The introduction of the early signing period in December has taken a lot of the luster away from February’s group, but that was not entirely the case for Iowa State, which got a second late addition to its 2020 class from a Florida offensive lineman on Tuesday afternoon.

Lakeland senior Anthony Smith, who took an official visit to Ames over the weekend and earned an offer from head coach Matt Campbell, didn’t take long to make his decision.

“I was amazed at the place,” said Smith, who was also getting some late looks from Middle Tennessee State and Florida A&M. “Ames is a nice town full of nice people. The facilities there are amazing, and they have the new construction going on with a new facility. The players were cool and remind me a lot of my teammates back at home. Plus, the coaching staff is cool.”

The 6-foot-3, 270-pound Smith was a Florida Atlantic commit under former head coach Lane Kiffin, but found himself in a difficult situation when Willie Taggart’s staff took over. Luckily for the senior, he landed in a better situation at a Power-5 school.

“I had been committed to Florida Atlantic, but they were trying to gray shirt me, so I wouldn’t have been able to start on my degree there right away,” Smith said. “Something happened with their scholarship numbers when the new staff came in January and they couldn’t bring me in. I didn’t really want to do that, because I wanted to make sure I got to school on time so I could start my degree.

“When I got news of that, my coach sat down and started contacting some schools. Iowa State happened to be one of them. I showed them my film and they liked it, so it pretty much went from there. I took an official visit there this past weekend. I was offered on the visit. Everything went pretty well.”

Over the course of his visit, Smith met with offensive line coach Jeff Myers, who sold him on the opportunities as a late addition to the 2020 class.

“Coach Myers is pretty cool and taught me some good technique,” Smith said. “He told me at Iowa State, he plays the best ones. That was pretty neat. Some schools might have favortism, but he assured me he plays the best ones. I felt comfortable knowing that.”

Smith is the fifth offensive line recruit the Cyclones are adding to the mix for 2020, joining December signings Tyler Miller, Hayden Pauls, Brady Petersen and Samuel Rengert.

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