the Year) to the wacky and woolly wilderness of the CFL, we're finally starting to see some reciprocity from our northern neighbors. We landed Nolan MacMillan three years ago and are now adding Tevaun Smith, a wide receiver prospect out of Toronto who announced his intention to head to Iowa via the Twitters. Like Nolan Mac, Smith grew up in Canada but drew the attention of American college football enthusiasts (and, more importantly, college football coaches) after spending a year in prep school in Connecticut. Granted, I wouldn't say this exchange rate is exactly even-steven: Tate and Johnson were two of the best Iowa players of the last decade, while MacMillan has struggled to stay healthy at Iowa and Smith is not exactly the highest profile receiver around. But hey: progress! The pipeline with America's hat is starting to flow like warm maple syrup fresh out of the bottle, ladies and gentlemen. (In fact, it may really start flowing if Smith can convince his friend and former teammate, 3* RB prospect Akeel Lynch to flip from Boston College to Iowa.)
As noted above, Smith is not a high-profile prospect. Rivals has him as a 2* prospect, while Scout lists him as a 3* talent; neither ESPN nor 247Sports has evaluated him yet. Nor is his list of offers prodigious: to land Smith Iowa bested the sexagenarian Paul Pasqualoni of Syracuse UConn and the longest-tenured FBS coach in Pennsylvania, Steve Addazio of Temple. That said, Smith certainly has his virtues: he has solid size and considerable speed -- in addition to his Rivals-listed 40 time of 4.4, he ran a 11.05-second 100-meter dash. I believe they call that "running away from the mounties" speed up in the great white north. He also has a great nickname: The Canadian Missile. (H/T to Friend of the Pants Mike Jones for that tidbit.)
Are you thinking what I'm thinking? If you're thinking "END AROUND ALL DAY, BITCHES," kindly get out of my headspace, thought thief. Oh, and he should probably get a look at kick returner (see 0:45 of the above highlight clip), too. Wide receiver is a pressing need for Iowa in the current recruiting class, so adding Smith definitely helps to address that point and, hey, more speed on the football field is never, ever a bad thing. (Unless Sam Hurd is the supplier of said speed, of course.) Welcome aboard, Mr. Smith.