The Washington Post profiles Troy Smith, who hopes to avoid the fate of previous Heisman winners who’ve made it the National Championship Game:
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., Jan. 3 — 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.
Something tells me Troy will do just fine
