Buckeyes' Smith top threat to Irish
OSU's starting quarterback is now a complete player leading the offense.
Knight Ridder Newspapers
Ohio State's Troy Smith is a second-chance guy in a three-strike-and-out situation.
He brings disorder to a defensive coordinator's ordered strategy, chaos to a well-contained play.
He is part of the quarterback-as-super-athlete wave rolling over football fields across America and Notre Dame has to do what Michigan couldn't -- control him.
So Irish coaches scheme and players prepare and come Monday's Fiesta Bowl we'll see if it was enough.
If it is, well, it won't guarantee the end of Notre Dame's recent bowl misery (seven straight losses), but it will mean more opportunities for its high-powered attack to crack Ohio State's offense-squashing defense.
Both rushing and passing
How do you stop a guy who has thrown for 1,940 yards and rushed for 545, who has accounted for 25 touchdowns against just four interceptions, who improvises faster than you say, "Don't let him get outside"?
Very carefully.
"He's gone from the running quarterback [Smith] versus the throwing quarterback [backup Justin Zwick]," Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis says, "to now he is 'The Guy.'
"You have to be concerned with both elements. You can't just worry about his feet. The guy can beat you with his arm now."
Puts pressure on defense
Like Heisman runner-up Vince Young of Texas, Smith puts maximum pressure on defenses. The pocket is an option, not a necessity. Third-and-long situations do not always favor the defense.
"You get a quarterback like that," Irish safety Tom Zbikowski says, "and even if you have the routes covered, he can pick up the first down with his feet. That's a back-breaker. We have to contain him."
Michigan tried twice and failed. Last season, Smith burned the Wolverines for 386 total yards, including 145 yards rushing, and two touchdowns. Last month, he threw for a career-high 300 yards and a touchdown, completed 27 of 37 passes, rushed for 37 yards and a TD, and directed two touchdown drives in the final eight minutes.
Oh, yes. Ohio State won both games.
"He's a dynamic young man," Ohio State coach Jim Tressel says. "He loves to compete. He's working to become a complete quarterback."
Can be pressured
Smith is swift and strong, but he is not linebacker big. He is 6-foot-1 and 215 pounds and he can be rocked by big hits. He can be pressured if you're disciplined enough.
"It's not enough to just disrupt him," Irish defensive end Victor Abiamiri says. "The best way to stop an athletic quarterback is to bring him down. You can't allow him to get in open field and make plays."
You also can't assume Smith seeks the open field.
"We have to stay on our receivers even if it looks like he's running," Zbikowski says. "He could still throw it. We have to contain and not be over aggressive."
Containing Smith likely means shadowing him with somebody just as athletic, perhaps somebody like linebacker Maurice Crum, although getting this out of the Irish is like getting a major league baseball player to admit steroid wrongdoings.
No matter. Smith's threat is magnified by his surrounding talent. There is the solid offensive line, the powerful tailback (Antonio Pittman has rushed for 1,195 yards), the game-breaking receivers (Santonio Holmes has 10 touchdowns and averages 17.8 yards per catch; Ted Ginn averages 14.8 yards a catch).
"What we have not everybody around the country has," Smith says, "is speed and the ability to make plays."
Suspended early in year
That Smith controls that playmaking comes after his two-game penance for last year's NCAA sin. He took $500 from a booster and the penalty was a suspension from the Alamo Bowl and this season's opener against Miami (Ohio).
"He had a bump in the road," Tressel says, "and did not play in the bowl game, he wasn't able to take all the snaps in the spring or preseason and he missed the opener. We all make mistakes and pay the consequences."
To critics suggesting the consequences weren't severe enough, Tressel says, in effect, get over it.
"We did what we had to do for the good of the individual. Now we're pressing forward. I don't have any regrets."
Regrets are left for defenses trying to stop Smith. Come Monday, we'll see who has more -- Smith or the Irish.