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PrincetonBuckeye
The eyes of Texas are upon you!
Troy Smith
I see 2 things in Troys' future:
1.
2.
:osu: :osu: :osu: :osu:
Lets go Troy!!!! Go BUCKS!!!!!!
I see 2 things in Troys' future:
1.
2.
:osu: :osu: :osu: :osu: Lets go Troy!!!! Go BUCKS!!!!!!
Upvote
0
CPD
THE TROY SMITH POLL
Tuesday, December 05, 2006
Five questions about the Cleveland native and Heisman front-runner.
1. When Troy Smith signed with Ohio State out of Glenville High in 2002, what did you think of him?
A. So excited about Maurice Clarett, didn't know who Smith was.
B. Heard of him, but didn't think Buckeyes should have signed him.
C. Liked his talent, but didn't think he'd play quarterback in college.
D. Expected great things, knew he'd surprise people.
2. When Troy Smith took over as the starting quarterback during the 2004 season, what did you think?
A. Who is this guy? I hope Justin Zwick is back soon.
B. Not bad, he might be decent.
C. Solid quarterback, he'll win some games.
D. Future Heisman winner, no doubt.
3. Whom do you consider the greatest quarterback in Ohio State history?
A. Rex Kern, won the 1968 national title.
B. Les Horvath, won 1944 Heisman playing quarterback and halfback. C. Craig Krenzel, won the 2002 national title.
D. Art Schlichter, four-year starter, all-time passing leader.
E. Troy Smith.
4. What do you think Troy Smith's chances were of winning the Heisman before this season?
A. 100 percent, it was in the bag.
B. 75 percent, he'd have a great year, just needed other contenders to falter.
C. 50 percent, thought he'd be good, but not great.
D. 25 percent, considered him a long shot.
5. What is Troy Smith's greatest game as a Buckeye?
A. 2004 vs. Michigan, 386 total yards.
B. 2005 vs. Michigan, 300 passing yards in comeback.
C. 2006 vs. Notre Dame, 324 passing yards in Fiesta Bowl.
D. 2006 vs. Michigan, 316 passing yards, four TDs.
E. Yet to come in 2007 national title game.
Vote in this week's poll at cleveland.com/osufootball. Results will appear in Sunday's Plain Dealer.
THE TROY SMITH POLL
Tuesday, December 05, 2006
Five questions about the Cleveland native and Heisman front-runner.
1. When Troy Smith signed with Ohio State out of Glenville High in 2002, what did you think of him?
A. So excited about Maurice Clarett, didn't know who Smith was.
B. Heard of him, but didn't think Buckeyes should have signed him.
C. Liked his talent, but didn't think he'd play quarterback in college.
D. Expected great things, knew he'd surprise people.
2. When Troy Smith took over as the starting quarterback during the 2004 season, what did you think?
A. Who is this guy? I hope Justin Zwick is back soon.
B. Not bad, he might be decent.
C. Solid quarterback, he'll win some games.
D. Future Heisman winner, no doubt.
3. Whom do you consider the greatest quarterback in Ohio State history?
A. Rex Kern, won the 1968 national title.
B. Les Horvath, won 1944 Heisman playing quarterback and halfback. C. Craig Krenzel, won the 2002 national title.
D. Art Schlichter, four-year starter, all-time passing leader.
E. Troy Smith.
4. What do you think Troy Smith's chances were of winning the Heisman before this season?
A. 100 percent, it was in the bag.
B. 75 percent, he'd have a great year, just needed other contenders to falter.
C. 50 percent, thought he'd be good, but not great.
D. 25 percent, considered him a long shot.
5. What is Troy Smith's greatest game as a Buckeye?
A. 2004 vs. Michigan, 386 total yards.
B. 2005 vs. Michigan, 300 passing yards in comeback.
C. 2006 vs. Notre Dame, 324 passing yards in Fiesta Bowl.
D. 2006 vs. Michigan, 316 passing yards, four TDs.
E. Yet to come in 2007 national title game.
Vote in this week's poll at cleveland.com/osufootball. Results will appear in Sunday's Plain Dealer.
Upvote
0
CPD
Ohio State quarterback learns from ups and downs
12/5/2006, 2:32 p.m. ETBy RUSTY MILLER
The Associated Press
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) ? Having come so far in such a short time, Troy Smith knows there is no time to rest just yet.
There is one more game to go in his college career, one more chance to show a lot of people that they were wrong about him, one more chance to prove that he truly is a quarterback and not just an "athlete."
The chance to win a Heisman Trophy this weekend is just another step along the way to the next challenge."This is the beginning of the end, but no one is looking at it like that," he said of No. 1 Ohio State's impending date with Florida in the national championship game on Jan. 8.
At 22, Smith has moved on from a tough childhood and has overcome several personal trials to become one of the top players in the nation.
The talent was always there for Ohio State's 6-foot-1, 215-pound run-pass star who has a sterling 25-2 record as a starter. His numbers mark him as the best ever at his position at the school ? a record 30 touchdown passes and 67-percent completion rate this season with only five interceptions.
More than that, he's at his best in the biggest games, becoming only the second Ohio State quarterback (Tippy Dye, 1934-36) to go 3-0 as a starter against archrival Michigan. In those games, plus showdowns with No. 2 Texas this year and No. 6 Notre Dame in last year's Fiesta Bowl, Smith has averaged 50 yards rushing, 294 passing yards and has 11 TD passes with one interception.
His defining moment came earlier in the season when he avoided two pass rushers, doubled back and pinpointed a long pass for a 37-yard scoring strike to Brian Robiskie in a 28-6 win over Penn State.
"That play that Smith made when we almost had him, he threw that ball on the button in the end zone," Nittany Lions coach Joe Paterno said. "That was a super play."
Smith, who graduated last spring with a degree in communications and is working on another bachelor's degree in Black Studies, is a bundle of paradoxes off the field: The very epitome of a team player, he has often made egregious mistakes that have hurt his teams.
But he has also shown an ability to overcome those missteps.
"His determination, he had that all his life, whether that was on the good end or the bad end," says his high school coach and father figure, Ted Ginn Sr.Things didn't come easy for Tracy Smith and her three kids. Sports were a welcome respite from the rigors of a hard-scrabble life. Troy, her youngest, thrived from the very beginning on the field and the court.
Smith, whose father wasn't in his life, was just another scrawny, whippet-fast kid growing up on the streets, parks and sandlots of Cleveland when he first started dreaming of being a big-time quarterback.
He wanted to be the quarterback of his pee-wee team because that position had the biggest effect on winning. Back then, he befriended a fellow pee-wee quarterback. The two still took turns woofing at each other when they weren't hanging around together after the games.
That enemy quarterback became his teammate in high school and also at Ohio State, Ted Ginn Jr. Now Ginn ? a breath-takingly fast wide-out and kick returner ? is one of Smith's favorite targets, best friends and boosters.
Both of their names popped up on Heisman watch lists earlier this year.
"If I had a vote, I'd vote for him," Ginn said with a grin.
Off the field, Smith likes to spend time mentoring children and seems to take personal interest when signing autographs. In interviews, he continually talks about football, but there is a less sober side, like having fun when hanging out with his friends, mostly teammates.
Smith carries a lot of baggage.
During a high school basketball game in December of 2000, witnesses said Smith purposely elbowed a white player and knocked him unconscious.
Years later, Smith told Sports Illustrated that he lashed out because racial slurs were thrown at him during the game.The private St. Edward High School in suburban Lakewood dismissed him from the team and he soon transferred to inner-city Glenville, where he became a star in football and basketball.
"You have to remember what the perception of Troy was," Ginn Sr. said. "It was, 'You don't want him on your team.' A lot of people shied away. But I said, this is a good kid."
After he blossomed as a quarterback for him, Ginn Sr. told all recruiters that Smith was a quarterback and shouldn't be considered just an athlete who could be shifted to another position.
Ohio State coach Jim Tressel agreed.
Early in his college career, Smith was involved in a fight outside an Ohio State dormitory in the fall of 2003 and was found guilty of disorderly conduct.
Then an NCAA investigation determined he took $500 from an Ohio State booster in the spring of 2004. He had to repay the money, sit out the Buckeyes' bowl game and the 2005 season-opener.
Smith doesn't like to talk about those problems but he credits his family and friends for helping him get through them.
"I have a stable group of people around me to help me stay even-keeled and everything," he said. "That group of people helps me get back to reality."
