Improved Qb Smith Waiting For Penn State Jerry Kellar Opinion
The Troy Smith Penn State’s football team is going to see Saturday at The Horseshoe will not be the Smith whose two turnovers keyed Ohio State’s loss at Beaver Stadium a year ago.
Smith promises that.
The right-handed quarterback was so distraught after the game — the Buckeyes’ only Big Ten setback of 2005 — he took it upon himself to improve.
A lot of his preparation was spent in the dark.
“Film room, first and foremost,” Smith says. “It helped with my decision-making, things like that. There’s a lot of things that I took for granted. In the Penn State game, I didn’t game plan enough and they went out and capitalized on it and did a great job.
“So I had it set in my mind that I didn’t want to feel like that again for the rest of the season.”
The Cleveland resident became a different player after the Penn State game in early October. By the time the Buckeyes squared off with Notre Dame in the BCS Tostitos Fiesta Bowl in January, he was among the hottest signal-callers in the country. His 408 all-purpose yards in a 34-20 drubbing of the Fighting Irish earned him MVP honors in Tempe.
Now, the 6-foot-1, 215-pound Smith is back as the unquestioned leader of coach Jim Tressel’s No. 1-ranked squad.
He’s also the current front-runner for the Heisman Trophy.
“That doesn’t sway me one way or another because we have a whole football season to play,” he says.
There’s too much on the line these days for Smith to get caught up in personal awards. Besides, he understands better than most how quickly the mighty can fall.
It was just two seasons ago that Smith was suspended from the Alamo Bowl for taking $500 from a booster. He believes he’s much smarter for the experience.
“It’s a process that every athlete has to go through, should go through,” Smith says. “As an athlete you have to take things in stride, you have to keep moving. You can’t be complacent. A lot of times they love you when you’re up and then when you’re down they step on you. You have to be able to keep that in perspective.”
Smith’s off to a sizzling start this season. He’s third in the nation in pass efficiency with a 177.4 rating, hitting on 56-of-81 throws (69.1) for 769 yards, with seven touchdowns and no interceptions. Coming into Saturday’s game against the Nittany Lions, the Buckeyes are averaging 426.7 yards in offense and 32 points per game.
“I think Troy Smith has become a very, very fine quarterback,” Penn State coach Joe Paterno says. “He is very poised, calm and kids respond to him. I think he is the leader, obviously, of the Ohio State football team right now.”
Smith was nearly flawless in Ohio State’s 24-7 win at Texas two weeks ago. That game was the first of two grudge matches on the Buckeyes’ schedule this season.
The second comes this weekend in Columbus.
“You can’t take anything from Penn State, they did a great job in that game,” Smith says, “but from that day on we made up our minds as a unit that we would never feel that way again.”
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