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QB Troy Smith (2006 Heisman Trophy Winner)

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That is the most bad-ass pic of Smith ever. Also the article is very well written and candid - yet I came off feeling sad for Smith and Ginn. I'm about as old as Ted and Troy are and I can't even begin to imagine what their lives are like. While the fanatical nature of the Buckeye fan base is what keeps us so strong, I find it kind of saddening that Troy and Ted have to live lives of isolation to stay focused on school and football.
 
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8/20/06

Ohio St. QB starts
Smith among favorites to earn college football's most prestigious honor

Sunday, August 20, 2006

By JOHN SUPINIE
of COPLEY NEWS SERVICE


CHICAGO - The Heisman Trophy voting ends in early December, following the conference championship games. But the campaign to decide this season's top college football player began months ago.
At least that's how Ohio State quarterback Troy Smith has it figured.
"In essence, the road to the Heisman starts at your bowl game (the previous season),'' he said in early August, before Ohio State started preseason camp but after the senior from Cleveland had been anointed as one of four preseason Heisman favorites.
Remember, Smith led Ohio State to a 34-20 victory over Notre Dame in the Fiesta Bowl. Smith passed for 342 yards and two touchdowns. He accounted for 402 total yards.
Considered the nation's top dual-threat quarterback, Smith showed he's more than just a runner last season while passing for 16 touchdowns with just four interceptions. Smith finished as the country's fourth-rated passer, and he's one reason why a team that lost nine defensive starters to the NFL enters the season as the team to beat for the national title.
While Notre Dame quarterback Brady Quinn, Oklahoma running back Adrian Peterson and Southern Cal receiver Dwayne Jarrett also moved to the front of the pack for Heisman consideration, it's Smith who has drawn comparisons to former Texas quarterback Vince Young.
Young's feet and his arm lifted Texas to the national championship last year in a graceful display of athleticism and style. Young is a better runner, Smith admits. From there, it's like comparing buckeyes and burnt oranges.
"My situation is totally different than his,'' Smith said. "I'm from Ohio. He's from Texas. That's the obvious. I feel as if I'm a totally different kind of quarterback, too.
"Not to knock on anything Vince does because he's a great player, one of the greatest to ever play college football. But I sort of want to build my own legacy and not try to build off someone else's."
Yet Smith has that same ability to make something out of nothing, such as the 26-yard pass on the game-winning, 88-yard touchdown drive at Michigan last season.
Smith's elusive moves in the pocket and accurate passing saved the Buckeyes on the play, which came in the final minute with the Buckeyes trailing. The victory clinched a share of the Big Ten Conference title with Penn State.
Then there were the plays against Notre Dame in the Fiesta Bowl, when the Irish couldn't keep pace with Smith and the Buckeyes. Smith gained at least 300 total yards in four games last season.
Smith suggested a better comparison for him is with former Penn State quarterback Michael Robinson, voted the Big Ten's Offensive Player of the Year last season by league coaches after he guided Penn State to an 11-1 record and helped take the heat off legendary coach Joe Paterno.
"Robinson was pretty much what the doctor ordered,'' Smith said of Penn State. "He did a great job leading in every way. They did a 180 in terms of wins and losses and asserting themselves back into the Big Ten
"He was pretty much the guy in the forefront doing it.''
Once Smith took over as the Buckeyes quarterback, Ohio State returned to super-power status. He is 13-2 as a starter, though he missed the Buckeyes' 33-7 win over Oklahoma State in the Alamo Bowl in 2004 after he accepted $500 from a booster. He returned the money, but was suspended for last season's opener.
"A silly decision left me in the dust, left me in Cleveland, while my teammates were in Texas celebrating a bowl victory,'' Smith said. "I watched the game on TV, and I had to sit there and swallow it. I knew I was supposed to be a part of it, and I wasn't.
"That was just me growing up, me understanding every decision that I make shapes not only myself but my teammates.''
Speedy receiver Ted Ginn Jr. and running back Antonio Pittman also return to the high-powered offense, but the feeling of invincibility on the banks of the Olentangy River comes because of Smith.
"A guy who has had a lot of time under center is something that any team would consider a luxury,'' Ohio State coach Jim Tressel said.
Buckeyes have already won the Heisman balloting seven times.
"I think more about what a national championship can do for the program than I do winning the Heisman,'' Smith said.
Sounds like he's got it figured out. John Supinie can be reached at (217) 377-1977 and [email protected].
Click to expand...
 
