49ers' Troy Smith takes rocky road to starting QB job
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By Matthew Barrows
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Published: Sunday, Nov. 14, 2010
SANTA CLARA ? The deliberation began in the dark cabin of a plane crossing the Atlantic Ocean.
Coach Mike Singletary had not been impressed by No. 2 quarterback David Carr during the offseason, and that skepticism only grew after Carr's second-half performance in Carolina, a game that had ended in a 49ers defeat just a few hours earlier.
Starting quarterback Alex Smith had boarded the team's charter to England with his left arm in a sling because of a separated shoulder that promised to keep him off the field for three weeks. Another quarterback, Nate Davis, was on the practice squad, unready for a regular-season game.
Singletary was down to his last option ? Troy Smith, who had joined the 49ers only a month and a half earlier.
Smith was a college hotshot who had become an NFL unknown. He had spent training camp as Baltimore's No. 3 quarterback but had been cut Sept. 4. He had never thrown a practice pass to Vernon Davis, Michael Crabtree or any first-team receiver, and he hadn't had time to digest the 49ers' offensive playbook.
Singletary wanted to make the move. What he asked himself on that dark and silent crossing was, could he? Could Smith learn enough with just three days of practice? Could he jell with teammates in time? How would he fare in front of 84,000 fans in a strange stadium? Could he do it?
Singletary needed to be convinced. And so, after the team buses rolled to a stop at the 49ers' practice home in sleepy Hertfordshire and the red-eyed players shuffled off to their beds, the coach sat down and started making phone calls.
He called Ray Lewis, the Ravens linebacker and locker room leader who spent three seasons with Smith after Baltimore drafted Smith in the fifth round in 2007.
He called Jim Tressel, the coach at Ohio State who watched Smith throw 30 touchdown passes as a senior and win the Heisman Trophy in 2006.
And he went even further back, dialing Ted Ginn Sr., Smith's high school coach from east Cleveland. Ginn is the father of Smith's teammate, wide receiver Ted Ginn Jr. Smith and Ted Jr. have been best friends since Smith was 7 and Ginn was 6.
"There was a common denominator in every call that I made," Singletary said. "And it was that he's a leader, he's a winner and, just tell him exactly what you want him to do, and that's what he'll do."
But Singletary learned a lot more. He found out there were plenty of rough edges in Smith's past and that his charismatic and charming quarterback's life had been anything but charmed.
Smith's biological father was never part of his life. His mother, Tracy, is a constant now, and Smith spent part of the 49ers' bye week with her in Ohio. But she had personal problems, and at age 9, Smith went to live with the family of his midget league coach, Irvin White.
