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Tom Archdeacon: OSU's 'other' Smith a star and role model
Sunday, December 31, 2006
COLUMBUS — He was on the Buckeyes' sideline that Arizona night five seasons ago when Ohio State upset the Miami Hurricanes to win the national title.
Now he'll be there again as the unbeaten Bucks go for another crown against Florida.
Extras
But for All-Big Ten cornerback Antonio Smith, this game will be different.
With the 2002 team, he was a 5-foot-9 freshman walk-on who got to wear a uniform, but as a redshirt, never got to play. And there were those who doubted he'd play in the years to come, either.
"He wasn't seen as a defensive back. He was a special-teams guy, a walk-on, a guy that didn't draw much interest at first," OSU cornerbacks coach Tim Beckman admitted. "But now? He's All-Big Ten, a Thorpe finalist, one of the best cornerbacks in college football.
"In the 18 years I've been a football coach, I have never been more proud of a player than I am of Antonio."
Although his left arm has been in a sling after an undisclosed injury during December drills, Smith had daily treatments at his Columbus home over the Christmas break and is expected to play.
And the Bucks need him. He's their No. 2 tackler and one of their stabilizing forces. Smith's mix of smarts and seniority give him a sage view on the Jan. 8 game:
"In 2002, we had a great team. You remember those great names: Doss, Wilhelm, Kenny Peterson and the rest. This team is not as well recognized as far as the players, but I think we're more distinctive as a group because we play together. And because of that, I think we have a pretty good story, too."
And no one's story on this team is better than his.
A role model of the first order
At Beechcroft High School, they give an annual award that looks a lot like the Heisman Trophy, except the name it carries strikes more of a chord with the students of the Columbus school.
It's called the Antonio Smith Academic Award, and rightly so.
Smith is the All-Big Ten cornerback from Ohio State who five years ago financed the honor at his alma mater and last month presented it to lineman Alex Lowman, the 2006 winner.
More important, Smith is the person who gives the award its flesh and blood life and makes it a blueprint for others to follow.
"He's the kind of young man too many people in our country say isn't out there," said Beechcroft football coach Tom Dunlap. "Antonio Smith is the kind of guy they think doesn't exist.
"I could use a zillion adjectives to describe him, but at the core, he's just a quality person. He's taken the term 'role model' to another level. Some young men talk about being a role model, but their actions show they don't have it in their hearts."
There are other OSU players who have bigger names, gaudier statistics and more trumpeted awards, but no one has a better beat-the-odds story, nor the potential — already being realized — for influencing young kids who follow him.
"Tell me a better story?" Dunlap asked. "He comes to Ohio State as a walk-on player. And at a high-caliber program like that, there's probably not a harder thing to try to do.
"For every Antonio, there are 1,000 walk-ons who go their four years just to one day run out on the field, then run right back to the locker room and afterward say, 'Boy, that was great.'
"But look at him. He's All-Big Ten ... and was one of the finalists for the Thorpe Award (given to the nation's best defensive back)."
Graduating in spring
After graduating from Beechcroft in 2002, Smith came to OSU on an academic scholarship to pursue a degree in mechanical engineering — a degree he says he'll get this spring.
He was redshirted his first year at OSU — the season the Bucks won the national title — and the following 2003 season found himself buried on the sidelines as a little-used, 5-foot-9 special teams sub. The next two seasons — 2004 and 2005 — he almost solely was used on special teams.
Then came this remarkable year.
On a defense that had lost nine starters from a year ago — a unit many thought would be the Bucks' Achilles' heel — he has become a leader on one of the best defenses in the game. Along with 66 tackles — second most on the team — he has two sacks, two interceptions, a forced and a recovered fumble.
After Ohio State meets Florida for the national title Jan. 8 in Glendale, Ariz., Smith — whose left arm has been in a sling after a recent practice injury that isn't expected to keep him out against the Gators — will head to Hawaii to take part in the Hula Bowl, a showcase for top college seniors. After that comes the NFL draft.
