Minnesota Tight End Jameson Smuda Commits to South Dakota State Jackrabbits

Eight catches, 342 yards, five touchdowns. An average of 43 yards per reception on a team that rarely throws the ball. Those numbers from Zimmerman High School's Jameson Smuda caught South Dakota State's attention this winter, and on March 31, the 6-foot-6, 220-pound tight end committed to the Jackrabbits as a class of 2027 prospect.

Smuda attended SDSU's Junior Day on January 31 and received his first college offer that afternoon, sitting down with head coach Dan Jackson and tight ends coach Vince Benedetto. "I was at their Junior Day in January when I received my offer," Smuda said. "They took me back into Coach Jackson's area, and we had a great conversation along with my dad. It was my first offer at the time, and we were very grateful and excited about the opportunity."

He returned to Brookings in March to watch spring practice, then chose the Jackrabbits over South Dakota and Cornell. Rivals rates him No. 1202 nationally, No. 62 among tight ends, and No. 13 in Minnesota.

"The coaches and culture they are building were the biggest reasons I committed," Smuda said. "I feel like this is a staff that I could develop as a player and person under, and it seems like a really fun team to be a part of while remaining very competitive and improving rapidly." Smuda says he has no plans to take further visits.

The schematic implications of a 6-foot-6 tight end in Benedetto's room matter more than any recruiting ranking. At that height, Smuda reshapes SDSU's red-zone menu: a high-point target near the goal line forces defensive coordinators to account for a mismatch that most FCS secondaries simply cannot solve. Paired with SDSU's physical running game, play-action off the dive becomes considerably more dangerous when the flat route is being run by someone who can turn a 10-yard completion into a 43-yard play, as Zimmerman's run-heavy scheme illustrated last fall.

The immediate path to snaps runs through special teams and two-tight end sets. SDSU has consistently deployed 12-personnel in short-yardage and red-zone situations, and Smuda's multi-sport background in basketball and track suggests the movement profile to contribute on coverage units in year one.

The comparison that will drive conversation: Dallas Goedert, who built his NFL case at SDSU before going 49th overall to the Philadelphia Eagles in 2018, stands 6-foot-4 and 256 pounds. Tucker Kraft, another Jackrabbit tight end taken in the third round of the 2023 NFL Draft by Green Bay, is listed at 6-foot-5, 253 pounds. Smuda checks in an inch taller than Goedert at a school with a verified tight end pipeline to the league. He arrives at 220 pounds with room to add the weight that completes the profile.

Jackson, the 22nd head coach in SDSU history and a Jackrabbits alumnus who played from 2003 to 2005, replaced Jimmy Rogers following the 2024 season. The program went 12-3 that year, winning its third consecutive MVFC title and reaching the FCS semifinal for the fifth straight season. The Jackrabbits' back-to-back national championships in 2022 and 2023 made them the first program to repeat as FCS champions since North Dakota State's three-peat from 2017 to 2019.

Smuda is the kind of recruiting addition that tells you what a program thinks its offense can become, not just what it has been.