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QB Troy Smith (2006 Heisman Trophy Winner)

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The One to Watch

All Eyes Will Be on Smith As He Runs the Show for Top-Ranked Ohio State

By Marc Carig
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, August 30, 2006; Page E01
CHICAGO

Troy Smith chats in his sharp suit and bright earrings, looking every bit the part of a Heisman Trophy hopeful. A crowd gathers around and listens to him delve into his newfound love for the film room, how he's trying to become a better passer and the inevitable comparisons to Vince Young.
But as he speaks, Smith leans back in his chair and exposes not only the yellow Lance Armstrong bracelets hanging on his wrists, but possibly the source of some added motivation.
"He's my quarterback coach and one of the few people that believed I could play the quarterback position," Smith said about Joe Daniels, the Ohio State assistant who is undergoing treatment for cancer. "He's battling through it. He's giving me the added strength to keep moving on, to keep going on because of what he's going through."
The Buckeyes start as the No. 1 team in the country entering a season in which the consensus is that there isn't one, an exciting fact for both pundits and fans. Smith, whose unpredictable style of play makes him particularly dangerous, personifies that excitement.
Within one year, Smith went from suspended to superstar, emerging as both a running and passing threat despite splitting time with Justin Zwick early last season.
Ohio State's offense returns with the tools to put on a show this season, and Smith will be directing the cast with a level of trust from Coach Jim Tressel he has never enjoyed before.
Ohio State's young defense lost linebackers A.J. Hawk and Bobby Carpenter, but the Buckeyes' explosive offense is regarded enough to warrant the preseason No. 1 spot.
Smith is the biggest factor in that equation.
The quarterback racked up 2,893 yards of total offense. As a passer, Smith threw for 2,282 yards with 16 touchdowns and just four interceptions.
But the focus this summer was to improve his efficiency as a passer. Again, Smith turned to Daniels for help.
"He's given me another reason to show up at his house and break down film with him and things like that," said Smith, speaking at Big Ten media day last week in Chicago. "Without him last year, I probably wouldn't be in the situation I was in."
This season, Smith says he plans on using his feet as more of a last resort.
"Early on [in my career], I thought if the first or second read is not there, run the ball," Smith said. "After taking those hits, I'm no longer running the ball by my will or my want. I run it when I have to run it."
With the increased focus on watching film, Smith said the game has slowed down, bad news for opposing defenses that will also have to deal with a supporting cast that features Ted Ginn Jr., who coaches hope can show the explosiveness at wide receiver that he has displayed as a kick returner. Running back Antonio Pittman, who helped take pressure off Smith by rushing for 1,331 yards last season, also is back.
Meanwhile, Smith has been bolstered by an improved relationship with Tressel, who suspended him for the 2004 Alamo Bowl and last season's opener for taking $500 from a booster.
"As a quarterback, you have to develop a relationship with your head coach," Smith said. "He believes in you, and you believe in him."
That relationship will be tested early on as the Buckeyes lean on the offense to allow the young defense to come together.
The unit, which ranked fifth nationally in yards allowed per game last season, brings back only tackles Quinn Pitcock and David Patterson. While there is ample talent at the linebacker spots, the Buckeyes look vulnerable in the secondary, which could be especially troublesome in a conference in which nine of 11 teams have quarterbacks who started last season.
"We cannot put our defense in bad spots," Tressel said. "Then we have to do those other things, score points and create pressure on their offense by limiting possessions."
Nevertheless, Tressel said he is confident in the defense's ability to adjust quickly.
"We think they're very capable," he said.
 
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Posted on Thu, Aug. 31, 2006