And through all his football, he's maintained a 3.1 grade-point average in one of the toughest academic disciplines he could tackle, won Academic All-Big Ten honors and has made a continual effort to speak at schools, rec centers and churches in an effort, he said, "to inspire other kids facing what I did."
And he said he's not talking about being a walk-on: "A lot of kids are in the same situation: fatherless, growing up in a single-parent home, facing chances to fail if they don't hook onto someone."
He found the perfect hook — his grandmother, Mattie Smith — and after that there were coaches and teachers who helped keep him on a path that today makes Bucks coaches marvel.
"In the 18 years I've been a football coach, I have never been more proud of a player than I am of Antonio," said OSU cornerbacks coach Tim Beckman.
"You know the old saying how you'd like your own kid to be like him? That's exactly how I feel. Forget football, just as a young man, he's a great person. He's what everybody would want in a son."
Everybody, it seems, but Antonio's own dad, who moved to California soon after his boy was born.
"I don't really know him," Antonio said quietly. "He wasn't part of my life."
Grandma's tough love
When his mom, Monica Smith, set off for a while on her own, Antonio stayed on Columbus' Northeast Side with his grandmother, whom he credits with "getting me where I am today. She's the one who raised me and instilled the values."
Mattie — who said her husband died several years ago — often worked two jobs while caring for Antonio: "I've raised him since he was 15 months old, and I did it the same way I raised my two girls and the way my mother raised me and, before that, the way her mother raised her.
"It's what you'd call kind of on an old-time basis. People don't raise their kids like that today. There's a strictness to it. You do as you're told. No questions. No excuses.
"I was taught when you get married and have a family, your most valuable possession is your home. I didn't say 'house.' A house is just a roof, sides and a floor. But a home has respect, it has rules. Even the dogs and cats that live there have rules."
So what was one of her rules?
"Well, for one, Antonio couldn't have a girlfriend until he was 16," Mattie said. "Like I said, that's old-time.
"Just today I was listening to Dr. Phil, and there was a little girl on there who keeps running away from home. She's six months pregnant and going with a guy who's 35. That's his baby!
"When he was growing up, I told Antonio, 'Don't you ever do anything that's gonna put disgrace on us, that's gonna hurt our name ... our home.' "
She started to laugh:
"And, oh, he hasn't. As a little boy, when he took the bus to church, the driver would day, 'Miss Smith, he's the best-dressed man on the bus.' He learned all the books of the Bible, and when he got to school he was what they call one of those 'gifted children.' "
Sharing his story
At Beechcroft, where he won City League honors and was the team MVP his senior season, he was accepted into OSU's Young Scholars Program and won a full academic ride to Ohio State.
"That year the (Columbus) Agonis Club gave him its top academic award and a $1,000 scholarship," Dunlap said. "Because of the full ride, he didn't really need it, so he donated it to our school.
"We used part of that to start the Antonio Smith Academic Award. It looks like the Heisman, but it stays in school, and every year it goes to the football player with the highest academics.
"This year, Antonio spoke at our football banquet and, in fact, the afternoon of that same day, he spoke to the student body of our rival school, Northland.
"Any time you can get Antonio in front of young people, you have to do it. His message needs to be heard again and again and again. It's about setting goals — ones you can easily attain and then big ones — and it's about work ethic and how nothing, except the lottery, is given to you."
Antonio said he speaks because he wants to give back.
"I try to share my share my story so kids facing some of the same challenges I did have some hope so they continue to focus on the goals and dreams they set for themselves," he said. "Growing up in today's society, there are so many negative pressures on young people. There's so much to steer them away from what they ultimately want to do.
"I just tell them how I did it. People say it's inspirational, and I don't know — it's actually kind of surreal hearing that while I'm still a part of it.
"I'm sure one day in years to come, I might look back with some awe, but right now I do believe that if you're one of their peers — and you have some kind of success going for you — young people will listen."
But that's no mystery.
After all, Antonio Smith is telling them one of the best stories in college football.
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2156 or
tarchdeacon@DaytonDailyNews.com.
