‘They’ve raised our level of play.’ UK targets Jerod and Jacob Smith lift Corbin defense.

Two of Kentucky high school football’s most talked about prospects wreaked havoc on Friday night in Corbin’s 30-10 victory at Lexington Catholic.

Defensive stars Jacob and Jerod Smith, who spent the past two seasons at Connecticut prep school Loomis Chaffee, made the decision to transfer back to the state for their senior year. Corbin (2-0), reigning 4A state runner-up, already had a winning culture. But adding a pair of four-stars to the defense might be the difference in making it back to Kroger Field this year.

“Well, it’s obvious both of them are great players,” Corbin head coach Tom Greer said. “You know, there’s no question about that. But I’ll tell you this, their character and who they are, ‘Yes sir, no sir’ guys. And what they’ve really brought to our football team, they’ve got a work ethic like nobody else and it’s caused some of our other players to kind of fall in line and they’ve raised our level of play for our football team.”

Jerod, a 6-foot-3, 265-pound defensive lineman, is listed by 247Sports as the No. 224 overall recruit and the No. 26 defensive lineman in the class of 2024. The service ranks Jacob, a 6-4, 230-pound edge rusher, as the No. 19 edge in the nation and No. 239 overall in the class. The twins are considered the second- and third-ranked recruits, respectively, in Kentucky behind Lexington Christian quarterback (and UK commit) Cutter Boley.

The duo played two seasons at Somerset before transferring in 2021 to Loomis Chaffee, where they repeated their sophomore years and combined for 38 sacks and 163 tackles.

Following a successful year with the Pelicans, the Smiths were reported to have transferred to Cheshire (Conn.) Academy for their final season, but returned to their home state instead.

Jerod committed to the University of Michigan on April 25 after a heated recruiting battle among the likes of Kentucky, Alabama, Georgia, Notre Dame and others. It wasn’t a surprise when Jacob announced his own commitment to the Wolverines over a similar crowd on July 13.

However, both brothers’ commitments have been the subject of recent speculation of a possible flip. Steve Wiltfong, 247Sports’ director of football recruiting, submitted a prediction for the duo to flip their commitments to Kentucky on Aug. 15. The first domino to fall, Wiltfong has since been joined by The Michigan Insider’s Brice Marich and Sam Webb, as well as Kentucky Insider’s Josh Edwards.

Though the brothers were unavailable for comment following the Redhounds’ dominant victory over Lexington Catholic, UK football head coach Mark Stoops was in attendance to check out the prospects during the first half.

Last week, Lexington Catholic (1-2) defeated 6A Madison Central 47-0. Friday night, everything was coming up Corbin. Jerod, in particular, showed out at Joseph K. Ford Stadium, menacing LexCath quarterback Jackson Wasik.

“That’s his mindset,” Greer said. “I mean, he gets off the football. Most times he’s two steps before the quarterback ever gets the ball, you know, and he brings that to us.”

Jacob was also effective. According to Greer, the edge rusher can find success all along the defensive line.

“We move Jacob around a lot,” Greer said. “We try to keep them away from each other some and we bring him on some stunts, and both of them are phenomenal players.”

Quarterback Kade Elam agreed.

“They bring the pass rush, they bring everything,” Elam said. “They’re the best players in the state, you know, and they make us good because we compete against them in practice every day. So it’s fun to have them on the team.”

Corbin will hit the road again next Friday for a 7:30 p.m. matchup at Pulaski County. Lexington Catholic will host Great Crossing at 7:30 p.m. Friday before a showdown at crosstown rival Lexington Christian the following week.

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