Midway through his redshirt sophomore season over two years ago, he failed to play in three straight games while watching big-name recruit Justin Zwick, who was the same age. Smith could read the handwriting on the gray walls at Ohio Stadium.
Hurt and seemingly forgotten, he hinted that he might transfer.But then the Buckeyes fell into a three-game swoon, Zwick sustained a shoulder injury and Smith stepped in. Except for the two games he was compelled to sit out, he's been in charge of the offense ever since.
His confidence never left him.
"Some kids when they're in high school, they walk with their heads down," Glenville athletic director Gretchen Taylor said. "They don't have enough confidence in themselves. Troy, you never see his head down."
It's not just coincidence that he equates quarterbacking with being the head of a family.
"You've got 10 other guys looking at you," Smith said. "I think probably the most ? how can I put this ? the most family-oriented or team-oriented portion of a football game is when everybody's in the huddle. 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 is looking forward to taking Tracy to Saturday's Heisman announcement. Neither has been to New York.
"Just taking my mother to a situation where she's never been is great," he said.
He doesn't want to leave empty handed. Five other Ohio State players have won the coveted statuette, including the only two-time winner, Archie Griffin.
The two most recent winners ? Griffin and 1995 winner Eddie George ? have bumped into Smith several times in the past year.
They don't discuss the Heisman for fear they might jinx Smith.
Ohio State quarterback learns from ups and downs
12/5/2006, 2:32 p.m. ETBy RUSTY MILLER
The Associated Press
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) ? Having come so far in such a short time, Troy Smith knows there is no time to rest just yet.
There is one more game to go in his college career, one more chance to show a lot of people that they were wrong about him, one more chance to prove that he truly is a quarterback and not just an "athlete."
The chance to win a Heisman Trophy this weekend is just another step along the way to the next challenge."This is the beginning of the end, but no one is looking at it like that," he said of No. 1 Ohio State's impending date with Florida in the national championship game on Jan. 8.
At 22, Smith has moved on from a tough childhood and has overcome several personal trials to become one of the top players in the nation.
The talent was always there for Ohio State's 6-foot-1, 215-pound run-pass star who has a sterling 25-2 record as a starter. His numbers mark him as the best ever at his position at the school ? a record 30 touchdown passes and 67-percent completion rate this season with only five interceptions.
More than that, he's at his best in the biggest games, becoming only the second Ohio State quarterback (Tippy Dye, 1934-36) to go 3-0 as a starter against archrival Michigan. In those games, plus showdowns with No. 2 Texas this year and No. 6 Notre Dame in last year's Fiesta Bowl, Smith has averaged 50 yards rushing, 294 passing yards and has 11 TD passes with one interception.
His defining moment came earlier in the season when he avoided two pass rushers, doubled back and pinpointed a long pass for a 37-yard scoring strike to Brian Robiskie in a 28-6 win over Penn State.
"That play that Smith made when we almost had him, he threw that ball on the button in the end zone," Nittany Lions coach Joe Paterno said. "That was a super play."
Smith, who graduated last spring with a degree in communications and is working on another bachelor's degree in Black Studies, is a bundle of paradoxes off the field: The very epitome of a team player, he has often made egregious mistakes that have hurt his teams.
But he has also shown an ability to overcome those missteps.
"His determination, he had that all his life, whether that was on the good end or the bad end," says his high school coach and father figure, Ted Ginn Sr.Things didn't come easy for Tracy Smith and her three kids. Sports were a welcome respite from the rigors of a hard-scrabble life. Troy, her youngest, thrived from the very beginning on the field and the court.
Smith, whose father wasn't in his life, was just another scrawny, whippet-fast kid growing up on the streets, parks and sandlots of Cleveland when he first started dreaming of being a big-time quarterback.
He wanted to be the quarterback of his pee-wee team because that position had the biggest effect on winning. Back then, he befriended a fellow pee-wee quarterback. The two still took turns woofing at each other when they weren't hanging around together after the games.
That enemy quarterback became his teammate in high school and also at Ohio State, Ted Ginn Jr. Now Ginn ? a breath-takingly fast wide-out and kick returner ? is one of Smith's favorite targets, best friends and boosters.
Both of their names popped up on Heisman watch lists earlier this year.
"If I had a vote, I'd vote for him," Ginn said with a grin.
Off the field, Smith likes to spend time mentoring children and seems to take personal interest when signing autographs. In interviews, he continually talks about football, but there is a less sober side, like having fun when hanging out with his friends, mostly teammates.
Smith carries a lot of baggage.
During a high school basketball game in December of 2000, witnesses said Smith purposely elbowed a white player and knocked him unconscious.
Years later, Smith told Sports Illustrated that he lashed out because racial slurs were thrown at him during the game.The private St. Edward High School in suburban Lakewood dismissed him from the team and he soon transferred to inner-city Glenville, where he became a star in football and basketball.
"You have to remember what the perception of Troy was," Ginn Sr. said. "It was, 'You don't want him on your team.' A lot of people shied away. But I said, this is a good kid."
After he blossomed as a quarterback for him, Ginn Sr. told all recruiters that Smith was a quarterback and shouldn't be considered just an athlete who could be shifted to another position.
Ohio State coach Jim Tressel agreed.
Early in his college career, Smith was involved in a fight outside an Ohio State dormitory in the fall of 2003 and was found guilty of disorderly conduct.
Then an NCAA investigation determined he took $500 from an Ohio State booster in the spring of 2004. He had to repay the money, sit out the Buckeyes' bowl game and the 2005 season-opener.
Smith doesn't like to talk about those problems but he credits his family and friends for helping him get through them.
"I have a stable group of people around me to help me stay even-keeled and everything," he said. "That group of people helps me get back to reality."
Midway through his redshirt sophomore season over two years ago, he failed to play in three straight games while watching big-name recruit Justin Zwick, who was the same age. Smith could read the handwriting on the gray walls at Ohio Stadium.
Hurt and seemingly forgotten, he hinted that he might transfer.But then the Buckeyes fell into a three-game swoon, Zwick sustained a shoulder injury and Smith stepped in. Except for the two games he was compelled to sit out, he's been in charge of the offense ever since.
His confidence never left him.
"Some kids when they're in high school, they walk with their heads down," Glenville athletic director Gretchen Taylor said. "They don't have enough confidence in themselves. Troy, you never see his head down."
It's not just coincidence that he equates quarterbacking with being the head of a family.
"You've got 10 other guys looking at you," Smith said. "I think probably the most ? how can I put this ? the most family-oriented or team-oriented portion of a football game is when everybody's in the huddle. 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 is looking forward to taking Tracy to Saturday's Heisman announcement. Neither has been to New York.
"Just taking my mother to a situation where she's never been is great," he said.
He doesn't want to leave empty handed. Five other Ohio State players have won the coveted statuette, including the only two-time winner, Archie Griffin.
The two most recent winners ? Griffin and 1995 winner Eddie George ? have bumped into Smith several times in the past year.
They don't discuss the Heisman for fear they might jinx Smith.
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0
cincibuckeyenut
Senior
Not sure where to put this so I figured here would be best place. I am of the opinion that Troy should win the Heisman in a landslide, but I would have absolutely no problem with the Davey OBrien award going to Colt Brennan or Brady Quinn over Troy.
Why do I say that? Because I would not argue if you told me those guys might be better pure QBs than Troy. But I will flat out say your head is in the sand if you believe they are better players. Troy brings so many things outside of being a QB to the table that I just believe there is no question he is the best player. But IMO the OBrien award might be a little closer.
Why do I say that? Because I would not argue if you told me those guys might be better pure QBs than Troy. But I will flat out say your head is in the sand if you believe they are better players. Troy brings so many things outside of being a QB to the table that I just believe there is no question he is the best player. But IMO the OBrien award might be a little closer.
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OregonBuckeye
Semper Fi Buckeyes
cincibuckeyenut;680258; said:
I still don't understand why so many people have a problem with accepting he's a great passing quarterback. I guess you have to be European-American(Gotta' be pc
) and 6'4" to be a good passing QB. I'm not accusing you of this but the general fan.Troy Smith is hands down the best quarterback. It is highway robbery for Quinn to win any awards over him. I don't have too much of a problem with Brennan winning a couple since he put up amazing numbers but he did play in a gimmick offense.
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ABJ
Perseverance again likely will reward Troy Smith
Heisman Trophy favorite gets life together with Ohio State
By Marla Ridenour
Beacon Journal sportswriter
Troy Smith's first trophy from the Glenville A's peewee football team was for perseverance.
