Enquirer
SI: Buckeye QB is first class
By guiding Ohio State to an impressive victory at Texas, Troy Smith showed he?s a quarterback in every regard and the unquestioned leader of the No. 1 team in the land
BY AUSTIN MURPHY | SPORTS ILLUSTRATED
Reprinted with permission of Sports Illustrated.
The brawl in the Royal was down to garbage time. The longest winning streak in Division I-A was on life support, and a handful of orange-clad students were having trouble coping. Safe behind a railing and a line of police at *Royal-Memorial Stadium, they shouted insults at the visiting Ohio State Buckeyes, questioning their manhood, slandering their mothers and otherwise making fools of themselves.
With two minutes left in a game that ended 24?7, the hecklers found themselves drowned out by noise from the north end of the stadium. From the 4,000 or so Ohio State fans who formed a wedge of scarlet in a sea of burnt orange, the chant arose: ?We?re Number 1!?
Fans of the 2005 national champions, who last saw their Texas Longhorns lose almost two years ago and had grown accustomed to making that boast themselves, had no reply, just as the Texas defense had no effective answer for Troy Smith. The Buckeyes? senior quarterback alternated between efficient and electrifying last Saturday night, completing 17 of 26 passes for 269 yards, with two touchdowns and no interceptions. The 66-yard scoring drive Smith engineered late in the first half?his perfectly placed 29-yard touchdown pass to wideout Ted Ginn Jr. came with 16 seconds remaining?basically kneecapped the home team. It provided the winning margin in this early-season epic between No. 1 (Ohio State) and No. 2 (Texas), and a sobering note in the party town of Austin. Only two teams in the last 27 years have repeated as national champions; the Longhorns are unlikely to make it three.
With just under two minutes left in the first half, redshirt freshman quarterback Colt McCoy had tied the game at seven with a two-yard strike to wide receiver Billy Pittman. That was as good as it got for McCoy. Smith answered with the sublime rainbow to Ginn, putting the Buckeyes up for good and killing the buzz Texas had hoped to take into intermission.
The Longhorns won the national title thanks largely to the sorcery of Vince Young, the uniquely gifted, dual-threat quarterback now with the Tennessee Titans. While it?s tempting to say that Smith gave Texas a taste of Young?s medicine (last September the Longhorns kick-started their championship drive with a 25?22 win in Columbus), it?s not completely accurate. While Smith rushed 218 times for 950 yards in 2004 and ?05, he has carried the ball just eight times in two games this season for a grand total of minus-14 yards.
The fact is, he is not particularly eager to display his running skills. He would much rather showcase his throwing ability. ?No exaggeration, he?s got one of the best arms I?ve ever seen?a cannon,? marvels OSU flanker Anthony (Gonzo) Gonzalez. ?But he still has incredible touch.?
Beyond that, Smith hasn?t really needed to run. Against Texas the mere expectation that he would take off was enough to cause the Longhorns to focus much of their defensive preparation on stopping that threat. Five days before the game, there was Texas co?defensive coordinator Gene Chizik describing in detail the ?great running game package? Ohio State had concocted for number 10: Smith running the option; Smith spearheading what Chizik described as the Buckeyes? ?quarterback power game.?
Instead Chizik?s charges found themselves faced with a quarterback who is empowered by airing the ball out. This is a guy who was recruited as a great athlete rather than a quarterback. In ?03 he was invited to return kickoffs; in ?04 he was asked to learn the wide receiver position. He is a proud young man who wants to be thought of as a quarterback?not a running quarterback or an ?athlete.?
Whenever he was asked last week to compare himself with Young, Smith would flinch almost imperceptibly, then answer by not answering. ?He?s a great guy, but I play for a totally different team,? he said on one occasion. ?He?s six-six, I?m six-one,? he said on another, inadvertently spotting the former Longhorn an extra inch. Smith dodged the question because there was no upside in answering it truthfully, in saying something along the lines of: I?m better at getting through my progressions. And when I do release the ball, I have a more fluid motion and throw a better, more accurate deep ball?make that a more accurate ball, *period?than he ever will.
The intangible shared by Young and Smith is what Ohio State coach Jim Tressel describes simply as ?a command??the ability to exude and instill confidence and certainty, no matter how dire the situation.
A half hour before kickoff, a man whose ensemble included white shoes, white shorts and a scarlet-and-white cape?he identified himself as Buck-I-Guy?stood at the railing behind the Texas bench and made a series of proclamations: ?This is the game of the century! This is Ali-*Frazier! You?ve heard of the Thrilla in Manila?this here?s the Brawl in the Royal!?
Truth be told, the Brawl was more *Holyfield-Bowe than Ali-Frazier. Things never got especially dire for the Buckeyes. McCoy?s first pass of the second half was intercepted by James Laurinaitis, a ball-hawking sophomore linebacker whose father could have taught Buck-I-Guy a thing or two about outlandish getups. In the ?80s and ?90s, Joe Laurinaitis worked the pro wrestling circuit as Animal, one half of the tag team known as the Road Warriors.
