The best QB in Big Ten history

OSU FootballNo… this is not just an opinion. With his most recent effort, Troy Smith’s career QB rating is 158.1, making him the all-time Big Ten leader among quarterbacks.

Smith’s rating has been leading all along, but only in the past few weeks has he surpassed the career 300-completion benchmark recognized by the NCAA for record consideration.

Smith completed 85% of his passes against BGSU last Saturday, including three TDs and no INTs. All of that even though he only played for two quarters, and a single series in a third.

Here are a few relevant stats of his season so far:

Against Comp% TD INT Rating
NIU 72.0 3 0 211.39
@ Texas 65.4 2 0 177.68
Cincinnati 70.0 2 0 148.84
Penn St. 54.5 1 2 95.27
@ Iowa 64.0 4 0 179.3
BGSU 85.0 3 0 214.72

The PSU game is the only aberration in the above table. However, those who saw the OSU/PSU matchup remember the flooding rains that occurred during the game (and no, we’re not just talking the flood that came from Joe Pa’s pants). I’ll let your level of OSU love/hatred determine how much slack you should give Smith for that game — but you’d be lying if you said OSU’s opponents aren’t doing rain dances every Friday evening.

As someone who’s been watching Smith since he was a young’un, his most impressive stat to me isn’t available via ESPN or CFBstats.com. The most impressive thing about Smith is (1) that he doesn’t make bad decisions, and (2) he plays his best in big games.

Troy SmithTo me, Smith is an amalgamation of the best parts of all the OSU quarterbacks from the past decade. He’s got Stanley Jackson’s feet, Joe Germaine’s arm, Craig Krenzel’s leadership, and his own unnatural football instinct and athleticism. Watching him is, well, just plain “satisfying.” I don’t worry about him making some stupid decision to throw the ball into triple coverage, or pounding into a linebacker headfirst, or taking a 20 yard sack instead of throwing the ball away. One gets the impression that the entire game moves in slow motion to him.

And it seems like #10 is just hitting his stride. In 2004, he flipped the switch at the end of the season. In 2005, he also peaked at the end of the season. And, as OSU prepares to head into the last half of this 2006 season, check out the numbers from his most recent games:

Number of TD passes in the last two games: 7
Total rushing yards in each of the past three games: 18, 20, 54
CMP %, past three games: 54.5, 64.0, 85.0
Rating (again, for emphasis), past three games: 95.27, 179.3, 214.72

Still half a season to go!

Comments

  1. also throw some love the OL’s way….not to mention troy’s humbleness and modesty…whats not to love

    http://darren.poon.googlepages.com/troysmithforheisman.jpg

  2. Smith is an amalgamation of the best parts of all the OSU quarterbacks from the past decade

    Even though he isn’t in the QBs of the past decade, I’d also add that he has the rugged good-looks of one Kirk Herbstreit.

  3. Oofah! Oh, yes, el Kaiser went there!

    “Kai-ser and Herb-ie, sittin’ in a tree…”

  4. Now let’s get him to #1 on espn.com’s Heisman voting!!

    https://r.espn.go.com/espn/contests/theheismanvote/cast_vote

    Troy’s losing to Chris Leak right now?!? How is this possible? Go Bucks!!

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