Living in a drug-plagued neighborhood of eastern Cleveland, Smith earned that award when he was 9 because he had lost his family. His father left when he was a toddler, and that season his mother, Tracy, had to give him up so she could get her life in order.
Irvin White Jr., the coach who with his wife, Diane, took in Smith for four years, still has all of Troy's hardware. White boasts that the rest are either for leadership or as team MVP.
Continuing that trend, Ohio State's senior quarterback is expected to receive the nation's highest college football honor Saturday night. He is the overwhelming favorite to capture the 72nd Heisman Trophy at the Nokia Theater in New York.
The bronze statue represents an achievement far greater than Smith's first little plastic award. But they both could have the same word emblazoned across the bottom.
Through problems at home, getting tossed out of Lakewood St. Edward High School, little playing time at OSU and a two-game suspension for taking $500 from a booster, Smith ``stayed the course,'' as he put it. Now 25-2 as a starter, he will lead the top-ranked Buckeyes against Florida in the BCS National Championship Game on Jan. 8.
His road to Glendale, Ariz. -- and to New York -- was paved by two men from Glenville who believed in him.
? ? ? ? ?
White, a cousin of ex-Cleveland Mayor Mike White, was the city's commissioner of recreation and manager of the popular Cory Rec Center in Glenville when Tracy Smith came to him for help with Troy. Although Diane and Irvin White had four children, Irvin White told Tracy Smith: ``He'll either be in your hands or my hands, nobody else's.''
When Cuyahoga County told White he needed to become Smith's foster parent to take him in legally, White agreed.
The transition was easier, because White was Smith's peewee coach and White's youngest son, Irvin III, played in the same program at a higher level.
``He was a mischievous little boy -- very loving -- merged into his new family,'' White said of Smith. ``When you go home with the coach, the respect is already there. You're busting his behind on the field. It's not like a stranger.''
When school was over, Smith could head for White's rec center, which drew 200 kids on Saturdays during basketball season. They would line the balcony waiting for their games, and afterward would watch movies or TV, often staying all day.
The Whites' three sons all received college football scholarships, and Irvin was determined Troy Smith would be the fourth. Stepsons Andre Smith, now 39, and Rod Smith, 35, went to Bowling Green and Ohio State, respectively. Rod started at center for three years. Irvin White III, 26, attended Walsh and Ohio universities.
``From that point on, it was whatever the Lord had planned for him,'' White said of Troy Smith. ``He became a better football player and a better person, but we were fortunate to have a gifted child living in our presence.''
While Smith excelled at Ohio State, White wasn't afraid to let him have it after he took money from a booster and was suspended for the 2004 Alamo Bowl and the 2005 season opener.
``OSU was being investigated in basketball. It was under a microscope and Troy got caught by that microscope,'' White said. ``I told him he was wrong, taking pay for work he had not done. Troy slipped. But it's difficult for young men to turn down $1,000 or $500. One day a restaurant offered him a free meal and Rod had to go and pay for the meal.
``It's like being a metro policeman getting free coffee and doughnuts or when a celebrity comes into your restaurant, you're just so happy to have them there. The NCAA says you can't do that. Boys have to understand the seriousness of what they're doing.''
Smith's performance in 2006 may have been enough to make Heisman voters forget that transgression. Smith's special season doesn't surprise White in the least. The Heisman does.
``Being the Heisman Trophy winner is being in the right place at the right time, on the right team, the right record, the right coach. That's like hitting the lottery,'' said White, a retired insurance salesman who helps run his wife's window-treatment business.
? ? ? ? ?
White said Smith had received a scholarship offer from Ohio State before he went to Glenville for his senior year, but it was Ted Ginn Sr. who helped Smith navigate the maze of recruiters and end up in Columbus.
Ginn had known Smith since he was 7 and fought for his eligibility when the state banned him from all high school sports after the St. Edward incident. Smith had elbowed another player in the head and knocked him out. He told Sports Illustrated the other boy, who is white, was taunting him with a racial slur.
``I know his life, I know where he came from,'' Ginn said. ``You can't hang kids from the tree for one or maybe two mistakes. When we're in the business of saving children, we understand these things.''
The two became closer when Smith went to Ohio State, where Ted Ginn Jr. followed two years later. Smith has a key to Ginn's house and calls him ``Dad.''
Smith needed ``Dad'' plenty in the days to follow.
Smith was angry that OSU labeled him as an ``athlete'' when he was the last player to sign with the Class of 2002.
``I knew he was a quarterback,'' Ginn said. ``We can call you whatever we want to call you.''
He said Smith had to figure out: ``I've got to be a quarterback. I've got to learn how to think with my head and use my arm.''
Smith was also upset with his role as a kickoff returner in 2003, which Ginn said had nothing to do with Smith's involvement in a fight outside a campus dorm.
``Tress (coach Jim Tressel) said, `We need to give him something to do because (Craig) Krenzel is still here, so we're going to have him return kicks so the field won't be a shock to him,' '' Ginn said. ``Troy took that wrong. I knew everything that was going down with Troy.''
Ginn believes Smith would have become the starter even if former Parade All-American Justin Zwick of Massillon hadn't gotten hurt in the sixth game of 2004.
``In order for Troy to be the quarterback at Ohio State, Troy had to mature,'' Ginn said. ``Once he decided, there wasn't any doubt. I think Tress was fair in how he went about the quarterback controversy. It was up there for whoever was going to do the work and whoever was the best athlete, whoever we could win with. It was going to happen.''
In the midst of Smith's frustration, Ginn said, he told Smith to ask for a transfer and suggested he go to Nebraska to run the option offense.
``I said, `If you don't go to that film room and learn the game, you'll be (only) a great college quarterback. I don't know a great college quarterback who made any money in the NFL,' '' Ginn said.
Ginn said one of the turning points in Smith's life was his suspension from the Alamo Bowl. Smith watched the game with a buddy in Ginn's basement.
``That was rough,'' Ginn said. ``He felt he let his teammates down. He let himself down. He let the university down. Troy loves hard. I don't care how he sits up and tries to show you he's a big strong man, Troy's got a good heart. He probably loves people who love him real hard. He loves his teammates. He loves Ohio State. He was embarrassed for that.''
Smith was changed by looking at Ginn's basement shrine to Glenville stars Ginn Jr., Pierre Woods (Michigan-New England Patriots), Donte Whitner (OSU-Buffalo Bills) -- and Smith.
``I'm watching TV and looking at all the things we have all done. I really, really got it in my head that there wouldn't be a situation like this again,'' Smith said in August. ``(I knew) my team is first in everything. Running onto the field with my guys is something I'll never take (for granted) again. That's probably the best feeling in the world.''
Another turning point came in 2005, after a 17-10 loss at Penn State. Smith played poorly in OSU's second loss, which ended the Buckeyes' national-title hopes.
Ginn was in his ear afterward.
``It was along the (lines) of, `You see how it feels. Now it's time to do your 180, turn everything around. You have to start being the best quarterback you can,' '' Smith said this summer.
``I had it set in my mind I didn't want to feel that again. I really preyed on the film room and stayed in the film room. Now I ask the coaches to sit down with me even when they don't want me. It's a hunger and a thirst that I hope can't be matched nationally.''
Ginn now hears those who say Smith can't succeed in the NFL because he's only about 6 feet tall, and he smiles.
``Another chapter in the book,'' Ginn said. ``He couldn't be the quarterback at Ohio State, either, could he?''
Perseverance again likely will reward Troy Smith
Heisman Trophy favorite gets life together with Ohio State
By Marla Ridenour
Beacon Journal sportswriter
Troy Smith's first trophy from the Glenville A's peewee football team was for perseverance.
Living in a drug-plagued neighborhood of eastern Cleveland, Smith earned that award when he was 9 because he had lost his family. His father left when he was a toddler, and that season his mother, Tracy, had to give him up so she could get her life in order.
Irvin White Jr., the coach who with his wife, Diane, took in Smith for four years, still has all of Troy's hardware. White boasts that the rest are either for leadership or as team MVP.
Continuing that trend, Ohio State's senior quarterback is expected to receive the nation's highest college football honor Saturday night. He is the overwhelming favorite to capture the 72nd Heisman Trophy at the Nokia Theater in New York.
The bronze statue represents an achievement far greater than Smith's first little plastic award. But they both could have the same word emblazoned across the bottom.
Through problems at home, getting tossed out of Lakewood St. Edward High School, little playing time at OSU and a two-game suspension for taking $500 from a booster, Smith ``stayed the course,'' as he put it. Now 25-2 as a starter, he will lead the top-ranked Buckeyes against Florida in the BCS National Championship Game on Jan. 8.