The playmaker Troy Smith

Like a certain title-winning QB, Smith does it all for the Buckeyes

By WENDELL BARNHOUSE

STAR-TELEGRAM STAFF WRITER

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Star-Telegram/Ralph Lauer

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Troy Smith was the last player to sign up for Ohio State's recruiting class in February 2002. The Buckeyes had signed their quarterback of the future, Justin Zwick.
"We were very honest with Troy," Ohio State coach Jim Tressel said. "We made it clear, 'Is coming to Ohio State under these circumstances the best thing for you?'"
It turns out Smith knew what he was doing. Last season, he beat out Zwick for the starting job. The 6-foot-1, 215-pound Smith has the combination of running and passing skills that are currently in vogue for college quarterbacks.
After taking over as the starter, Smith led the Buckeyes to a 10-2 record and a Fiesta Bowl victory over Notre Dame. He accounted for 27 touchdowns (16 passing, 11 running). He completed 63 percent of his passes for 2,282 yards and added 611 yards running.
At the end of 2004 (his sophomore season), Smith had an epiphany. After accepting money from a Buckeyes booster, Smith was suspended two games -- the 2004 Alamo Bowl and the 2005 season opener against Miami (Ohio).
It was time to grow up.
"I don't stop to look at the person I've become," Smith said. "The minute I do that, I'll stop becoming that person....You continually grow as a man."
Because of Ohio State's use of a spread offense and Smith's ability to break down defenses with his arm and his legs, the Buckeyes' senior quarterback has been compared to Texas' Vince Young.
Asked if he would try to emulate Young, Smith paused for a few seconds.
"No," he answered. "But I'll try to emulate him in two ways. He led his team and he won the national championship. Other than that, I'm gonna write my own story."
The vitals
Height: 6-1
Weight: 215
Hometown: Cleveland
Birthday: July 20, 1984
Vision
Smith has improved his ability to read defenses but still needs to work on finding his second and third receiving options.
Decision-making
Ohio State signed Smith because of his athletic skills, his ability to run and throw. He has developed into a leader and a winning quarterback who is 13-2 as a starter.
Arm strength
Above average. One Division I-A defensive coordinator says Smith is a better passer than Texas' Vince Young was last year. He's also accurate, particularly with deep throws.
Mobility
Excellent. Smith's speed isn't about his 40-yard dash time, it's about his quickness and timing. He has developed the sense of when to scramble when the pass rush collapses the pocket.
Overall strength
Playmaking and competitive nature. The Buckeyes believe in Smith and his ability to make the right play at the right time.
Intangibles
In Ohio State's last two victories over bitter rival Michigan, Smith was the quarterback who sparked the fourth quarter drives that produced the winning points. After winning the starting job over fellow senior Justin Zwick, Smith has carried himself as a confident, clutch player.
What they're saying
"You can play a play perfectly, have everybody covered and he can take off with the ball and make a big play. He's almost like an extra running back in the backfield. He's the same thing that Texas had with Vince Young. Smith's the real deal."
-- A Division I-A defensive coordinator on Smith
Key number
10.2 Yards the Buckeyes averaged on plays when Smith ran the ball or completed a pass.
Signature game
Notre Dame quarterback Brady Quinn is a Heisman Trophy candidate. But in last year's Fiesta Bowl, Smith was the star. He had 408 yards (a career-high 342 passing and 66 rushing) in the Buckeyes' 34-20 victory.
Stop sign
The best way to contain Smith is to...contain him. Defensively, that means to turn him into a pocket passer, prevent him from scrambling or getting to the edge of the defense on rollouts or options. Good strategy, but difficult to execute.
 
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Stop sign
The best way to contain Smith is to...contain him. Defensively, that means to turn him into a pocket passer, prevent him from scrambling or getting to the edge of the defense on rollouts or options. Good strategy, but difficult to execute.
Click to expand...
I would love to see defenses try to contain Smith. With the receivers we have, the potential of our running game, and Smith in the pocket picking apart defenses. I'll take it.
 
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[FONT=Verdana,Times New Roman,arial,helvetica,sans-serif]Year of the QB for OSU[/FONT]
Friday, September 1, 2006 [FONT=Verdana,Times New Roman,arial,helvetica,sans-serif]By Todd Porter REPOSITORY SPORTS WRITER More OSU previews are in Regional Sports [/FONT]

