By Mike Vorel

The Seattle Times

The tweet was particularly telling.

At 3:23 p.m. Sunday, Washington freshman cornerback Trent McDuffie tweeted, “The stars have aligned,” complete with emojis of a pair of eyeballs and what appeared to be a husky puppy.

McDuffie’s former teammate at St. John Bosco High School in Bellflower, Calif. — three-star 2020 cornerback James Smith — was simultaneously wrapping up an unofficial visit to UW.

It didn’t take long for the pieces to fall into place.

Later the same afternoon, Smith announced that he was “1000% COMMITTED TO MY DREAM SCHOOL … THE UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON”.

A lanky 6-foot-1, 180-pound cornerback, Smith chose the Huskies over scholarship offers from Oregon, UCLA, Arizona State, Kentucky, Louisville, Michigan, Penn State, Washington State and more. Specifically, Smith had narrowed his list of suitors to the Huskies and rival Ducks.

That offer list exceeds his meager recruiting ranking. Perhaps because he spent much of the past few seasons stashed behind McDuffie and current USC four-star corner Chris Steele, Smith is regarded as a three-star prospect, the No. 104 corner in the country and the No. 1,176 overall recruit in the 2020 class by 247Sports.

“Smith is a long, athletic corner with a nice upside to him,” wrote 247Sports national recruiting analyst Greg Biggins. “He’s a two-sport athlete and was the Trinity League Champion in the long jump and triple jump. He had personal bests of 22’8” in the long jump jump and 46’ in the triple jump.

“He was the team’s No. 3 corner as a junior but is expected to have a breakout senior year.”

Smith is UW’s 15th overall 2020 commit and third defensive prospect, joining three-star linebackers Carson Bruener and Cooper McDonald.

The stars have certainly aligned. But will Smith be a star in his own right? Only time will tell.