His road to Glendale, Ariz. -- and to New York -- was paved by two men from Glenville who believed in him.
? ? ? ? ?
White, a cousin of ex-Cleveland Mayor Mike White, was the city's commissioner of recreation and manager of the popular Cory Rec Center in Glenville when Tracy Smith came to him for help with Troy. Although Diane and Irvin White had four children, Irvin White told Tracy Smith: ``He'll either be in your hands or my hands, nobody else's.''
When Cuyahoga County told White he needed to become Smith's foster parent to take him in legally, White agreed.
The transition was easier, because White was Smith's peewee coach and White's youngest son, Irvin III, played in the same program at a higher level.
``He was a mischievous little boy -- very loving -- merged into his new family,'' White said of Smith. ``When you go home with the coach, the respect is already there. You're busting his behind on the field. It's not like a stranger.''
When school was over, Smith could head for White's rec center, which drew 200 kids on Saturdays during basketball season. They would line the balcony waiting for their games, and afterward would watch movies or TV, often staying all day.
The Whites' three sons all received college football scholarships, and Irvin was determined Troy Smith would be the fourth. Stepsons Andre Smith, now 39, and Rod Smith, 35, went to Bowling Green and Ohio State, respectively. Rod started at center for three years. Irvin White III, 26, attended Walsh and Ohio universities.
``From that point on, it was whatever the Lord had planned for him,'' White said of Troy Smith. ``He became a better football player and a better person, but we were fortunate to have a gifted child living in our presence.''
While Smith excelled at Ohio State, White wasn't afraid to let him have it after he took money from a booster and was suspended for the 2004 Alamo Bowl and the 2005 season opener.
``OSU was being investigated in basketball. It was under a microscope and Troy got caught by that microscope,'' White said. ``I told him he was wrong, taking pay for work he had not done. Troy slipped. But it's difficult for young men to turn down $1,000 or $500. One day a restaurant offered him a free meal and Rod had to go and pay for the meal.
``It's like being a metro policeman getting free coffee and doughnuts or when a celebrity comes into your restaurant, you're just so happy to have them there. The NCAA says you can't do that. Boys have to understand the seriousness of what they're doing.''
Smith's performance in 2006 may have been enough to make Heisman voters forget that transgression. Smith's special season doesn't surprise White in the least. The Heisman does.
``Being the Heisman Trophy winner is being in the right place at the right time, on the right team, the right record, the right coach. That's like hitting the lottery,'' said White, a retired insurance salesman who helps run his wife's window-treatment business.
? ? ? ? ?
White said Smith had received a scholarship offer from Ohio State before he went to Glenville for his senior year, but it was Ted Ginn Sr. who helped Smith navigate the maze of recruiters and end up in Columbus.
Ginn had known Smith since he was 7 and fought for his eligibility when the state banned him from all high school sports after the St. Edward incident. Smith had elbowed another player in the head and knocked him out. He told Sports Illustrated the other boy, who is white, was taunting him with a racial slur.
``I know his life, I know where he came from,'' Ginn said. ``You can't hang kids from the tree for one or maybe two mistakes. When we're in the business of saving children, we understand these things.''
The two became closer when Smith went to Ohio State, where Ted Ginn Jr. followed two years later. Smith has a key to Ginn's house and calls him ``Dad.''
Smith needed ``Dad'' plenty in the days to follow.
Smith was angry that OSU labeled him as an ``athlete'' when he was the last player to sign with the Class of 2002.
``I knew he was a quarterback,'' Ginn said. ``We can call you whatever we want to call you.''
He said Smith had to figure out: ``I've got to be a quarterback. I've got to learn how to think with my head and use my arm.''
Smith was also upset with his role as a kickoff returner in 2003, which Ginn said had nothing to do with Smith's involvement in a fight outside a campus dorm.
``Tress (coach Jim Tressel) said, `We need to give him something to do because (Craig) Krenzel is still here, so we're going to have him return kicks so the field won't be a shock to him,' '' Ginn said. ``Troy took that wrong. I knew everything that was going down with Troy.''
Ginn believes Smith would have become the starter even if former Parade All-American Justin Zwick of Massillon hadn't gotten hurt in the sixth game of 2004.
``In order for Troy to be the quarterback at Ohio State, Troy had to mature,'' Ginn said. ``Once he decided, there wasn't any doubt. I think Tress was fair in how he went about the quarterback controversy. It was up there for whoever was going to do the work and whoever was the best athlete, whoever we could win with. It was going to happen.''
In the midst of Smith's frustration, Ginn said, he told Smith to ask for a transfer and suggested he go to Nebraska to run the option offense.
``I said, `If you don't go to that film room and learn the game, you'll be (only) a great college quarterback. I don't know a great college quarterback who made any money in the NFL,' '' Ginn said.
Ginn said one of the turning points in Smith's life was his suspension from the Alamo Bowl. Smith watched the game with a buddy in Ginn's basement.
``That was rough,'' Ginn said. ``He felt he let his teammates down. He let himself down. He let the university down. Troy loves hard. I don't care how he sits up and tries to show you he's a big strong man, Troy's got a good heart. He probably loves people who love him real hard. He loves his teammates. He loves Ohio State. He was embarrassed for that.''
Smith was changed by looking at Ginn's basement shrine to Glenville stars Ginn Jr., Pierre Woods (Michigan-New England Patriots), Donte Whitner (OSU-Buffalo Bills) -- and Smith.
``I'm watching TV and looking at all the things we have all done. I really, really got it in my head that there wouldn't be a situation like this again,'' Smith said in August. ``(I knew) my team is first in everything. Running onto the field with my guys is something I'll never take (for granted) again. That's probably the best feeling in the world.''
Another turning point came in 2005, after a 17-10 loss at Penn State. Smith played poorly in OSU's second loss, which ended the Buckeyes' national-title hopes.
Ginn was in his ear afterward.
``It was along the (lines) of, `You see how it feels. Now it's time to do your 180, turn everything around. You have to start being the best quarterback you can,' '' Smith said this summer.
``I had it set in my mind I didn't want to feel that again. I really preyed on the film room and stayed in the film room. Now I ask the coaches to sit down with me even when they don't want me. It's a hunger and a thirst that I hope can't be matched nationally.''
Ginn now hears those who say Smith can't succeed in the NFL because he's only about 6 feet tall, and he smiles.
``Another chapter in the book,'' Ginn said. ``He couldn't be the quarterback at Ohio State, either, could he?''
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Smith, mom to share heartwarming moment of triumph
By Pat Forde
ESPN.com
Archive
The little boy clutched the present for his mom on a snowy Christmas Eve. Around the Cleveland neighborhood they looked for her, the 9-year-old and the man who had given the boy a home.
They walked though the snow and knocked on doors, asking where she could be. House after house, door after door. Nobody knew.
The boy never found his mother on that Dickensian Christmas Eve more than a decade ago. Never got a chance to give her the watch he'd bought from the mall with his foster father's money.
Irvin White
A tough childhood didn't keep Troy Smith down.
And so the crestfallen boy gave the watch to his foster mother instead, for his real mother was lost to him. Lost in personal troubles so deep and dark that her two children were taken from her and placed in the care of others.
For the 9-year-old, it was an achingly empty December moment. And, wherever she was, it certainly was an empty time for his mom.
They will experience a drastically different December moment this Saturday night, the boy and the mom. A moment of triumph. Thanks to the boy's powers of forgiveness and compassion, and the mother's will to salvage a life gone astray, they will experience that triumphal moment together.
Troy Smith, the little boy who could not find his mother one Christmas Eve, will win the Heisman Trophy. Tracy Smith, the former lost soul, will be there to see it.
"We're the best of friends now," Troy said. "I don't have a better friend."
For those who know the whole story, those who know what Troy endured around the time of the cold Christmas recollection that was passed on by Troy's foster father, Irvin White, it will be a heartwarming Heisman experience.
"That's my hero," Tracy Smith said.
Troy has had his antihero moments. Was suspended by the NCAA for two games two years ago, for taking $500 from a booster. Was arrested and ultimately convicted of misdemeanor disorderly conduct for an on-campus altercation, one week before the 2003 Michigan game. Was kicked off his high school basketball team -- and ultimately left the school -- after knocking out an opponent with a premeditated elbow to the head during a game. Was accused of lying years after the fact about the motivation behind that elbow, too: Smith told Sports Illustrated this summer that he was the target of racial slurs in the game; players and coaches on the opposing team told the Cleveland Plain-Dealer that no such slurs were ever uttered.
