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QB Troy Smith (2006 Heisman Trophy Winner)

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http://bigten.cstv.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/112006aac.html

Troy named Big 10 Offensive POW:

OFFENSE:
Troy Smith, Ohio State
SR, QB, Cleveland, Ohio/Glenville
In a battle between the nation's top two teams, Smith boosted the top-ranked Buckeyes to a 42-39 victory over second-ranked Michigan by completing 70.7 percent of his passes for a season-high 316 yards while equaling a career high with four touchdown strikes. Smith set career highs with 29 completions and 41 attempts to become the first Ohio State quarterback to start and win three games in 103 all-time meetings between the storied programs. After the Wolverines jumped out to an early 7-0 advantage, Smith led the Buckeyes right back on their first drive to knot the score with a one-yard toss to Roy Hall. He also connected on a 39-yard touchdown to Ted Ginn Jr. to push the lead to 21-7 in the second quarter. After the visitors pulled within 21-14, he responded with a nine-play, 80-yard drive in just over two minutes before hitting Anthony Gonzalez from eight yards out with 20 seconds on the clock to give OSU a 28-14 halftime lead. Michigan battled back to pull within 35-31 at the start of the fourth quarter before Smith hit his fourth different receiver for a touchdown, connecting with Brian Robiskie from 13 yards out to give the Buckeyes a 42-31 cushion with 5:38 remaining before the team held on for the three-point victory. The four touchdown passes by the Preseason Big Ten Offensive Player of the Year boosted his season total to 30 scoring strikes, breaking the previous school record of 29 touchdowns set by Bobby Hoying in 1995. Smith's 30 passing scores ranks third in Big Ten annals behind only Purdue's Drew Brees (39 in 1998) and Kyle Orton (31 in 2004). Smith earns Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week honors for the fifth time this season, breaking the conference record of four weekly accolades in a single year set by Indiana's Anthony Thompson (1989), Michigan's Desmond Howard (1991), Wisconsin's Ron Dayne (1999), Purdue's Drew Brees (2000) and Kyle Orton (2004) and Penn State's Larry Johnson (2002).
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"Cool is knowing it doesn't matter what Notre Dame's Brady Quinn does against USC or that Quinn is a more NFL-ready quarterback. Only one of Columbus' favorite sons is carting off the Heisman in 19 days ... and it ain't Brady."


Any comments about Quinn being more NFL ready should be tossed out like a Wolverine in your daughter's bedroom! :pissed:
 
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Yahoo.com

OSU's Smith is constant in oft-changing seasonBy Matt Hayes - SportingNews


Fans held signs of reverence for the man called Bo, and there was a moment of silence in the Horseshoe for the coach they loved to hate.
It was somber and surreal and surely something Glenn Schembechler never could have imagined. The ol' firebrand would've been humbled. Then he would've puked.
Eighty-freaking-one points and 900 total yards. What's worse? No. 1 Ohio State beating No. 2 Michigan, 42-39, in the biggest game in the history of The Biggest Game or Schembechler's beloved Big Ten dissolving into a game of pitch and catch? Three yards and a cloud of dust gave way to a three-step drop and finding someone streaking free in the secondary. At least Bo had Woody to curse at up there.