The body of work is impressive. Collectively, they had more than 21,000 passing yards last year. They completed 60.3 percent of their 2,833 passes.
Big Ten football isn’t the 3-yards-and-a-cloud-of-dust it used to be, unless you’re talking three-step drops. One of college football’s “power” conferences is going to the air this season. If Woody Hayes were alive, he might groan, but he’d be watching carefully.
Nine of the conference’s 11 quarterbacks figure to give Big Ten coaches nightmares.
“I’ve been watching tapes of people we’re going to play, and I’m like, ‘There’s one, there’s another ... this one’s great, that one’s great,’ ” Penn State Head Coach Joe Paterno said.
Ohio State returns perhaps the most star power at quarterback, given that Troy Smith is a Heisman Trophy candidate. But don’t forget Michigan State’s Drew Stanton or Iowa’s Drew Tate.
A year ago, the Big Ten threw 400-plus more passes than the Western Athletic Conference.
What makes matters worse is the versatility in the offenses. Passing offenses are no longer just for pocket passers. Ohio State may run the spread one series, the option the next and the shotgun with Ted Ginn lined up in the backfield on the next series. You try figuring out a defensive game plan to work against nine quarterbacks with a combined 96 starts last season.
“It’s crazy,” said Purdue receiver Dorien Bryant, who caught a career-high 80 passes a year ago. “I grew up with college football, and can’t remember too many situations like this. ... It’s like there are nine All-Big Ten quarterbacks.”
Maybe not quite nine, but any one of six could land on the first team. Start with Smith, picked as the Big Ten’s Preseason Offensive Player of the Year. He threw for 2,282 yards and led the conference with a 162.65 efficiency rating.
Throw in another 600 yards in rushing and Smith is a two-headed monster. He was intercepted just four times with 16 touchdowns.
Michigan State’s Drew Stanton led the conference with 3,077 yards passing. Michigan’s Chad Henne had more than 2,500 yards passing and a 23 to 8 TD-to-interception ratio. Wisconsin’s John Stocco has played in more games than any of the returning starters and hit for nearly 3,000 yards in 2005.
“The game in this conference has really changed in the last 10 years,” first-year Wisconsin Head Coach Bret Bielema said. “Guys have brought quarterbacks into the conference who are complete players.”
Minnesota’s Bryan Cupito was stuck in an offense than had one of the nation’s best running backs in Laurence Maroney. But the Gophers are depleted in the backfield, and Head Coach Glen Mason said much of the burden will fall on his QB’s shoulders.
“A couple of years ago no one had a veteran quarterback,” Mason said. “Now, everybody does. ... People think the only thing we did was run the football, which isn’t exactly true. If you couldn’t stop the run, that’s what we’d do. I always said I’d like to be 60 percent run, 40 percent pass. I think maybe you’ll see us more 50-50, or 60-40 pass.”
Mason is correct. Two years ago, then-Michigan defensive back Marlin Jackson talked about how defenses would feast on the inexperienced quarterbacks in the league. The QBs took their lumps, chalked up those as lessons learned and now are ready to torch defenses.
Week in and week out, they will be there. Even Big Ten doormats Illinois and Indiana return starters under center. Potentially, any weekend a defense will have problems with a passing game.
That doesn’t bode well for Ohio State. The Buckeyes lost nine starters on defense, including the entire defensive backfield. Head Coach Jim Tressel shrugs about the experience at QB this year.
“I haven’t met a quarterback yet in the Big Ten that didn’t give you a lot of problems,” Tressel said. “What I’ve noticed about this conference is even when it’s an inexperienced quarterback, by the time you play them, they’ve got experience, and they’re pretty decent.”
Reach Repository sports writer Todd Porter at (330) 580-8340 or e-mail: [email protected]
 
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The story that almost wasn't
Jason Lloyd Journal Register News Service
09/01/2006

The adults in the life of Ohio State's quarterback didn't give up on him, and he's turned himself around