Some rough edges there, no doubt. But ask yourself: Where would you be and who would you be if you grew up like Troy Smith?
Gregory Shamus/Getty Images
Troy Smith is the favorite to win the Heisman Trophy on Saturday.
Alive would be a fortunate place to start. A successful college athletic career would be an improbable bonus. A college degree would be all the more remarkable. An unbreakable bond with your mother, after four years of foster care, would be amazing. And now a Heisman Trophy and revered status as the poised, fearless and charismatic leader of the nation's No. 1 football team? Bordering on fiction.
"I never thought my little baby boy would do something this huge," Tracy Smith said. "This is way huge. I don't think it's going to hit me until I get off that plane in New York Saturday morning. Then it will be like, 'I can't believe this.'
"It's like I'm reading a book about somebody else. I'll be very, very proud."
Pride will pulse throughout a village of legal guardians and guardian angels who raised this child, helping him from the mean streets of Cleveland to the bright lights of Manhattan -- and, ultimately, beyond. But even with all the assistance, the kid had to take the hardest, loneliest steps of this climb himself.
When you consider where Troy Smith came from to reach this point, hero fits. And heroic describes his journey.
The football field was across the street from the house where Troy lived at 112th and St. Clair. That was the little boy's refuge. "I was out at that field all day," Smith said.
Troy played there with other kids in the neighborhood. But what transfixed him was the sight of the Glenville A's midget football team, which practiced on the field. Coach Irvin White once had played on this same neighborhood team in the Cleveland Muni League, and now he was back as coach of the A's, building a small dynasty.
The A's became a beacon for Troy, who watched wistfully from the perimeter.
"I just kept coming back, day after day," he said.
White finally asked the boy if he wanted to join the team, but explained that he couldn't play without his parents' permission. Troy went home and told Tracy, "I've got to play football for this team."
She was unmoved.
"I was afraid he was going to get crunched up," she said.
Finally, White went with Troy to his house to lobby his mom into letting the boy play. The first night she wasn't there. The second night she was, and permission was grudgingly granted.
Irvin White
Irv Smith helped Troy Smith find early succes on the football field.
After Smith played a few games at tight end and running back, White moved the dynamic little athlete to quarterback. It became a harmonic convergence of ability and mentality.
"He put the football in my hand and told me that I had the ability to lead the team," Smith recalled. "That set in my mind right there, even as a little league player: if I could lead this team, I could lead the next batch of guys, and the next batch of guys, so on and so forth. I truly believed that."
But even as Troy found his calling on the football field, his family was losing its moorings off it. He and his older sister, Brittany, too often were left on their own by a young single mother with little money and big problems.
Nobody interviewed for this story wanted to discuss the details of Tracy Smith's struggles. However, Cuyahoga County court records show that a Tracy Smith was arrested on misdemeanor charges of "drug abuse" in 1993 and '94 and spent time in jail.
"I was going through a lot of personal things," she said. "Everything hit me at once, to the point where I needed to get myself together. If I couldn't take care of myself, I wouldn't be any good to my kids."
White said he recognized the signs of family problems.
"One day Troy said he didn't have a way home," White said. "He was crying. I took him home and took him to school the next day, then I called the county and told them he needed help."
White told county social workers he wanted to take Troy in. He and his wife, Diane, became certified as foster parents and were allowed to bring Troy into their home on a full-time basis, while Brittany went to live with an aunt.
White said his own mother had taken in more than 350 foster children. So adding Troy to the other four kids at home wasn't a big issue.
"To open a locked door for a kid to stay in our house was a normal thing to do," White said. "Somebody else comes in? OK, put another plate on the table."
At a time when Troy Smith desperately needed it, he became part of something. A team, and a stable family environment. The man he called "Coach" became a father figure as well.
"I want to make it clear that my foster situation was not a bad foster situation," Smith said. "I couldn't have had a better family taking care of me at that time. It's just that my mother was going through a certain situation in her life that she needed to straighten out, and she did that.
Irvin White
Irv White still considers Troy Smith to be part of his family.
"Everything happens for a reason. When I ended up with the Whites, that happened for a reason. They taught me the morals and values I needed to have in my life, and helped me get to where I am now."
After years of parenting Troy, White began making plans to formally adopt him. Faced with the permanent loss of her children, Tracy Smith vowed to turn around her life.
The results, everyone says, have been remarkable. Once Tracy came back, she came back for good.
"You talk about a miraculous recovery?" White said. "It was great. A great thing to see."
Said Tracy: "My children were the No. 1 thing that made me want to get it together. It took a lot of self reflection. A lot of praying, a lot of crying, a lot of laughing."
There was no shortage of tears in the White household when it was time for Troy to move out and rejoin his mom.
"Everyone cried like somebody had died," White said. "One of the happiest days of my life was seeing his mother come back into his life. And one of the saddest days, too. We know this is the way it has to be. Troy is still our son, but he's with his mother."
The reunion was rough. Being together didn't automatically equate to being happy. Not after four years without his mom. Not after feeling abandoned and betrayed. Not after your mother is missing on Christmas Eve.
Scars like those don't disappear with an address change.
"It was rocky at first, because of the bitterness I had toward her," Troy Smith admitted. "I was young and I didn't understand: I was a kid who wanted his mother, and she wasn't around."
Tracy Smith did what she had to do in that situation. She let her kids unload on her. No use justifying and rationalizing; just sit there and take it.
"The thing that was most important was to let them vent to me," she said. "I told them, 'I know you're mad at me, tell me about it.' The bottom line is, I put my life back together and I came back. A lot of mommies don't."
"It was rocky at first, because of the bitterness I had toward her. I was young and I didn't understand: I was a kid who wanted his mother, and she wasn't around." -- Troy Smith on moving back in with his mom
Said Troy: "It happened through multiple family talks, where emotions were pouring out, from myself and my sister. Through us getting back together and staying together. It was nowhere near the best situation to stay in, but we were together as a family. That's all we had was us." They certainly had little in the way of comfort. By this time the Smiths had moved to 71st and St. Clair, inhabiting a neighborhood rife with urban dangers. The area was brutal, but it was home.
Sports saved Troy from the troubles that ensnared countless peers. At Martin Luther King Junior High he played soccer, tennis, basketball and track. And he played football for the older version of the Glenville A's in the Cleveland Muni League.
"I go back and see the guys I grew up with," Smith said. "Some of them are incarcerated. Some of them, rest their souls, have passed away. But the ones that are still there, when I see them, their whole month or year has changed. They light up like a Christmas tree.
"These are the same guys I used to play basketball with in the middle of the street, shooting at a crate. They're still maintaining. The only thing that's sad, though, the average young person back home can't see past Friday. They play it day by day, literally."
Troy Smith never has been shackled by a lack of vision. He could see past Friday -- all the way to Saturdays and playing college football, and even to Sundays and the NFL, too. Dreaming big always has been his way, and he's had the requisite ambition and hunger to chase the dream down. The dream led Smith to parochial power St. Edward High School in Lakewood, where Troy awkwardly stood out in a predominantly white, largely affluent student body. He wound up sharing the quarterback position with Shaun Carney, who went on to be a three-year starting QB at the Air Force Academy. Smith often was shuttled to wide receiver to make room for Carney at quarterback.
That was unsatisfying for a kid who'd run every team since that day on the field at 112th and St. Clair when Irv White put the ball in his hands. Smith's stay at the school ended during his junior year, shortly after his elbow knocked out Toledo St. John's player John Floyd.
He wound up back in the neighborhood, at Glenville High. The coach was Ted Ginn Sr., who would take the male role-model baton from Irvin White.
Smith joined a team that featured receiver/defensive back Ted Ginn Jr., who was a national-caliber recruit. But Ted Jr. had a learning disability and Troy was now considered damaged goods -- a fractious child of uncertain collegiate value.
Matthew Emmons/US Presswire
Troy Smith and Ted Ginn Jr. have the Buckeyes on the brink of a national title.
"Him and Ted were basically throwaways," Ginn Sr. said.
By the time Smith got to Glenville, his rebuilt relationship with his mom had started deteriorating again. Ginn stepped in and set up counseling -- even attended the first session with the two of them.
"They needed that," Ginn said. "Troy didn't understand his mom and the issues she went through. He was taken from his mother. That's major, to be taken as a little kid from your mom. He had to learn how to trust his mother."
He had to learn how to trust everyone.