It was the younger Laurinaitis, a former high school hockey player from Hamel, Minn., and one of nine new starters on Ohio State?s defense, who punched the ball from the grasp of Pittman near the Buckeyes? goal line late in the first quarter of a scoreless game. The fumble was gathered in by cornerback Donald Washington, who returned it to midfield.
Smith needed only five plays to get his team in the end zone and complete the *momentum-turning 14-point swing. Notable about that sequence: Every one of the 57 yards gained on the possession was through the air?by Gonzalez, whose third catch of the drive was a 14-yard touchdown reception. To shake cornerback Brandon Foster, Gonzo used what is known as a double-move: one fake followed by another. He didn?t need the second move to beat Foster, who was having a tough day at the office.
Beyond the east side of the stadium, visible from the bleachers, is an elevated freeway. It is I-35, the very artery upon which deputies from the Travis County sheriff?s department had made three noteworthy arrests earlier in the week. Just shy of three in the morning on Labor Day, deputies observed a white 2003 Mercury ?swerving from lane to lane,? according to the affidavit filed by one of the arresting officers. After pulling the car over, officers observed that one of its passengers was asleep in the backseat with a gun in his lap.
That slumbering individual allegedly packing heat was Tarell Brown, who happens to be the Longhorns? best cover *corner?the guy who was slated to spend Saturday night matched up against Ginn. Instead, he was, in order: 1) Tasered by the deputies, who were put on edge by the presence of that 9-mm; 2) charged with unlawfully carrying a weapon and possession of marijuana (officers found what was described as a ?marijuana ?blunt? cigar? in the car); and 3) suspended from the Ohio State game by coach Mack Brown, along with fellow passenger and backup safety Tyrell Gatewood.
Both players passed drug tests, and the marijuana charges were dropped four days later. (The dope, it turned out, belonged to the driver, former Texas linebacker Aaron Harris, who is being charged.) But the handgun charge against Brown was left standing, as was Brown?s suspension from the Longhorns? biggest game of the regular season. (Brown and Gatewood were reinstated on Monday.)
While it?s impossible to say how much the senior?s absence hurt Texas, it *certainly didn?t help. Lining up across from Ginn was cornerback Aaron Ross. Chizik *usually rolled a safety to that side, giving Ross deep help. Without that same help, the cornerback on the other side of the field?*Foster, normally a backup?was forced to give Gonzo a massive cushion. ?I had free rein to do things for about 10 yards,? said Gonzalez, who finished with eight catches for 142 yards. ?That makes things a lot easier.?
Beloved by Buckeyes fans for his clutch catches in Ohio State?s victories over Michigan in ?04 and ?05, Gonzo was nonetheless overshadowed by Ginn and Santonio Holmes, a first-round draft pick of the Pittsburgh Steelers last spring. It was a familiar role: Gonzalez?s older brothers, Nick and Joe, were also star athletes. Nick played baseball at UNC-Greensboro; Joe was a defensive back at Indiana.
?We played baseball in the backyard every day,? recalls Joe, who made the trip from the family?s hometown of Avon Lake, Ohio, to Austin along with the youngest Gonzalez sibling, Cristina. ?Anthony would beg to play. We would let him, but we wouldn?t count his hits or runs.?
Anthony was philosophical about those injustices; he is now a junior majoring in philosophy and prelaw. Joe calls him ?a brainiac??a description that squares with the performance Gonzo put on in the post-game interview area, where he pointed out that the depth of the safeties ?allowed our [pass] routes to mature?; and shared with reporters his ambition to be accepted into Stanford Law School.
While his siblings sometimes tease their cerebral brother, they also appreciate him. ?He makes you think a different way,? says Cristina.
He certainly made the Longhorns think a different way: Maybe we shouldn?t be giving this guy a 10-yard cushion on every play.
As the clock bled out the final minutes, the Buckeyes? sideline became boisterous. Safeties coach Paul Haynes turned to a group of defensive linemen and shouted, with incredulity, ?All they got was seven! Seven points!?
When it was over Smith ranged all over the field, embracing Longhorns, wishing them luck the rest of the way. Said Texas defensive end Brian Robison, ?That?s a classy guy.?
The same must be said of the Longhorns, whose comportment in defeat called to mind?Gonzo would appreciate *this?Aristotle?s words: ?The beauty of the soul shines out when a man bears with composure one heavy mischance after another.?
The odds are now excellent that college football will crown a new champion come January. That?s a harsh toke for Texas, but a good thing for everyone else. Aristotle also had this to say: ?Change in all things is sweet.?
Great game plan by the offensive coaches. :osu:
