Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
JIM LITKE
AP Sports Columnist
GLENDALE, Ariz. - The hurdles always get higher, never lower.
Then there's that little matter of the Heisman Trophy attached to his ankle like a ball and chain.
But don't bet against Ohio State's Troy Smith being able to make the jump to the next level, from Saturday college quarterback hero to hard-boiled Sunday pro, no matter how shaky he looked in the final game of his career Monday night.
That performance will strengthen many of the doubts NFL scouts already had about Smith's size, his head or his heart. Just remember, there were plenty of questions about Vince Young just a year ago, too.
"There's going to be naysayers and people to sway you in a positive or a negative way," Smith said, "and it depends on if you take that pill, if you swallow that poison, and I plan not to do that."
His story begins in a hardscrabble East Cleveland neighborhood that precious few kids ever escape. A scholarship to Ohio State was his way out, but it landed him squarely in one of the most competitive environments any young man is likely to face. The Buckeyes' program is bursting with alpha males every season, and the leadership role Smith staked out for himself from the start required him to be the most alpha of them all.
Proving his toughness turned out to be the easy part. Proving how much and how fast he could learn from his mistakes - including an arrest after an on-campus altercation and a suspension for accepting money from a booster - turned out to be much harder.
Rebounding from his disastrous performance in the 41-14 loss to Florida in the BCS national championship game, when Smith completed just four passes for 36 yards, threw an interception, fumbled once and was sacked six times, will be harder still.
"You have to produce before anyone will follow you," Buckeye coach Jim Tressel said. "So it starts with his production. And then I just think you have to have an aura about you that you back up what you say. You train like you ask others to train. You are as committed to the task at hand as anyone.
"But I think there is something special about those guys that can step up and lead," he said.
As the discussion shifts from what Smith achieved in a remarkable college career to what he might accomplish as a pro, there will be less emphasis on his strengths than his weaknesses. As the Gators' defense proved, there are still plenty of things Smith has yet to learn.
He's generously listed at 6-foot-1 and 215 pounds on Ohio State's roster. Draftniks already have noted he's nowhere near as big or powerful as LSU's 6-6, 257-pound JaMarcus Russell, a junior reportedly jumping into the NFL draft pool, nor as polished as Notre Dame's Brady Quinn, or even Louisville's Brian Brohm, who might forgo his senior year and try to tempt GMs to risk a top pick on a passer.
But Gators coach Urban Meyer cautioned against underestimating Smith. Steve Young, for example, was barely 6-foot, and Fran Tarkenton would have needed lifts in his cleats just to get close. A lack of height never limited their games, and Smith looks as dangerous as they were.
"There are a lot of guys that can stand there and throw the ball, but there are few that can create plays out of a bad situation," Meyer said. "Troy Smith won that Heisman because he has good personnel around him, but he is a playmaker when the plays aren't there."
Funny thing about that Heisman: Until Southern California's Carson Palmer and Matt Leinart won it the last few years, you had to go all the way back to Jim Plunkett, Stanford, 1970, to find a really good one, and all the way back to Roger Staubach, Navy, 1963, to find a great one.
The quarterbacks who won the award on either side of Palmer, Nebraska's Eric Crouch in 2001 and Oklahoma's Jason White in 2003, never played a single down in the NFL. Then again, neither evolved the way Smith has.
He went from a run-first passer who fled the pocket at the first sign of collapse to a cool, pass-first conductor who buys time with his feet, but doesn't shy away from absorbing a hit if that's what it takes to deliver. More important, instead of using his arm strength and trying to force the ball into tight situations, he's learned to pick his spots. As a sophomore, his touchdown-to-interception ratio was a worrisome 2-1. Last season it was 4-1. This season, 6-1.
"I even hate throwing interceptions on video games now," Smith said. "I'm a quarterback through and through. When I watch another quarterback throw an interception, I sort of feel their pain, too."
For the time being, though, the pain was all his.
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