"He had a chip on his shoulder," said Glenville High campus administrator Jacqueline Bell, a veteran of 32 years in Cleveland public schools. "Didn't trust anyone, didn't confide in anyone. It took coach Ginn to get him to trust us."
Said Ginn: "It took work to break into that fence."
Once inside, the Ginns became family to Smith.
"I think only a man can teach a man how to be a man," Troy said. "He did just that. He didn't do it in a discipline-oriented way, it was more of a mentoring way.
"We talked all the time. I would talk to Ginn Senior like he was one of my best friends. As a peer. I felt comfortable with him like that. I can talk to him about any and everything, and I still do."
Today Smith and Ted Ginn Jr., are on the short list of the most lethal pass-and-catch combinations in America. They're teammates on a 12-0 Buckeyes team that will play Florida Jan. 8 for the national title.
But only one of the two was a blue-chip recruit for the Buckeyes, and it wasn't Smith. He accepted the final scholarship offer in the 2002 recruiting class and was labeled an "athlete" by the school on its official release. That's code for "we're not sure where to play him, but quarterback is a long shot."
Troy Smith had to move on -- and prove on -- once again.
Last month. Columbus. Cataclysmic game against unbeaten archrival Michigan is five days away. Troy Smith is sitting behind a microphone, facing a semicircle of reporters from all over the nation. "There was a certain point in time," he said, smiling, "where nobody cared who I was."
Smith easily could have been talking about his life in general, but that particular comment referred to his value as a college quarterback upon arriving in Columbus. He had none for two years.
Smith spent his first season redshirting, serving as practice-squad meat for a Buckeyes team that went on to win the national title. The next year he was a special teams utility player, running back kicks and getting some cameo duty at running back.
"I was working for scraps, taking anything I could get," Smith said.
After that he finally got his shot at quarterback, and his growth rate has been flatly astounding.
Joe Robbins/US Presswire
Troy Smith burst onto the national scene against Michigan in 2003.
Smith backed up Justin Zwick for seven games in 2003 before injury gave him a shot at the starting job. By season's end he'd blown up on Michigan, running for 145 yards and throwing a 68-yard touchdown on the fifth play of the game to key a major Buckeyes' upset.
Then came the payola scandal and subsequent two-game suspension, which took Smith out of the 2004 Alamo Bowl and the first game of 2005. Coach Jim Tressel brought Smith off the bench in Ohio State's second game, a massive showdown against Texas, and that decision not to start him helped cost the Buckeyes the game and scuttled OSU's championship hopes.
Smith was in charge thereafter, and Ohio State went 9-1. Smith closed with brilliant games against Michigan and Notre Dame in the Fiesta Bowl, setting the stage for runs at the Heisman and national title this fall.
The 2006 season has worked out beyond even the most optimistic master plan. Ohio State is unbeaten, Smith is unchallenged for the award, and he's proven to NFL scouts and skeptics than he's more than just a great athlete playing quarterback.
He's become the very embodiment of a field general.
"When you think of Troy, the first thing that comes to my mind is leadership, probably the second thing is competitiveness, and maybe the third thing that jumps up to me about Troy is his hunger to be in command of what's going on," Tressel said.
The former scrambler became almost an obstinate pocket passer, spending the first half of the season nearly anchored in the backfield. After proving his point, Smith once again began using his scampering ability to make plays.
His growth as a quarterback has dovetailed with his growth as a collegian. Rather implausibly, Smith has inhaled Tressel's tenets and become his star pupil. The two would appear to have little beyond football in common, but Smith has become an extension of his conservative, white, middle-aged coach.
Matthew Emmons/US Presswire
Troy Smith has blossomed as a QB under Jim Tressel's guidance.
Smith is remarkably composed and impeccably mannered -- removing his hat indoors for an interview for this story, holding open doors, looking people in the eye at all times. He never fails to default into "teamspeak" when the subject matter turns to individual achievement. He gushes on all things scarlet and gray.
"Tress, in essence, to me, is just like Ginn," Smith said. "They both value you as a man first. Football things will come, because the things you instill on the football field are some of the things you instill off the field."
Smith earned his communication degree in four years. Perhaps more importantly, a guy who once cynically scammed the system by taking booster money has become downright sentimental about the student-athlete experience.
"I didn't understand it coming in," Smith said. "Through countless days of school here, countless days of training, playing in games, it became an acquired taste. Anytime you have to represent something, you appreciate it."
Saturday night will be an appreciation. An appreciation of a heroic journey. Troy Smith will stand behind the Heisman Trophy and in front of the nation, and he will thank the village that has raised him to this point. He'll do it without notes.
Matthew Emmons/US Presswire
Troy Smith's received plenty of help during his run toward the Heisman Trophy.
"I think anything and everything you're going to say has to come from your heart," Smith said. "I think if you write it down -- yeah, it comes from your heart, but you're going to rehearse it. I don't think that's a rehearsal thing. You don't practice something like that, you know what I mean?"
Still, some prespeech thinking will be necessary. For one thing, Troy must decide what --if anything -- he will say about Kenneth Delaney, his father.
When asked about his father, Smith's response is sharp.
"My father or my dad?" he said. "Your father is biological, and your dad is who raised you. ? My father, I can't really speak for him, because I don't talk to him a lot. He's doing OK. He's my father figure but he's not my dad figure."
Smith said he talked to his father about seven months ago. Delaney's attempts to reconnect with Troy were met rather brusquely.
"I don't buy into that," Smith said. "I've been a man for a while now, making decisions on my own, things like that. I've said it before: it takes a man to teach a man how to be a man. Other men have taught me that. I don't hold it against him. I just don't think there's anything he can instill in me right now that would be beneficial. But I do love him, because he played a part in my birth. He knows exactly how I feel."
The male role models in attendance with Smith Saturday night in Manhattan will be Tressel, quarterbacks coach Joe Daniels and Ted Ginn Sr.
"The perception of kids that come out of the inner city of Cleveland is that they cannot achieve," Ginn said. "Troy is proving that you can."
At home in the gritty part of Cleveland, Glenville administrator Bell will be watching on television.
"I guess some of the things she's had to endure in her life, this is an extremely positive thing. Why not let her just live it up? She deserves it. She deserves everything that's coming to her. " -- Troy Smith on attending the Heisman ceremony with his mom
"Someone that literally sat in this office with me, that I've hugged, is going to win the Heisman," she said, wonderment audible in her voice. "It's like, wow. Is this really happening? "These kids come in here with so many issues. If an authority figure doesn't take the time to listen and to work with them and teach them, they're not going to be all they can be. It's amazing to me, despite the odds, to see that Troy has held fast to his teachings."
Irvin and Diane White will be watching back home, too.
"We'll be boo-hooing," Irvin said, watching the boy he took into his home. "I'm not even going to try to hide it."
But the relationship most rewarded Saturday night will be between mother and son. It has survived a pain most of us could only imagine, thanks to a son's compassion and a mother's willingness to change. This time, Tracy Smith will be there to receive a December gift from her son.
"I guess some of the things she's had to endure in her life, this is an extremely positive thing," Troy Smith said. "Why not let her just live it up? She deserves it. She deserves everything that's coming to her."
And Troy Smith deserves what's coming to him Saturday night. The Heisman Trophy, and a mother to share it with.
Pat Forde is a senior writer for ESPN.com. He can be reached at [email protected].
Smith, mom to share heartwarming moment of triumph
By Pat Forde
ESPN.com
Archive
The little boy clutched the present for his mom on a snowy Christmas Eve. Around the Cleveland neighborhood they looked for her, the 9-year-old and the man who had given the boy a home.
They walked though the snow and knocked on doors, asking where she could be. House after house, door after door. Nobody knew.
The boy never found his mother on that Dickensian Christmas Eve more than a decade ago. Never got a chance to give her the watch he'd bought from the mall with his foster father's money.
Irvin White
A tough childhood didn't keep Troy Smith down.
And so the crestfallen boy gave the watch to his foster mother instead, for his real mother was lost to him. Lost in personal troubles so deep and dark that her two children were taken from her and placed in the care of others.
For the 9-year-old, it was an achingly empty December moment. And, wherever she was, it certainly was an empty time for his mom.
They will experience a drastically different December moment this Saturday night, the boy and the mom. A moment of triumph. Thanks to the boy's powers of forgiveness and compassion, and the mother's will to salvage a life gone astray, they will experience that triumphal moment together.
Troy Smith, the little boy who could not find his mother one Christmas Eve, will win the Heisman Trophy. Tracy Smith, the former lost soul, will be there to see it.
"We're the best of friends now," Troy said. "I don't have a better friend."
For those who know the whole story, those who know what Troy endured around the time of the cold Christmas recollection that was passed on by Troy's foster father, Irvin White, it will be a heartwarming Heisman experience.
"That's my hero," Tracy Smith said.
Troy has had his antihero moments. Was suspended by the NCAA for two games two years ago, for taking $500 from a booster. Was arrested and ultimately convicted of misdemeanor disorderly conduct for an on-campus altercation, one week before the 2003 Michigan game. Was kicked off his high school basketball team -- and ultimately left the school -- after knocking out an opponent with a premeditated elbow to the head during a game. Was accused of lying years after the fact about the motivation behind that elbow, too: Smith told Sports Illustrated this summer that he was the target of racial slurs in the game; players and coaches on the opposing team told the Cleveland Plain-Dealer that no such slurs were ever uttered.
Some rough edges there, no doubt. But ask yourself: Where would you be and who would you be if you grew up like Troy Smith?
Gregory Shamus/Getty Images
Troy Smith is the favorite to win the Heisman Trophy on Saturday.
Alive would be a fortunate place to start. A successful college athletic career would be an improbable bonus. A college degree would be all the more remarkable. An unbreakable bond with your mother, after four years of foster care, would be amazing. And now a Heisman Trophy and revered status as the poised, fearless and charismatic leader of the nation's No. 1 football team? Bordering on fiction.
"I never thought my little baby boy would do something this huge," Tracy Smith said. "This is way huge. I don't think it's going to hit me until I get off that plane in New York Saturday morning. Then it will be like, 'I can't believe this.'
"It's like I'm reading a book about somebody else. I'll be very, very proud."
Pride will pulse throughout a village of legal guardians and guardian angels who raised this child, helping him from the mean streets of Cleveland to the bright lights of Manhattan -- and, ultimately, beyond. But even with all the assistance, the kid had to take the hardest, loneliest steps of this climb himself.
When you consider where Troy Smith came from to reach this point, hero fits. And heroic describes his journey.
The football field was across the street from the house where Troy lived at 112th and St. Clair. That was the little boy's refuge. "I was out at that field all day," Smith said.
Troy played there with other kids in the neighborhood. But what transfixed him was the sight of the Glenville A's midget football team, which practiced on the field. Coach Irvin White once had played on this same neighborhood team in the Cleveland Muni League, and now he was back as coach of the A's, building a small dynasty.
The A's became a beacon for Troy, who watched wistfully from the perimeter.
"I just kept coming back, day after day," he said.
White finally asked the boy if he wanted to join the team, but explained that he couldn't play without his parents' permission. Troy went home and told Tracy, "I've got to play football for this team."
She was unmoved.
"I was afraid he was going to get crunched up," she said.
Finally, White went with Troy to his house to lobby his mom into letting the boy play. The first night she wasn't there. The second night she was, and permission was grudgingly granted.
Irvin White
Irv Smith helped Troy Smith find early succes on the football field.
After Smith played a few games at tight end and running back, White moved the dynamic little athlete to quarterback. It became a harmonic convergence of ability and mentality.
"He put the football in my hand and told me that I had the ability to lead the team," Smith recalled. "That set in my mind right there, even as a little league player: if I could lead this team, I could lead the next batch of guys, and the next batch of guys, so on and so forth. I truly believed that."
But even as Troy found his calling on the football field, his family was losing its moorings off it. He and his older sister, Brittany, too often were left on their own by a young single mother with little money and big problems.
Nobody interviewed for this story wanted to discuss the details of Tracy Smith's struggles. However, Cuyahoga County court records show that a Tracy Smith was arrested on misdemeanor charges of "drug abuse" in 1993 and '94 and spent time in jail.
"I was going through a lot of personal things," she said. "Everything hit me at once, to the point where I needed to get myself together. If I couldn't take care of myself, I wouldn't be any good to my kids."
White said he recognized the signs of family problems.
"One day Troy said he didn't have a way home," White said. "He was crying. I took him home and took him to school the next day, then I called the county and told them he needed help."
White told county social workers he wanted to take Troy in. He and his wife, Diane, became certified as foster parents and were allowed to bring Troy into their home on a full-time basis, while Brittany went to live with an aunt.
White said his own mother had taken in more than 350 foster children. So adding Troy to the other four kids at home wasn't a big issue.
"To open a locked door for a kid to stay in our house was a normal thing to do," White said. "Somebody else comes in? OK, put another plate on the table."
At a time when Troy Smith desperately needed it, he became part of something. A team, and a stable family environment. The man he called "Coach" became a father figure as well.
"I want to make it clear that my foster situation was not a bad foster situation," Smith said. "I couldn't have had a better family taking care of me at that time. It's just that my mother was going through a certain situation in her life that she needed to straighten out, and she did that.
Irvin White
Irv White still considers Troy Smith to be part of his family.
"Everything happens for a reason. When I ended up with the Whites, that happened for a reason. They taught me the morals and values I needed to have in my life, and helped me get to where I am now."
After years of parenting Troy, White began making plans to formally adopt him. Faced with the permanent loss of her children, Tracy Smith vowed to turn around her life.
The results, everyone says, have been remarkable. Once Tracy came back, she came back for good.
"You talk about a miraculous recovery?" White said. "It was great. A great thing to see."
Said Tracy: "My children were the No. 1 thing that made me want to get it together. It took a lot of self reflection. A lot of praying, a lot of crying, a lot of laughing."
There was no shortage of tears in the White household when it was time for Troy to move out and rejoin his mom.
"Everyone cried like somebody had died," White said. "One of the happiest days of my life was seeing his mother come back into his life. And one of the saddest days, too. We know this is the way it has to be. Troy is still our son, but he's with his mother."
The reunion was rough. Being together didn't automatically equate to being happy. Not after four years without his mom. Not after feeling abandoned and betrayed. Not after your mother is missing on Christmas Eve.
Scars like those don't disappear with an address change.
"It was rocky at first, because of the bitterness I had toward her," Troy Smith admitted. "I was young and I didn't understand: I was a kid who wanted his mother, and she wasn't around."
Tracy Smith did what she had to do in that situation. She let her kids unload on her. No use justifying and rationalizing; just sit there and take it.
"The thing that was most important was to let them vent to me," she said. "I told them, 'I know you're mad at me, tell me about it.' The bottom line is, I put my life back together and I came back. A lot of mommies don't."
"It was rocky at first, because of the bitterness I had toward her. I was young and I didn't understand: I was a kid who wanted his mother, and she wasn't around." -- Troy Smith on moving back in with his mom
Said Troy: "It happened through multiple family talks, where emotions were pouring out, from myself and my sister. Through us getting back together and staying together. It was nowhere near the best situation to stay in, but we were together as a family. That's all we had was us." They certainly had little in the way of comfort. By this time the Smiths had moved to 71st and St. Clair, inhabiting a neighborhood rife with urban dangers. The area was brutal, but it was home.
Sports saved Troy from the troubles that ensnared countless peers. At Martin Luther King Junior High he played soccer, tennis, basketball and track. And he played football for the older version of the Glenville A's in the Cleveland Muni League.
"I go back and see the guys I grew up with," Smith said. "Some of them are incarcerated. Some of them, rest their souls, have passed away. But the ones that are still there, when I see them, their whole month or year has changed. They light up like a Christmas tree.
"These are the same guys I used to play basketball with in the middle of the street, shooting at a crate. They're still maintaining. The only thing that's sad, though, the average young person back home can't see past Friday. They play it day by day, literally."
Troy Smith never has been shackled by a lack of vision. He could see past Friday -- all the way to Saturdays and playing college football, and even to Sundays and the NFL, too. Dreaming big always has been his way, and he's had the requisite ambition and hunger to chase the dream down. The dream led Smith to parochial power St. Edward High School in Lakewood, where Troy awkwardly stood out in a predominantly white, largely affluent student body. He wound up sharing the quarterback position with Shaun Carney, who went on to be a three-year starting QB at the Air Force Academy. Smith often was shuttled to wide receiver to make room for Carney at quarterback.
That was unsatisfying for a kid who'd run every team since that day on the field at 112th and St. Clair when Irv White put the ball in his hands. Smith's stay at the school ended during his junior year, shortly after his elbow knocked out Toledo St. John's player John Floyd.
He wound up back in the neighborhood, at Glenville High. The coach was Ted Ginn Sr., who would take the male role-model baton from Irvin White.
