All season long, Troy Smith has been the unflappable face of top-ranked Ohio State. His leadership and nearly flawless performances in the Buckeyes' most significant games helped the senior quarterback all but wrap up the Heisman Trophy before the leaves on campus trees had changed color.
But with the trophy now officially in his possession, the national championship game Monday against second-ranked Florida presents an enormous challenge. Winning college football's most distinguished individual honor has proven a burden to recent Heisman winners, who are 1-4 in Bowl Championship Series title games since the BCS system was adopted in 1998. And the Heisman hangover goes back even further. In this desert setting in 1987, Vinny Testaverde, the Heisman-winning quarterback for heavily favored Miami, threw five interceptions in a loss to second-ranked Penn State.
But Smith isn't Testaverde, and he is confident he won't fall into the traps that may have doomed his predecessors.
"I am not going into this game thinking I am the Heisman Trophy winner so I have to do this," Smith said Wednesday. "Anything and everything we can do to win this game, let's do it as a team. For everybody out there, I want them to know that I think the Heisman is a team award. If my team is not undefeated, I am probably not in this situation."
One pitfall for Heisman winners is the swirl of media attention, banquets and publicity stops that comes between the award ceremony in December and the national championship game almost a month later. Ohio State Coach Jim Tressel has commended Smith on his focus and time management since winning the honor.
For Smith, that attitude has merely been an extension of his season-long approach. He was reluctant to answer questions about the Heisman during the season and always deflected attention toward his teammates. In fact, Smith not only secured the highest percentage (86.7 percent) of first-place votes in the history of Heisman balloting, he may have set a record for the number of people he thanked during his speech.
In the weeks following the Heisman presentation, he has also made an effort to remain "secluded in my approach," shying away from individuals with no shortage of opinions. "It is incredible to me how you see some of your friends and they tell you what kind of plays you should run during the game," Smith said. "If you heard some of these play calls, you really would be laughing in their face."
Ohio State wide receiver Ted Ginn Jr., who also played with Smith in high school, described Smith as someone whose success will not cause him to become complacent. Smith's personal journey has been well chronicled and not always smooth. There was his teenage upbringing in foster care, his 2003 conviction on misdemeanor disorderly conduct charges and his two-game suspension two years ago for accepting $500 from a booster.
When asked about Smith's growth off the field, Ginn said, "He is going to fight through everything, and that's the type of person you want in your life no matter what it is, football, basketball or track."
But Heisman winners also have to guard against trying to validate their credentials. In last year's title game, for instance, running back Reggie Bush was at times spellbinding for Southern California, but he also made an ill-advised lateral to a walk-on that resulted in a turnover in USC's 41-38 loss to Texas. Afterward, he said he, like the rest of his teammates, had tried too hard to make a spectacular play.
Smith is in much the same situation as Bush -- there is little Smith can do Monday to raise the public's opinion of his play any higher. The 6-foot-1, 215-pound quarterback has long shed the label of merely being a great athlete and has developed into a terrific pocket passer on the college level. Smith's pass efficiency rating was fourth in the nation this year; he completed 67 percent of his passes and threw 30 touchdown passes and only five interceptions. He is 25-2 as a starter and is the first Ohio State quarterback in 70 years to lead the Buckeyes to three consecutive victories over Michigan.
A résumé of that caliber only makes a Heisman winner a bigger target. Before last year's Rose Bowl, Texas defensive back Michael Huff repeatedly talked about wanting the chance to match up one-on-one with USC's Bush. This year, it took only one day for the first Florida player to reveal his eagerness to face Smith.
When asked if he was more afraid of Smith's running or passing ability, Florida linebacker Brandon Siler said: "We are not afraid of Troy Smith at all. That is not what this is about. He is a great player. He has a great arm, and he can run the ball. Those are definitely strengths. Don't get it confused, we are not afraid at all."
Since the inception of the BCS, the only Heisman winner who has won a national title game was USC's Matt Leinart, the 2004 winner who led the Trojans to a blowout victory against Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl. By Monday night, Smith will either join Leinart in a small fraternity or be lumped with a handful of other Heisman-winning quarterbacks -- Miami's Gino Torretta in 1992, Florida State's Chris Weinke in 2000, Nebraska's Eric Crouch in 2001 and Oklahoma's Jason White in 2003 -- who played poorly after winning the trophy.
"You are going to get people who are going to say, 'He is a Heisman Trophy winner, so let's try to disrupt him and then we get to the Buckeyes,' " Smith said. "That's not the way to get to the Buckeyes. You have to do that team-wise because we work as one cohesive unit."