It's about an hour after the Ohio State spring game, and the gallery surrounding the players' exit at Ohio Stadium could rival the attendance most college teams draw for the spring game itself.
There are only two players who haven't left the stadium yet, and at least 500 people have waited patiently for them behind the massive cast-iron fence that looks like it belongs in Shawshank Redemption - not the Horseshoe.
As soon as Troy Smith and Ted Ginn Jr. appear, patience turns to pandemonium. Grown adults have suddenly formed a mosh pit.
"Ted! Ted!" one quadrant screeches, holding out hats, balls and programs for Ginn to sign.
Another section is shouting for Smith much the same way, holding out the same apparel. Anxious fans in the back begin to push the pile forward, making everyone a little nervous. Five security guards quickly rush Ginn and Smith through the crowd and onto the bus.
These aren't rock stars. Rock stars would only need one or two security guards in Columbus. They're bigger than rock stars: They're college football stars in perhaps the most college football-crazed town in America.
Amid the chaos, a little boy no more than 6 or 7 is separated from his father. Hungry autograph seekers and grown men wearing buckeye beads and face paint don't care, pushing and shoving around the boy until three strangers, two females and a male, bring the boy over to a security guard. Soon his father comes rushing over with a panicked look on his face and the two are reunited.
Meanwhile, as quickly as they appeared, Smith and Ginn are gone, and the security supervisor shakes his head and locks the gate.
"It's always like this," he said. "Those two are always the most popular. We have to find another way to get them out of here next year."
How ironic. Defensive coordinators from Northern Illinois, Texas, Cincinnati, Bowling Green and the entire Big Ten are wondering what to do with Smith and Ginn. Now the security guards are, too.
Two boys who grew up together, who played on rival teams in Cleveland's pee-wee leagues and were later reunited as Glenville Tarblooders, have shared plenty in their lives: First a father, now the title "Heisman Trophy contender."
"It would mean so much to have someone come out of inner-city Cleveland and win the Heisman Trophy," Ginn Jr. said.
This year, it just might happen.
Humble beginning
Smith and Ginn have reached that elite status in Columbus few have held. Craig Krenzel won a national championship and lost just three games as a starting quarterback, but he didn't have that swagger and appeal of Smith.
Michael Jenkins was Krenzel's favorite target on that national championship team, while Santonio Holmes was a first-round pick last year and the oil in the Buckeyes' well-lubed offense. But neither drew the crowds Ginn commands.
The only other player in recent Ohio State history to draw this type of attention was Maurice Clarett - when he was carrying footballs, not guns and hatchets.
Smith and Ginn have the sizzle, the flash, that something-you-can't-put-your-finger-on, but you know it exists. They're both being promoted as Heisman candidates and both have their own Web sites through Ohio State.
In the background of all this is Ted Ginn Sr., the father to Ted Jr. and the father figure to Troy.
"Sometimes I think it's amazing," Ginn Sr. said. "Then when I think about all the work they've put in and the expectations they have ... You think of all the dreams you have for your kids and putting that vision into them. It's amazing, but then again, it's not. It shows you can take children, and if you spend time with them and put the work into them and help them, great things can happen."
Ginn is talking about his "kids" while sitting on the sideline of Glenville's football field. It's the same place he brought Smith when Ohio State's fifth-year senior was only in seventh and eighth grade.
"He could've started for me as a freshman," Ginn Sr. said. "He threw the ball better than the guys I had in high school."
Only Smith and his mother, Tracy, had other ideas. So Troy enrolled at St. Edward, only to later be kicked out during his junior year for throwing an elbow at a white Toledo player who reportedly had made a racial slur toward him during their basketball game. Smith's blow was so strong, he gave the kid a concussion. St. Edward threw him out, then-OHSAA Commissioner Clair Muscaro banned him from high school athletics and Troy Smith immediately became damaged goods.
Looking for a school to attend, Smith shopped around for a bit before finally deciding to just go home. He spent his entire life in East Cleveland, living on East 112th and St. Clair and later East 79th and St. Clair.
The way Ginn Sr. tells it, he wasn't going to get caught up in the market for Troy Smith.
"They were shopping him around, but I wasn't going to buy like that," Ginn Sr. said. "I didn't feel I needed to bargain for Troy. He just needed to come home."
The Ginns had a previous relationship with Smith because, as children, Troy and Ted Jr. played on rival teams in the pee-wee leagues. So Smith returned to Glenville and the Ginns jaded, hurt and full of anger his senior year.
"I never dealt with Troy about sports," Ginn Sr. said. "I dealt with Troy about Troy."
Smith doesn't like talking about his personal life and Ginn Sr. said he doesn't know who Smith's real father is. In reality, he has taken on the role himself.
"Growing up, I'm sure there were males in his life that have let him down," Ginn Sr. said. "It's hard for him to trust people, and it's hard for him to stay loyal to people, because when you become loyal, you find out they can let you down. But a lot of the things he goes through, too, is based on how he acts."
