{"id":673354,"date":"2026-05-30T02:58:16","date_gmt":"2026-05-30T02:58:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/673354\/"},"modified":"2026-05-30T02:58:16","modified_gmt":"2026-05-30T02:58:16","slug":"4-star-lb-jabios-smith-loved-floridas-energy-and-he-has-committed-to-the-gators","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/673354\/","title":{"rendered":"4-star LB Ja’Bios Smith loved Florida’s ‘energy’ and he has committed to the Gators"},"content":{"rendered":"

Florida<\/a> made Ja\u2019Bios Smith<\/a> feel like a priority from the moment the new staff arrived in Gainesville. <\/p>\n

Now the No. 138 prospect in the Rivals Industry Ranking<\/a> is headed to Gainesville.<\/p>\n

The four-star linebacker out of Swainsboro<\/a> (Ga.) committed to the Gators over Georgia<\/a>, South Carolina<\/a> and Texas A&M <\/a>after Florida\u2019s staff spent months building relationships and pushing hard for one of the top defenders in the Southeast.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs soon as they got there, the coaches came straight to me,\u201d Smith told Rivals. \u201cSince the new staff got there, it seems like they have been to see me as much as they could. The coaches have made me feel like a priority, and they recruited me hard, so that love made a difference.\u201d<\/p>\n

[ $19.99 gets you a FULL year of On3 | Rivals national coverage ]<\/a><\/p>\n

Everything shifted after Smith finally made it to campus earlier this spring.<\/p>\n

Florida hosted Smith for four days in Gainesville, and the extended stay gave him a deeper look into the program, the people and the culture around the facility.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really got to see everything. They had been trying to get me down there, and when I got there, it was great. Every day I was around the facility, everything was always positive. It was the same energy every day. Everybody in there is rolling and ready to get to it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat environment had me feeling good about Florida and it never changed.\u201d<\/p>\n

The staff played a big role in Smith\u2019s commitment<\/p>\n

Linebackers coach Greg Gasparato<\/a> led the charge throughout the process and became one of the biggest reasons Smith committed to the Gators.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s done all he could to show me how much he wanted me,\u201d he said. \u201cHe kept it real. He kept pushing me every day. Every time we talked, he told me I could be a guy who plays a lot,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n

The more he thought about his connection with Gasparato, the feeling he had at the Swamp and compared it to his other options, the decision started becoming clear.<\/p>\n

\u201cTexas A&M was up there too, but Florida was the right school. \u201cFlorida\u2019s atmosphere, academics and people put Florida on top. I kept thinking about the visit I had, and that feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smith is excited about playing for the Gators and new head coach Jon Sumrall<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\u201cCoach Sumrall is going to have Florida back on top very soon,\u201d he said. \u201cHe has that energy and he knows how to win. He called me every morning around seven or eight, and I knew he wanted. This recruiting class is going to help Florida win a lot of games.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Florida made Ja\u2019Bios Smith feel like a priority from the moment the new staff arrived in Gainesville. Now…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":673355,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[399,5282,260380,398,396,397,99,293717],"class_list":["post-673354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ncaa-football","tag-football","tag-ga","tag-jabios-smith-27-swainsboro","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-football","tag-ncaafootball","tag-sports","tag-swainsboro-tigers-swainsboro"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=673354"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673354\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/673355"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=673354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=673354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=673354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}