Troy's story runs into Heisman Curse
GLENDALE, Ariz. -- At least Troy Smith got to see Disney World. And wear a tuxedo in Manhattan. And meet lots of famous people.
Was it worth it, Ohio State?
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| Troy Smith didn't play like a Heisman Trophy winner. Period. (Getty Images) |
This is beyond tiresome. Seeing the best player in college football embarrass himself, drag down his team and waste a month of bowl anticipation, just so some Mickey Mouse network can televise a couple of awards shows. ESPN got paid. We got screwed.
Florida thrashed Ohio State 41-14. At halftime it was 34-14, which turned the second half of one of the most anticipated sporting events of the year into a root canal. Thank goodness the game wasn't televised by CBS. Then I'd be really ticked off.
As it is, I'm angry. Because this didn't have to happen. Florida deserves its national championship, of that we can be sure, because Ohio State couldn't match the Gators' speed and Jim Tressel couldn't match Urban Meyer's savvy. But we -- those of us at the University of Phoenix Stadium, those of you who watched on TV -- deserved better than this first-round knockout.
Florida won, but Smith helped lose it. Even for recent Heisman standards, he was atrocious. He had 6 yards of total offense. Six. Six. Ohio State lost its best receiver, Ted Ginn Jr., shortly after he returned the opening kickoff for a touchdown. But 6 yards of offense for a Heisman winner? Six? Ginn's absence doesn't explain that.
Smith was 4-for-14 passing for 35 yards and ran 10 times for minus-29 yards. He was intercepted once. He fumbled once. He was sacked five times. If this was an audition for NFL scouts, this was a waste of everyone's time. No, scratch that. Florida defensive ends Derrick Harvey and Jarvis Moss looked like potential NFL players. So did almost everyone from the Florida secondary.
But it's hard to say that Florida was that good. Because Smith was that bad. What happened to him also happened this decade to three other Heisman-winning quarterbacks.
The Heisman winner in 2003, Oklahoma's Jason White, was 13-for-37 for 102 yards and two interceptions against LSU in the Sugar Bowl. The Sooners lost 21-14. In 2001 Nebraska's Eric Couch was 5-for-15 for 62 yards and had two turnovers in the Huskers' 37-14 loss to Miami in the Rose Bowl. In 2000 Florida State's Chris Weinke threw two interceptions, was lucky that Oklahoma dropped six others, and oversaw a dismal 13-2 Orange Bowl loss.
Add Smith's display on Monday and that's four Heisman quarterbacks since 2000 who crumpled. Which means this is either a mysterious curse or a blatant problem. Curses are crap. There are no curses. Which means this is a problem. And luckily there is a solution, though this solution will not -- like recent Heisman winners in a bowl game -- come to pass.
The award tour has to go. Get rid of it. Or at least have the decency to postpone the thing until after the season, like Major League Baseball does. College basketball hands out its awards during the season, but there's a reason its best players don't smack into the same wall that clobbered Smith: There is no massive layoff. College basketball players go from the regular season to the conference tournament to the NCAA Tournament. They stay in their element.
Heisman winners? They take a month or more off. In the case of Smith and Ohio State, the break was 51 days. In those 51 days, Smith was flown to Orlando and New York City for various awards shows. It was a lucrative month. He won the Heisman. He won the Walter Camp. He won the Davey O'Brien Award. He hung out with other awards candidates at Disney and he wore a tuxedo for the first time in his life in New York.
He lost his edge. That's what I'm saying. While Smith's teammates were practicing, he was flying up and down the Eastern seaboard. While Florida quarterback Chris Leak was preparing to play for the game of his life, a game that would define his career, Smith's career already had achieved the ultimate definition.
Not sure how much this means, but here it comes: Late in the game several Buckeyes were distraught, including senior defensive tackle David Patterson, who was sobbing on the sideline. Smith didn't look distraught. I'm not saying he didn't want this game as badly as his teammates or as badly as Florida. I'm just saying he didn't look like someone who had embarrassed himself in his biggest game on his sport's biggest stage. And his postgame comments reflected that.
"You're not going to be able to come out and score points like you want to score every night," Smith said. "I don't have any regrets though. We came out and we fought. If we come up short, and this is the worst thing that happens in life to us, I'm pretty cool."
Good for you.