Smith wrote a letter of apology for the incident while at St. Edward and was eventually reinstated. Despite a stellar senior year in football and getting invited to the Elite 11 for quarterbacks, no one in the country wanted to touch Troy Smith. Ginn Sr. called around to all the major conferences, but the reception was frigid.
For awhile, the only two schools to show interest in him were Toledo and West Virginia.
Just four months into the job, Jim Tressel landed Massillon's Justin Zwick as his quarterback for the 2002 recruiting class. Zwick was the quarterback Tressel had to get, the one who would gobble up all of Ohio State's passing records and perhaps lead the Buckeyes to a national championship.
Zwick verbally committed to Ohio State in May of '01, but Smith still showed up for Ohio State's youth camp the following month. Tressel and the coaching staff watched Smith throw the ball, then watched him run routes and cover other receivers. Smith showed enough for Tressel to take a chance on him, but with one stipulation.
"Here's our deal," Tressel told him. "We only have so many reps, we have a guy we committed to early (Zwick) and we have to get these other guys ready. So you're not going to play quarterback as a freshman until the spring (after the 2002 season)."
Knowing that, Tressel asked Smith if he still wanted to go to Ohio State. With few other options, Smith said yes.
He entered Ohio State as an "athlete," unsure of where he would wind up. After a turbulent five years, he enters his final year as a Heisman candidate and one of the top quarterbacks in the country.
Rough times ahead
Like with the rest of his life, Troy Smith's time at Ohio State didn't go so smoothly. He was returning kicks as a redshirt freshman in 2003 when he was arrested not far from the Horseshoe and charged with disorderly conduct following a fight in the middle of the night a week before the Michigan game.
During the following spring practices, Smith finally got his shot to quarterback with the first-team offense. But in the spring game, Tressel wouldn't let the quarterbacks scramble. It was the biggest part of Smith's game, and it appeared to sway the quarterback battle heavily into Zwick's favor.
"They wanted Troy to make decisions with his arm and his mind - not with his feet," Ginn Sr. said.
But Smith didn't see it that way. To him, it was a sign he'd never get a fair chance to be the quarterback.
In truth, Smith wasn't ready to be the quarterback.
Sure enough, Zwick won the job to start the '04 season and even led Ohio State to a 3-0 start. That's when the coaching staff gave Smith a packet for receivers so he could familiarize himself with the plays and work his way onto the field.
The possibilities were tantalizing: Zwick at quarterback and Smith at receiver, giving Ohio State two quarterbacks on the field and endless options in the playbook. Tressel was just trying to get Smith on the field, but Smith took it as another sign he would never get a chance to play quarterback.
That did it.
The anger began to bubble over. Smith marched in front of the television cameras and tape recorders and leveled Ohio State's coaching staff, and more specifically, Jim Tressel.
"I'm not going to say everything is peaches and cream and that I have no feelings, because this is my life," Smith said. "I'm not going to say they're playing with my life, but they've got puppet strings with it."
Even after that outburst, Smith eventually did get his chance when Zwick separated his shoulder in a humiliating loss at Iowa. Smith never let it go, opening eyes around the country by registering 386 yards in a win over Michigan to close the '04 season.
But just as everyone began buzzing about Smith's potential, Ohio State received a call from a booster, claiming another booster had given Smith $500 back in the spring. Smith immediately got a call: Ohio State and the NCAA wanted to meet with him.
"He called me and asked me what he should do," Ginn Sr. said. "I told him, 'Just tell the truth.' "
Smith did. Instead of trying to lie or cover anything up, he came clean and told them everything. As a result, he was suspended for two games, including the trip to the Alamo Bowl.
Smith didn't know what to do, but he had to get out of Columbus. He has a key to the Ginn house, so he went there to watch the Alamo Bowl in the basement, even though Ginn Sr. was out of town.
During that game, when Zwick quarterbacked Ohio State to an impressive win over Oklahoma State, Smith sat in the basement and looked at all the pictures of himself, Ginn Jr., Donte Whitner and former Michigan linebacker Pierre Woods while the foursome played at Glenville.
That's when it all started to sink in.
"It had to be terrible sitting at home watching where you know you could be," Tressel said. "And the whole time you're watching, they're talking about you. I never asked him - maybe I should have - if he watched it with the volume down."
While watching that game, Smith knew some things had to change. And while he would eventually win back his starting job, he still wasn't ready to be the quarterback Ohio State needed.
A student of the game
Smith never had much use for game film and preparation. He did it at times, but he preferred to just take the ball on Saturdays and make something happen with his feet. That attitude is part of the reason he initially lost the starting job to Zwick.
"Troy, you're trying to be the quarterback at The Ohio State University," Ginn Sr. would tell him. "There are certain things that go along with that. You need to go to film study, you gotta contribute, you have to carry yourself the right way, grow up and be responsible. You're talking about BCS bowl games and somebody trusting you and putting their whole life into your hands.
"He wasn't ready for that."