"They were probably sick about it," says Ohio State linebacker James Laurinaitis. "But at this point, it's all about winning."
And advancing. What do we glean from this playground football disguised as the Game of the Millennium? Ohio State will play in the national title game. And no matter what numbers the BCS system eventually spits out, no matter what some geek with a laptop says, Michigan made one hell of an argument that it deserves to be there, too.
"There can't be many teams in the nation better than Michigan," Ohio State coach Jim Tressel says.
There is, however, one clear leader above them all. The team that made a defining statement back in September with a win over defending national champion Texas in Austin, then lollygagged through a cake schedule, flexed its muscle again when it mattered most.
The star quarterback wrapped up the Heisman Trophy, the game's best coach continued to turn The Biggest Game into his game, and the one, unwavering constant remained firm in what otherwise has been an ever-changing season.
The reason: Troy Smith.
Two days before The Biggest Game and one day before the world changed for Michigan when its beloved former coach died of heart failure, Smith was standing in front of his teammates and speaking to the group. Tressel allowed each senior to address the team, and Smith, the heart and soul and fuel of this group, was last.
Wasn't long ago that Smith was an afterthought recruit in a heralded 2002 class. He was the last player signed and was seen as an athlete type who the coaches hoped would find his way. Smith surely wouldn't be competition at quarterback for Ohio schoolboy legend Justin Zwick, the phenom Buckeyes fans long had been charting.
Wasn't long ago that Smith was just another arm on the scout team, just another pair of fresh legs on special teams. He was undersized and didn't really fit anywhere. Yet in the five years since he arrived in Columbus, Smith has gone from nowhere man to vilified stooge to the best player in college football. Three years ago, his college career almost ended before it began when he accepted $500 from a booster and was suspended for the last game of the 2004 season and the first game of last season.
Ohio State could have cut ties with Smith and forged ahead with Zwick, who shared time with Smith in '04 and was being groomed for the position. But Tressel convinced the Ohio State administration to petition the NCAA to allow Smith to regain his eligibility -- but there was one caveat: "He said, 'Don't make me look stupid,' " Smith says.
Last week, with all of that in the rearview and the biggest game of his life straight ahead, there was Smith weeping in front of his teammates. He tried to keep it in, tried to hold it together for the 100 or so sets of eyes fixated on the player they feed off of.
"I love each and every one of those guys with the most passion a man can have," Smith says. "I wanted them to know what they meant to me and what we still had in front of us."
Then he went out and cemented his status as the best player in the 103-year history of The Biggest Game. No player has dominated the series more than Smith. No player has done a better job of lifting his team in crucial spots and under every circumstance: as an underdog in '04, trailing by nine on the road midway through the fourth quarter in '05 and finally as the favorite with everything -- the Big Ten championship, a spot in the national title game, No. 1 vs.
No. 2, the Heisman Trophy -- on the line last Saturday.
Three games and three once-in-a-lifetime performances.
"Once would've been something to remember forever," Ohio State wideout Anthony Gonzalez says. "He has done it over and over and over."
The game plan was simple this time, and it centered on Smith and his ability to be efficient and accurate in the passing game. The object was to spread the field and force Michigan's big, burly front seven to chase. Break down the best defense in the nation with short and intermediate throws early, then run up the middle when the Wolverines' safeties were forced to play outside the hashes to double-team the receivers.
The plan worked because, for the most part, Ohio State's receivers won battles with Michigan's cornerbacks. It also worked because the offense focused on blitz protections up the middle and asked Smith to beat any blitz from the outside.
"We told Troy, 'You're going to get hit,' " Buckeyes offensive coordinator Jim Bollman says.
Like it mattered. Smith has been taking big shots from Michigan for three years. That wasn't going to change anything; the train just kept rolling. In those three games, Smith accounted for 1,051 yards of offense and nine touchdowns. This time, he threw for four touchdowns and led Ohio State to its most points in the series since 1968 -- the year before the "10-Year War" of Bo vs. Woody began.
Voters who still think this Heisman race is open should void their ballots and return them to the Downtown Athletic Club as soon as possible.
"He's a throwback," Gonzalez says of Smith. "Woody would have loved him because of the passion he plays with."
Not that Smith doesn't have faults. His mistakes in the third quarter allowed Michigan to stay in the game and kept the Wolverines in the thick of the "Who's No. 2?" debate. Had it not been for Smith's forced throw into triple coverage, had it not been for his fumbled shotgun snap -- both turnovers gave Michigan a short field and led to 10 points -- the game would have been a blowout and the Notre Dame-Southern California winner this weekend would have been all but locked into the national championship game.
Instead, we have Ohio State staring at the possibility of again having to play its bitter rival in six weeks in a game that would be -- if possible -- even bigger. This scenario played out 10 years ago when No. 1 Florida lost to No. 2 Florida State by three points in Tallahassee, then, thanks to a couple of upsets, got another date with the Seminoles for the national title. Florida won the rematch by 32 points.
"A rematch," Ohio State cornerback Malcolm Jenkins says, "would negate us beating them."
Then again, why would anyone in scarlet and gray be worried about Michigan? Another game against Big Blue is another opportunity for Smith to stick it to the hated Wolverines.
"If it happens," Smith says, "you better believe we'll be ready." Of course they will. Of course he will.
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I want to recognize Ant...on our boards, for seeing Smith's potential before most of us did. Least we forget, TS, for varied reasons, overcame some major difficulties to prevail. Beyond teammates' help, Mr. Ginn Sr. and Coach Tressel and staff are all there with big assists. It's a marvelous story.

And, Ant, you were correct early on.
 
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Thank you Troy,

Just for making me feel like a little kid on Christmas morning every time I watched a game and saw you set the bar for all future Buckeyes, (not just QB's) to reach for.

Thank you for the memories, thank you for the victories, and thank you for being such a classy person and showing the younger players and people around the world how great a program The Ohio State University has and how great an individual you are.

Thank you.

Can not wait to see you on Dec. 9th
Can not wait to see you play on Jan. 8th
and can not wait to enjoy seeing the ESPN highlights from Sunday's games.
 
