Football
Smith at Career Crossroads at OSU
By John PorentasThe question was direct and unambiguous. If things stay the way they are now all season and nothing changes, are you leaving?
"I can't say that right now. I wish I could, I can't say that right now," said OSU backup quarterback Troy Smith in an answer that seemed to sum up some very ambivalent feelings he is experiencing currently.
Photo by Jim DavidsonSmith has come out second-best in the race for the starting quarterback position at OSU, losing the position to Justin Zwick. Smith played sparingly in the opener vs. Cincinnati, less against Marshall, and not at all against North Carolina State. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see what the pecking order is after three games.
Through it all, Smith has said all the right things, and continued to do so with reporters on Tuesday night...at times.
"My whole demeanor and my whole understanding of everything here as far as football goes, I understand that it's not just me and it's not just my personality. It's a whole thing. It's group oriented," said Smith, who then added,
"It's kind of hard of going through the transition of wanting to help the team (as a backup) to possibly being in the race (as a contender for the starting role) to now you've got to go back to helping the team, but I said before, when I got here, that I'm a team player, team first, team first always. Whatever I can do to help the team I will," Smith said.
Smith said the right things some of the time, but at times there was an underlying current of resentment in his statements, at not only the fact that he isn't playing, but the way he is being handled by the OSU coaching staff and specifically Head Coach Jim Tressel.
Smith was careful with his words, but got his point across.
"I haven't talked to him yet," said Smith when asked if has spoken to Tressel about his situation and his feelings about it.
"That's kind of the frustrating thing about it, but Coach Tressel is doing this for a reason. Everything happens for a reason, so I'm going to roll with it," said Smith diplomatically.
Smith was asked if it were common-place for players to be left somewhat in the dark at times regarding their status.
"I could be, it could be common," Smith said somewhat coyly, then covered his tracks some when he added "I don't go around worrying about what the other players have going on, but now that you say that, it could be."
"I know that they don't really owe us an explanation, but at the same time where this guy isn't really doing all the wrong things, then I think that something needs to be said.
"It's not like I'm going out and M-F'ing everybody and missing reads and calling the wrong plays and things like that.
"I think that sometime when you're in a situation like that something needs to be said," said Smith.
Smith came off as a player with something on his chest, with something to say, but was fearful of saying it for fear of reprisal. That was clear in his response to a question as to whether he was actually given a fair shot to win the starting spot at quarterback.
"That's for you guys to decide," Smith said to reporters.
"I really can't say anything on that because I don't really want to put myself in a situation where I say this and there's repercussions of what I said to the media has something to do with my playing time or my future here, so that's for you to decide," said Smith evasively, but later added,
"It's a lot more than what you think. A lot more stuff goes on than what you think.
"Sometimes what you say in situations can be used against you. I'm in a situation where I don't want to say what I really want to say and that be used against me.
"I just pray. I just go about it that the Lord has blessed me with this and I have some type of path that he's going to take me through. Everything will be all right."
Smith was asked if he thought his involvement in an incident at Morril Tower last year in which several OSU football players were involved in a fight situation was being held against him and being considered as a factor in whether he would earn playing time. Smith would neither confirm nor deny that possibility, and actually put forth another possibility.
"A couple of situations could have arose (in addition to the Morril Tower incident)," he said.
"Just the whole thing with me being great friends with Maurice Clarett, which I still am, and I wish with all my heart that he was still here, but a couple of things could have been held against me."
Smith vacillated between being patient with his situation to near-anger over it.
"Of course I was upset," said Smith describing how he felt when it was clear how things had worked out.
"Going back and talking to my high school coach sort of like my mentor, Ted Ginn Sr, he just let me know to put it in God's hands, and that's what I did.
"Some of the things that went on in that game I can't really control. I can only control what Troy Smith does, the positive and negative things that happen to me," he said.
Later, however, he added that part of the things he can control and that he has considered is where he plays football.
"This year I can do nothing. I have to evaluate the things I have to do now, stick out this year hopefully and good things will happen," he said.
"If I were to leave I would still have two years of eligibility even if I did sit out one because of my redshirt year."
Smith made it clear that his goal is to reach the NFL, and to reach it as a quarterback.
"I'm a quarterback. When I get my shot to go to the NFL I'm going as a quarterback. That's the thing that I want to do, and that's the thing that I will continue to make myself better.
"It's not like I'm going to go out after practice and run routes to try to get better. I'm a quarterback first, but if I have to help the team in other areas I will," he said in another ambivalent statement.
"That's my goal right now; game by game to help my team win, but as a human being, I'm not happy.
"I'm not going to sit here and say that everything is peaches and cream and that I have no feelings, because this is my life.
"For 90% of the guys in the team, this is what they want to do after college. They want to go to the NFL to make some money to take care of their immediate families back home, their mothers, their sisters, their nieces, their nephews, and I'm not going to say they're playing with my life, but it's sort of like they have puppet strings with it."
"It's not like this is happening and I can just block it out. This is happening to me, and like I said before, this is my life, so I think about it all the time. I've got to envision myself on the video game winning the Heisman."
Troy Smith is no dummy. It's hard to be that guy in the video game that won the Heisman and went on to the NFL when you aren't the starter. We'll see what he does.
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