Tressel saw Smith begin to make the transformation at the end of the '04 season, but there was a lot of work to be done.
"The front half of '04, he was just 'balling.' He wasn't playing quarterback," Tressel said. "I think he realized we weren't interested in a guy just going out and balling, we were interested in developing a quarterback."
It's a battle Tressel waged with Smith until midway through last year. Tressel was constantly on him about watching film and studying opposing defenses, but Smith never really listened.
"There were a lot of one-on-one meetings with Coach Tress," Smith said. "At first I listened, but I didn't listen. More and more one-on-one meetings came, and I had it set in my mind I didn't want more one-on-one meetings.
"You don't want to be in those meetings, trust me. He looks nice. You always see him with his hair cut nice, he's freshly shaven, always has some cologne on. But those meetings can get brutal."
Smith still wasn't putting in the necessary time in the film room, and it showed last year when Ohio State traveled to Penn State. The Nittany Lions' defense swarmed him, sacking him five times and limiting him to 139 passing yards and a costly interception that swung the entire game.
It was easily his worst performance of the year, and it gave Ohio State its second loss, officially eliminating it from the national championship hunt.
"There's only so many ways to get into a Cover 2," Smith said. "It was nothing special they did, it was what I wasn't doing."
Watching film.
Ginn Sr. had seen enough. Not knowing how else to get through to Troy, Ginn called him and told him to go into Tressel's office and ask to transfer.
"I told him to go to Nebraska," Ginn Sr. said. "I said I've seen many great quarterbacks come out of Nebraska. They were great college quarterbacks who never went pro. And that's what you need to do, because if you don't do what you need to do in the film room, one of two things are going to happen: you're either going to end up hurting them when the team needs you most, or you won't be able to make decisions with your arm and your mind because they're going to beat you up."
It was a breakthrough of sorts for Smith. He eventually conceded and went to Tressel, who showed him how to properly watch film.
Smith's performance on the field turned around almost immediately. Before that, he had only one 200-yard passing game in his career. Following the Penn State game, he ended last year throwing for 200 yards in five of Ohio State's last six games. He went over 300 yards against Michigan and Notre Dame.
Now Smith describes his passion for film watching as a "thirst" to get better. Occasionally during the offseason, he and Tressel watched films together, not just of Troy, but of opposing quarterbacks against Ohio State's defense.
Tressel would quiz his pupil as to why he thought a quarterback made certain reads, and Smith would ask why the defense lined up a certain way. It wasn't so much of a traditional coach/quarterback film session as it was two buddies bouncing ideas off each other.
When offensive coaches Jim Bollman and Joe Daniels had surgery during the offseason, Smith was there basically to welcome them home, greeting both with a box of film under his arm.
The transformation is now complete: Smith has gone from a "baller" to a Heisman Trophy favorite and the quarterback of a national championship contender.
"I told him one day 'You're going to be the greatest quarterback at Ohio State, ever,' " Ginn Sr. said. "He never believed me, because he never thought he'd get the chance."
Smith graduated in the spring with a communications degree. He could have taken the Matt Leinart/Andy Katzenmoyer route this fall and loaded his schedule with classes like ballroom dancing, AIDS Awareness and music appreciation. Instead, he'll begin working on another undergrad degree in African-American studies. He fully intends on completing that one, too.
"I wouldn't start it if I wasn't going to finish it," he said.
While Ginn Jr. and Smith try to march Ohio State toward that national championship and possible Heisman Trophy for one of them, the father is back in Cleveland, preparing for another high school season with a new group of Tarblooders and carrying around the Sports Illustrated with Smith on the cover and Ginn inside.
"I tell Tress all the time, 'Thank you for being there for my kids,' " Ginn Sr. said. "Without him, I don't know if Troy could've made it.
"If you would've read the script on Troy as a child, you'd never thought he'd be here. But he did it. He did it."



©The News-Herald 2006
Click to expand...

http://www.news-herald.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=17138139&BRD=1698&PAG=461&dept_id=21848&rfi=6
 
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That article just shows how far Troy has come as a person, a football player and more importantly, a leader. There is no other QB in the country that I'd rather have under Center leading my beloved Buckeyes this year.
 
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There are a lot of articles that get posted, and a lot of them are re-hashed pieces that many of us just gloss over. But that article in post #2492 is worth reading in its entirety.
 
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BB73 said:
There are a lot of articles that get posted, and a lot of them are re-hashed pieces that many of us just gloss over. But that article in post #2492 is worth reading in its entirety.
Click to expand...

Took the words right out of my mouth(or fingers rather).

I scim through the majority of these long articles on players, but after scimming through the first paragraph of that one, I read the whole thing word for word.
 
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