Smith joined a team that featured receiver/defensive back Ted Ginn Jr., who was a national-caliber recruit. But Ted Jr. had a learning disability and Troy was now considered damaged goods -- a fractious child of uncertain collegiate value.
Matthew Emmons/US Presswire
Troy Smith and Ted Ginn Jr. have the Buckeyes on the brink of a national title.
"Him and Ted were basically throwaways," Ginn Sr. said.
By the time Smith got to Glenville, his rebuilt relationship with his mom had started deteriorating again. Ginn stepped in and set up counseling -- even attended the first session with the two of them.
"They needed that," Ginn said. "Troy didn't understand his mom and the issues she went through. He was taken from his mother. That's major, to be taken as a little kid from your mom. He had to learn how to trust his mother."
He had to learn how to trust everyone.
"He had a chip on his shoulder," said Glenville High campus administrator Jacqueline Bell, a veteran of 32 years in Cleveland public schools. "Didn't trust anyone, didn't confide in anyone. It took coach Ginn to get him to trust us."
Said Ginn: "It took work to break into that fence."
Once inside, the Ginns became family to Smith.
"I think only a man can teach a man how to be a man," Troy said. "He did just that. He didn't do it in a discipline-oriented way, it was more of a mentoring way.
"We talked all the time. I would talk to Ginn Senior like he was one of my best friends. As a peer. I felt comfortable with him like that. I can talk to him about any and everything, and I still do."
Today Smith and Ted Ginn Jr., are on the short list of the most lethal pass-and-catch combinations in America. They're teammates on a 12-0 Buckeyes team that will play Florida Jan. 8 for the national title.
But only one of the two was a blue-chip recruit for the Buckeyes, and it wasn't Smith. He accepted the final scholarship offer in the 2002 recruiting class and was labeled an "athlete" by the school on its official release. That's code for "we're not sure where to play him, but quarterback is a long shot."
Troy Smith had to move on -- and prove on -- once again.
Last month. Columbus. Cataclysmic game against unbeaten archrival Michigan is five days away. Troy Smith is sitting behind a microphone, facing a semicircle of reporters from all over the nation. "There was a certain point in time," he said, smiling, "where nobody cared who I was."
Smith easily could have been talking about his life in general, but that particular comment referred to his value as a college quarterback upon arriving in Columbus. He had none for two years.
Smith spent his first season redshirting, serving as practice-squad meat for a Buckeyes team that went on to win the national title. The next year he was a special teams utility player, running back kicks and getting some cameo duty at running back.
"I was working for scraps, taking anything I could get," Smith said.
After that he finally got his shot at quarterback, and his growth rate has been flatly astounding.
Joe Robbins/US Presswire
Troy Smith burst onto the national scene against Michigan in 2003.
Smith backed up Justin Zwick for seven games in 2003 before injury gave him a shot at the starting job. By season's end he'd blown up on Michigan, running for 145 yards and throwing a 68-yard touchdown on the fifth play of the game to key a major Buckeyes' upset.
Then came the payola scandal and subsequent two-game suspension, which took Smith out of the 2004 Alamo Bowl and the first game of 2005. Coach Jim Tressel brought Smith off the bench in Ohio State's second game, a massive showdown against Texas, and that decision not to start him helped cost the Buckeyes the game and scuttled OSU's championship hopes.
Smith was in charge thereafter, and Ohio State went 9-1. Smith closed with brilliant games against Michigan and Notre Dame in the Fiesta Bowl, setting the stage for runs at the Heisman and national title this fall.
The 2006 season has worked out beyond even the most optimistic master plan. Ohio State is unbeaten, Smith is unchallenged for the award, and he's proven to NFL scouts and skeptics than he's more than just a great athlete playing quarterback.
He's become the very embodiment of a field general.
"When you think of Troy, the first thing that comes to my mind is leadership, probably the second thing is competitiveness, and maybe the third thing that jumps up to me about Troy is his hunger to be in command of what's going on," Tressel said.
The former scrambler became almost an obstinate pocket passer, spending the first half of the season nearly anchored in the backfield. After proving his point, Smith once again began using his scampering ability to make plays.
His growth as a quarterback has dovetailed with his growth as a collegian. Rather implausibly, Smith has inhaled Tressel's tenets and become his star pupil. The two would appear to have little beyond football in common, but Smith has become an extension of his conservative, white, middle-aged coach.
Matthew Emmons/US Presswire
Troy Smith has blossomed as a QB under Jim Tressel's guidance.
Smith is remarkably composed and impeccably mannered -- removing his hat indoors for an interview for this story, holding open doors, looking people in the eye at all times. He never fails to default into "teamspeak" when the subject matter turns to individual achievement. He gushes on all things scarlet and gray.
"Tress, in essence, to me, is just like Ginn," Smith said. "They both value you as a man first. Football things will come, because the things you instill on the football field are some of the things you instill off the field."
Smith earned his communication degree in four years. Perhaps more importantly, a guy who once cynically scammed the system by taking booster money has become downright sentimental about the student-athlete experience.
"I didn't understand it coming in," Smith said. "Through countless days of school here, countless days of training, playing in games, it became an acquired taste. Anytime you have to represent something, you appreciate it."
Saturday night will be an appreciation. An appreciation of a heroic journey. Troy Smith will stand behind the Heisman Trophy and in front of the nation, and he will thank the village that has raised him to this point. He'll do it without notes.
Matthew Emmons/US Presswire
Troy Smith's received plenty of help during his run toward the Heisman Trophy.
"I think anything and everything you're going to say has to come from your heart," Smith said. "I think if you write it down -- yeah, it comes from your heart, but you're going to rehearse it. I don't think that's a rehearsal thing. You don't practice something like that, you know what I mean?"
Still, some prespeech thinking will be necessary. For one thing, Troy must decide what --if anything -- he will say about Kenneth Delaney, his father.
When asked about his father, Smith's response is sharp.
"My father or my dad?" he said. "Your father is biological, and your dad is who raised you. ? My father, I can't really speak for him, because I don't talk to him a lot. He's doing OK. He's my father figure but he's not my dad figure."
Smith said he talked to his father about seven months ago. Delaney's attempts to reconnect with Troy were met rather brusquely.
"I don't buy into that," Smith said. "I've been a man for a while now, making decisions on my own, things like that. I've said it before: it takes a man to teach a man how to be a man. Other men have taught me that. I don't hold it against him. I just don't think there's anything he can instill in me right now that would be beneficial. But I do love him, because he played a part in my birth. He knows exactly how I feel."
The male role models in attendance with Smith Saturday night in Manhattan will be Tressel, quarterbacks coach Joe Daniels and Ted Ginn Sr.
"The perception of kids that come out of the inner city of Cleveland is that they cannot achieve," Ginn said. "Troy is proving that you can."
At home in the gritty part of Cleveland, Glenville administrator Bell will be watching on television.
"I guess some of the things she's had to endure in her life, this is an extremely positive thing. Why not let her just live it up? She deserves it. She deserves everything that's coming to her. " -- Troy Smith on attending the Heisman ceremony with his mom
"Someone that literally sat in this office with me, that I've hugged, is going to win the Heisman," she said, wonderment audible in her voice. "It's like, wow. Is this really happening? "These kids come in here with so many issues. If an authority figure doesn't take the time to listen and to work with them and teach them, they're not going to be all they can be. It's amazing to me, despite the odds, to see that Troy has held fast to his teachings."
Irvin and Diane White will be watching back home, too.
"We'll be boo-hooing," Irvin said, watching the boy he took into his home. "I'm not even going to try to hide it."
But the relationship most rewarded Saturday night will be between mother and son. It has survived a pain most of us could only imagine, thanks to a son's compassion and a mother's willingness to change. This time, Tracy Smith will be there to receive a December gift from her son.
"I guess some of the things she's had to endure in her life, this is an extremely positive thing," Troy Smith said. "Why not let her just live it up? She deserves it. She deserves everything that's coming to her."
And Troy Smith deserves what's coming to him Saturday night. The Heisman Trophy, and a mother to share it with.
Pat Forde is a senior writer for ESPN.com. He can be reached at [email protected].
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BuckBojangles
Jooooooonyer
Great Article
Not only am I totally impressed with Pat Forde, but I have to say that Troy Smith is a true inspiration to me. I just think of all of the things that get me down and keep me negative, and now I think, "What the hell's keeping me back?"
Not only am I totally impressed with Pat Forde, but I have to say that Troy Smith is a true inspiration to me. I just think of all of the things that get me down and keep me negative, and now I think, "What the hell's keeping me back?"
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