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The guys over at EDSBS (Florida fans and some of the best writers on the Net) offer their thoughts on Troy:

http://www.everydayshouldbesaturday.com/?p=2844

Troy Smith plays quarterback with the calm and precision of a Zen archer on Saturday. He carries the water; he chops the wood. He contemplates the homunculus problem while noticing the slim wings of a pigeon circling the stadium lights. He doesn't throw the ball; it leaves him and goes to others, most notably Gonzales and Ginn but to eight receivers in total, all of whom take the space given and then smile the knowing smile of understanding.

archersm.jpg

Troy Smith's offseason workout: be the bow.

If we looked back and saw game film of him throwing blindfolded, well, we wouldn't be surprised. It's probably how he practiced in the offseason, throwing perfect spirals underneath a raging waterfall in the Himalaya in sub-zero temperatures. He's playing like Milarepa hit with the sandal of enlightenment?even when he made two bone-headed turnovers, they looked like excuses to flaunt his skills.

?The conversation on the headset between Troy Smith and coaches:

Coach: Troy, what is a mistake?

Troy: A man with no head looking for a hat.

Coach, covering headset mike and talking with staff: He's fine.
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Also, in a comment on a previous entry, one of the authors makes mention that, as a Florida fan, he wants nothing to do with Ohio State in the title game:

[...] they would kill us. And Floating Leaf - that's Troy Smith's zen master name - would make Blake Mitchell's scalpel work on us look amateur in comparison.
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Troy's record 5th Big Ten POW award in one season beats the record held by 6 different players. Two of them were Heisman winners (Ron Dayne- 1999 and Desmond Howard -1991) and one was a Heisman finalist (Larry Johnson -2002).

In the bag.
 
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Like Davie said during the game (paraphrasing) "If that isn't a top ten pick, I don't know what is." I came into the season with my doubts about Troys future in the NFL as a QB, but as the season progressed I became more and more convinced. After Saturday, I have zero doubt he will be a success at the next level. 95% of QB at the college level may have wilted and crashed after an INT and a couple bad snaps. Troy lifted those guys on his shoulders and refused to lose. That's a says an awful lot about not only Troy as a man, but also about JT as a coach/mentor.
 
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I'm sad to think that next year we will know how Texas felt this year.

You don't replace one of the greatest players in your schools history. He will be placed in the ring of honor next to Eddie and Coach where he belongs. No matter what happens with him in the NFL, Troy's already earned his distinction of being number 10 on the field but #1 in our hearts!
 
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Bestbuck36;667096; said:
I'm sad to think that next year we will know how Texas felt this year.

You don't replace one of the greatest players in your schools history. He will be placed in the ring of honor next to Eddie and Coach where he belongs. No matter what happens with him in the NFL, Troy's already earned his distinction of being number 10 on the field but #1 in our hearts!
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Our situation is different than the VY / Texas one.
#1.) Texas did not know if VY would be back until after their NC. The OSU staff obviously knew TS and JZ would run out of eligibility. As a result of that we have fortunately been able to prepare for next year much better than Texas did.

#2.) Our schedule does not have the #1 team coming the 2nd game of the year. The 07 schedule looks very favorable for the Bucks other than games at PSU and UM. Fortunately we have Wisky at home.

#3.) Our defense should be better than 06 Texas and I like our coach to handle the QB transition much better than Mack has. It honestly seemed like Mack just rode on Vince's shoulders. We should still have a tremendous O-Line with depth and a stellar running game. You could not ask for a better situation to transition a new QB. Tress has proven he can win big with a well coached QB that is not an all world talent.

Back to Troy; congrats on earning your degree, 3 victories over Michigan, a lot of well deserved awards for your play on the field, the respect of any sports fan, and becoming a role model for so many out there. You truly showed that you can overcome the worst of situations and flourish. I am so proud of Troy and his efforts and I know that thousands and thousands of kids out there look up to him as a role model.

Troy deserves a lot of praise but Tress does deserve credit for handling the situation properly and then later giving him a 2nd chance. With all the pressure placed on head coaches today and all the heat Tress was taking from the media after Maurice I am so proud of JT for standing by what he believes in and giving Troy another chance. Tress could have easily given up on Troy and Troy could be long forgotten by now.

Troy will never be replaced. #10 will more than likely be retired, Troy will be remembered as one of the best bucks ever and his legacy does not end here. I think Troy truly embraced his situation to the fullest and he really will leave OSU a man. I know that Troy will give back to his community, the university, and I definitely see Troy becoming a great TV analyst after his football career is over. He has the degree from TOSU, he is a highly-respected individual with class, and he is going to be a former Heisman. A lot of former heismans end up on TV.

Congrats Troy! What a story!
 
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