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Posted on Wed, Aug. 23, 2006
QB Smith has come long way to lead Buckeyes
RUSTY MILLER
Associated Press

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Two years ago, Troy Smith was a sub hoping to just get into a game. A year ago, he was a starter held out of the lineup because he took money from a booster.

Heading into his final season, top-ranked Ohio State's quarterback is out to prove he ranks among the best players in the land.

"It wasn't so long ago that nobody wanted to talk to me," Smith said of the flurry of preseason interviews he faces.

Smith's name pops up in the premature Heisman Trophy talk. Whenever people discuss the Buckeyes' chances of capturing their second national championship in five seasons, the main topic is the kid with the common name and uncommon game.

His 2005 numbers speak for themselves: 16 touchdown passes with only 4 interceptions, 11 rushing TDs, a 10-2 record.

However, he's most proud of what can't be measured.

With a game on the line, he looks forward to being the leader of the offense.

"You have to be able to lead," he said. "You've got 10 other guys looking at you. The most family oriented or team-oriented portion of a football game is when everybody's in the huddle. Everybody's attention is on one thing. There can be 105,000 screaming fans and everybody in the huddle is all centered and focused on one thing. That's a beautiful thing."

Smith relishes being the man those other 10 players are looking at and to.

It wasn't so terribly long ago that he was barely visible. Justin Zwick won the job when he and Smith were redshirt sophomores and it was Zwick who took almost every snap in the first five games of the 2005 season.

Late in a loss at Iowa - which dropped the proud Buckeyes to 0-3 in the Big Ten - Smith was summoned from the sideline and played well. With Zwick nursing a shoulder injury, Smith started the next game and the Buckeyes won. Then the next, another win.

He hasn't vacated the job since, except for an NCAA-mandated two-game suspension (the 2004 Alamo Bowl over Oklahoma State and last year's opener against Miami of Ohio). An investigation determined he accepted around $500 from a team booster. He paid the money back to a charity, apologized, served his suspension and moved on.

The Buckeyes lost two games early last season, to eventual No. 1 Texas when Smith was just coming back from his suspension, and a narrow loss at Penn State. They won their final seven games, with Smith gaining in confidence and ability.

The highlight came when he led Ohio State back from a deficit at The Big House to beat Michigan, 25-21. The most memorable play from that game wasn't Antonio Pittman's last-minute touchdown run to clinch the win but a frenzied Smith pass to a leaping Anthony Gonzalez that set up that score.

Now Ohio State comes into a season with only two starters back on defense but Smith, Ted Ginn Jr. and several other stars returning on offense.

Having the acknowledged team leader back behind center is enough to give even a grizzled head coach a bit of comfort.

"You want that guy in the huddle," coach Jim Tressel said of Smith. "You want that guy ... to make sure that no one's talking but him and everyone wants to hear what he has to say. It's fun to watch Troy take charge."

Smith has changed from the sophomore who complained to reporters that he wasn't getting a fair shot at the starting job. He graduated with a degree in communications this spring and is now attending graduate school.

The first member of his immediate family to earn a degree, he's proud that his little sister will graduate this winter from Cleveland State.

Smith has many interests. He says he would someday like to open a distinctive restaurant in Columbus.

Clearly the 22-year-old from Cleveland is no longer a callow youth.

Tressel said he has seen his quarterback grow in how he commands his teammates, in the huddle and on the sideline, off the field and on it.

"Troy cuts to the chase," Tressel said. "He tells (the players) sometimes the way us coaches would like to tell them but maybe we're a little more sensitive. It's kind of neat to see the way he's grabbed a hold of this football team."

Ohio State opens its season Sept. 2 at home against Northern Illinois, then gets a rematch against the Longhorns in Texas.

Smith recognizes the opportunity ahead - and how far he has already come.

"Through the grace of God everything made it to the way it is now," he said. "And I'm grateful and thankful for everything."
Click to expand...

http://www.ohio.com/mld/beaconjournal/news/state/15342813.htm
 
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