Time for next chapter in Smith's football story

By JOE SCALZO
VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF
HUBBARD -- About a decade ago, Hubbard High football coach Jeff Bayuk went to a Hubbard Little Eagles football game and saw something special in a pint-sized running back named Anthony Smith.
"One of the things that struck me was that every time he touched the ball, he was running for a touchdown," said Bayuk, who has coached at Hubbard for 15 years. "It's hard at that level because sometimes you'll see kids who are really good who never getting any better. That's as good as they get."
Not this kid.
Bayuk kept tabs on Smith in junior high and in freshman football and Smith kept impressing him. He got better. He got bigger. And, by the time he was a sophomore, Bayuk couldn't keep him out of the lineup. Midway through his sophomore year, Smith started as a tailback. The next year he started playing at safety, too. By the time he was a senior, he never left the field.
Bayuk knew Smith was special, but he didn't know how special until early in Smith's senior year when a scout from West Virginia came to watch the Eagles play Struthers.
"Anthony intercepted a pass and went something like 94 yards for a touchdown and he kept cutting back and jumping over people," said Bayuk. "When I got back to my office, the scout from West Virginia called and said, 'I'll tie him up and put him in my car right now. He's the real deal.'
"When he told me that, I knew he was going to do something."
Smith gained more than 3,000 yards and scored 55 touchdowns as a junior and a senior at Hubbard, earning All-Ohio honors both seasons.
By his senior year, he had several college offers -- "Anthony's problem was that he loved every college he visited," said Bayuk -- but needed only about 10 or 15 minutes to know Syracuse was home.
Four years later, Smith is again headed for the next level. Only this time, he doesn't get to pick his team.
"It's getting kind of nerve-wracking," said Smith, who will likely be a mid-round pick at this weekend's NFL draft. "I'm just trying to make the best of it right now."
The next step
The last Hubbard player to make it to the NFL was Dan Benish, a defensive lineman who played with the Falcons from 1983-86 and with the Redskins as a strike replacement player in 1987.
Bayuk was an assistant at Ursuline for five seasons and head coach at Canfield for five years. Still, he's never coached an NFL player.
"It's been kind of cool getting calls from pro teams," he said, laughing.
Syracuse coach Greg Robinson, on the other hand, has coached hundreds of NFL players. Before getting hired by the Orange in 2005, Robinson spent 14 years as an NFL assistant with the New York Jets, Denver Broncos and Kansas City Chiefs.
He knows what an NFL player looks like.
"First of all, he has a style about him," Robinson, who coached Smith for one season, said. "He can be an intimidating force and to me, that's really his game -- intimidation. Very few players play the game like that.
"From the first game to the last, he wanted those offensive players to know where he was at all times."
Smith finished last season with team-highs in interceptions (six), pass break-ups (eight), passes defended (14) and fumble recoveries (three), earning first team all-Big East honors. He finished his Syracuse career as the school's all-time leader in blocked kicks (six) and was third all-time in interceptions (14).
"He worked very hard to adapt to our system and I think that's going to be helpful to him a year from now," said Robinson. "We tried to teach players how a pro football player prepares himself, which is different than how a college player prepares."
Room for improvement
Smith isn't a finished product and NFL scouts are notorious for finding flaws in even the best players. For all his strengths, Smith doesn't have elite size or speed and will need to work on his cover skills if he wants to become a starter in the NFL.
"It's really just a process," Robinson said. "The question is, how much more can he continue to grow? As a tackler and as a hitter, I think they'll like what they're working with. And he's a guy who can play the ball. He'll just have to adapt to the system he's in and I think he'll work hard at doing that."
The Orange went just 1-10 this season, but were a solid defensive team. Smith developed a reputation as someone who plays even when he's hurt and plays hard even when the team is struggling.
"He's a football player," Bayuk said. "When I was talking to a scout from the Falcons, one of the things they liked was that he was so durable. He's tough. He plays through the bumps and bruises."
Smith isn't the top-rated safety in the draft. That honor belongs to either Ohio State's Donte Whitner or Texas' Michael Huff (who might play cornerback). But most scouts have Smith listed as one of the five or 10 best safeties available.
"I've obviously talked to a number of teams, but the draft is a crap-shoot," said his agent, Ken Sarnoff. "I'm not a draft prognosticator, but I can tell you this: Anthony's a great football player and he's going to play a long time in this league."
Smith plans to be home in Hubbard for this weekend's draft but he's not planning to watch it.
"I don't want to wait around all day," he said. "I'm just going to be out hanging out with my buddies. When I get that phone call [from an NFL team], I'll go back home."
Smart player
As productive as Smith has been over the past four years, there's one other thing that NFL scouts love: his intelligence. Smith is set to graduate with a degree in consumer studies in four years. Many top college players need five or six years to complete their degree.
"That's very important to pro people," said Robinson. "That says a lot. It says this guy achieves. For him to play football, and to be as into it as he is, it just tells you he's got his priorities right. He doesn't get distracted. He's a focused young man.
"The people of Youngstown should be proud. He's done good."
Some might worry that fame will change Smith, but not Bayuk.
He knows Smith is already famous.
"He's like a celebrity around here," Bayuk said. "He'll go to the middle school and kids rush up to him and want his autograph. One thing about Anthony is he's always willing to give someone else his time. When little kids go up to him, he'll sign every autograph.
"If he's fortunate enough to get drafted, I hope he remembers where he came from and I think he will. He's that kind of kid."