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The coach comes around Jim Tressel was slow to jump on Troy Smith?s bandwagon By Dan Williamson / OCTOBER 26, 2006
File/Dan Trittschuh
?My thinking has just been enhanced, not changed?: Tressel is quicker to praise Smith now than he was after the quarterback?s ?04 heroics against Michigan
Two years ago, Jim Tressel was a little bit like George Bush. He was bogged down in a seemingly unwinnable situation and yet unwilling to change course or even admit his mistakes.
Tressel?s Buckeyes had started the Big Ten season 0-3, with losses to Northwestern, Wisconsin and Iowa. The
OSU offense, led by sophomore quarterback Justin Zwick?a prize recruit from Massillon, where he had been a high school superstar?wasn?t working.
Another sophomore, Cleveland product Troy Smith, was waiting not very patiently on the bench. After being informed in summer camp that he would get a fair amount of playing time at QB, Smith hadn?t yet taken a snap in a close game. Earlier in the season, Smith had expressed his unhappiness about this, which only made his chances of getting in a game more remote.
Zwick?s troubles had sparked a quarterback controversy, but Tressel would hear none of it. After that third straight Big Ten loss?a 33-7 drubbing in Iowa City?Tressel stuck up for Zwick by reminding the media that Brett Favre has bad games, too.
This week, Tressel wasn?t talking about Zwick or even Favre. He was raving about yet another outstanding performance by Smith, the best player on the best team in the country and the undisputed frontrunner for the 2006 Heisman Trophy.
To no one?s surprise, the coach declared Smith the Buckeyes? offensive player of the week?an honor he shared with Michigan State?s Drew Stanton in the Big Ten?for his four-touchdown, 220-yard display Saturday against Indiana.
?The thing that impressed me most about Troy?s performance is he misfired on his first three balls,? Tressel said. ?They weren?t great throws, and he didn?t get shook. He didn?t get rattled.?
Clearly, sometime in the past two years, Tressel quit thinking about Smith as a No. 2 quarterback, though he refused to acknowledge that this week.
?I always thought he had a lot of ability,? Tressel said. ?That?s why we recruited him. You know, always had lot of arm and knew that he had to come along in learning the system, which is what everyone has to do.?
?So my thinking has just been enhanced, not changed.?
That?s a little hard to believe.
In fact, you could argue that Smith might still be riding the pine if not for a shoulder injury that forced Zwick from the Iowa game early in the second half. After Smith came in and threw a 28-yard touchdown pass, Tressel made it clear he was not impressed, saying the inconsequential TD had more to do with Iowa?s second-string ?vanilla defense? than Smith?s arm.
But Zwick was hurt, which meant Smith finally had the opportunity he?d been hoping for. He didn?t disappoint, going 5-1 down the stretch, including an upset victory over Michigan in which Smith turned in 241 passing yards and 145 rushing yards.
It was the third best offensive performance in Buckeye history, and yet after the game, Tressel gushed about receiver Ted Ginn, kicker Mike Nugent and fullback Brandon Joe.
But when he was asked about the dazzling performance of his quarterback, the coach said, ?There were some great things he did, and some things he needed to improve upon.?
As it turned out, there was one thing Smith needed to improve on: saying ?no thank you,? when offered $500 by an
OSU athletics booster. That infraction, revealed shortly after the Michigan triumph, got him suspended for the Alamo Bowl and the 2005 home opener.
Though his team won both games, Smith was back to being the No. 2 quarterback for the team?s second game of 2005, against the University of Texas. Smith got to play in that one, but he turned in an uneven performance against the victorious Longhorns.
Despite that, Tressel did the following week what he now surely wishes he had done in the summer of ?04: He officially named Smith his starting quarterback.
After a slow start?briefly inspiring fans to wonder whether No. 3 Todd Boeckman should get a shot?Smith turned in an excellent ?05 season, capped by his magical come-from-behind feat in Ann Arbor and his dominance of Notre Dame in the Fiesta Bowl.
This year, as he punctuates even average games with one or two Heisman-reel moments, fans don?t wonder whether Smith is this team?s best quarterback. They ask if he?s Ohio State?s best quarterback ever. (See story below.)
And Smith?s biggest fan is none other than Tressel, who now compliments his QB the way he complimented everybody else on the team after the ?04 Michigan game.
Perhaps Tressel?s change of heart had less to do with Smith?s passing and running abilities than with how quickly he changed his public personality. Since that early complaint about playing time, Smith has made a reputation for himself as one of the dullest quotes in college football.
He always credits his teammates?the defense especially?and doesn?t admit to any satisfaction over beating the other team. Smith?s metamorphosis from hothead to robot actually began after his first start, the ?04 Indiana game, when he declined to speculate about his standing with the coach.
?The starting job is in Coach Tressel?s hands,? he said back then.
That prompted an exasperated reply from Bruce Hooley, then of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, who asked, ?So you?re going to be boring now??
Yes, he is. Jim Tressel loves boring.
Jim Tressel's 2006 "Theme of the Week" tour may have ended. Now he's set his team on the "Theme of the Month" tour. 
"Coach put up a graphic today of all the (OSU) outright Big Ten champions and all the national champions in Ohio State history, and they've all with the exception of the '39 team I think, they all were undefeated in November, so we know the opportunity that we've put ourselves in and the place we've put ourselves in to be able to do those things," said OSU senior safety Brandon Mitchell on Tuesday.