Cincy
Buckeyes' QB lashes out at reporters
BY JON SPENCER | (MANSFIELD, OHIO) NEWS JOURNAL
COLUMBUS - There was the one Heisman-worthy highlight when he did a Baryshnikov-like 360 pirouette away from pressure and fired an Elway-like rope into the end zone for a 37-yard touchdown.
Otherwise, it was the first un-Heisman-like performance by the No. 1 candidate this side of the Mississippi, and it had Troy Smith venting his thinly-veiled frustration on reporters.
Some of whom, he should be reminded, have a say on who carts away the Stiff Arm in December.
"Funny thing about that is, whether people are praising you all the time or always nagging at you, you can't please everybody," Smith said after the Ohio State offense feebly put up two touchdowns in Saturday's 28-6 win over a Penn State team rocked for 41 points by Notre Dame two weeks earlier.
"A lot of times you get reporters and journalists criticizing the things that we do on the field, and I guarantee you, if they had on cleats and shoulder pads and a helmet, they couldn't do a lot of the stuff that we do."
Not true. There was a press box full of stiffs who could have dropped passes just as easily as some of Smith's intended targets Saturday. Or looked just like Smith did on his first two interceptions of the season - or when he did his Rick "Wild Thing" Vaughn impersonation by throwing wide of tight end Rory Nicol on what could have been a 53-yard touchdown.
Wet conditions probably made handling and gripping the ball tricky. But No. 10 didn't make excuses.
"You're not going to have perfect days," said Smith, whose 115 yards passing snapped his streak of five straight 200-plus air shows. "You look at yourself in the mirror and look at yourselves in the huddle and still focus on getting the job done. That's what keeps you going."
That and another galvanizing performance by tailback Antonio Pittman. For the second week in a row, he jump-started the offense in the second half, producing the go-ahead TD and rushing for 110 yards against a supposedly impregnable run defense.
Pittman's spark gave Smith another chance to take a swipe at the media minions.
"I don't have the pen and I don't write the stories. I don't know why he doesn't get enough ink," he said when asked why Pittman is underappreciated. "Anytime you get 1,300 yards in a season (2005), more than some tailbacks who get more pub, there might be something wrong with the guys writing the stories."
It's that kind of feistiness that makes Smith such a fierce competitor and the guy the Buckeyes want and need at the controls of college football's No. 1 team. But he should save that combativeness for the field and the real, not perceived, enemy.
Ohio State will need Smith at the top of his game to prevail Saturday night at Iowa. The Hawkeyes enter with a matching 4-0 record and have everybody jumping out of the cornstalks with excitement about "College Gameday" coming to Iowa City for the first time since 1996.
"This is probably going to be a six-ring circus instead of a three-ring circus," Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz said. "We don't get a lot of six-ring circuses, so we're going to have to talk about a few things."
Ohio State lived up to its No. 2 ranking a decade ago, socking the Hawkeyes 38-26 en route to a share of the Big Ten title and Rose Bowl glory. But Smith's memories this week start and stop at 2004, when Iowa handed the Buckeyes their worst defeat (33-7) of the Tressel Era.
Smith subbed for an injured Justin Zwick that day. The game was already a lost cause, but Smith ultimately saved the season and steered the Buckeyes back among the nation's elite.
He's already proven he can stop the bleeding. Now, with national championship dreams riding on every outcome, the Buckeyes need Smith to wrap a bow - not a tourniquet - around Saturday's game.
And apply salve to his bruised ego while he's at it.
