ROSWELL, Ga.—With roughly three dozen teams from Georgia high schools participating in the Corky Kell 7-on-7 Invitational Tournament over the weekend, there was plenty of intriguing talent on hand. Yet, perhaps the most intriguing player was Aubrey Smith, a linebacker at Central Gwinnett High School in Lawrenceville.

Smith is over six feet tall and weighs more than 220 pounds—and, more compelling, he only recently completed middle school. What’s more, the rising freshman just picked up his first scholarship offer to play major college football, extended last Wednesday while attending a camp at the University of Georgia.

“My heart was just pounding, because Coach [Kirby] Smart was right there just watching us while we worked out,” Smith said. “And, Kirby Smart, that’s a big-time well-known name!”

Prior to working out in front of Smart alongside two highly-touted linebackers who were three years older than him, Smith played in back-to-back 7-on-7 games. He had a long sprint to the workout. Smith was tired before he even started. He was also nervous, with his heart pounding rapidly.

After the workout, Smith went for a ride with the Georgia head coach.

“I got in a golf cart with Kirby and my heart started pounding a little bit more—and then he said, ‘We’re going to offer you a scholarship today,’” Smith recalled. “I almost started panicking before Coach Smart was like, ‘Relax, just relax. It’s okay. It’s okay.’”

Smith soon called his older brother, Austin Smith, a junior linebacker at Tennessee.

“Austin said he was proud of me, but I still had a lot of work to do—and I still had a lot of offers to get,” Smith said. “He also said, ‘Control yourself, be humble, and don’t do anything stupid to mess it all up.’”

The younger Smith has already taken that advice to heart. Despite dealing with autism, a condition which is hardly evident, he is a straight-A student.

Naturally, Smith's parents are proud, but they are also a little surprised for a different reason.

“My mom had tears of joy,” Smith said regarding his mother’s reaction to his offer from Georgia. “She always says she knew I was going to be special when the doctors thought I was going to have a birth defect and be small.”

Based on ultrasound photos of Smith, doctors believed he would be born having some degree of dwarfism. Today, those same doctors project him to grow as tall as 6-foot-4. Still, Smith’s childhood was not without different growing pains, including times when his mother wouldn’t eat so that Aubrey, Austin, and a sister who currently attends Valdosta State University, could do so.

“She has made many sacrifices for her kids to put us in the positions we are in today,” said Smith, an admitted momma’s boy. “It takes a tough person to do that—not eating—just so she could afford to feed us.”

While growing up, Smith has often spent time with his grandparents, who are not only Georgia football fans, but took their grandson to Bulldogs games in Athens. Still, Smith’s current rooting interest is a school to which he seemingly has no family ties—the Ohio State Buckeyes.

“I love [head coach] Urban Meyer,” Smith said. “I have pictures of Ohio State players on my wall. I’m a big fan of the Buckeyes.”

Could Smith actually fathom playing for Ohio State, being a good distance from home—far away from his mother?

“My dad, he probably wants me to go far away because the grocery bill would be a lot smaller,” Smith said with a laugh. “But, my mom wants me to stay close like the rest of her kids. She doesn’t want me to go far.”

Although Smith believes he's more likely to sign with Georgia or Ohio State eventually, he is mindful that he has received only the first of what likely will be dozens of offers over the next few years. In fact, he is scheduled to make visits to several schools just this summer, including Auburn this past weekend for a workout. Yet, long before having to decide which school he’ll ultimately attend, Smith remains essentially a kid—one not having attended high school yet—who is enjoying his first taste of the recruiting process, while relishing his first scholarship offer.

“When I was leaving Athens after getting my offer, some people were asking me if they could take my picture [with them],” Smith said. “I was like, ‘Oh, my God!’ It felt like I was famous!”