Trophy Case Despite Telling Stats, Smith Turns Deaf Ear To Heisman Talk

Here’s what the voices are yelling at him now: “Mr. Heisman.” “Superstar.” “Mr. Smith’s going to New York.”

But before Akili Smith will allow himself to listen, he remembers the voices of the past.

Like those that doubted him last year: “Top junior-college recruit in America. Yeah, right. The top recruit doesn’t throw interceptions, fumble snaps, split time at quarterback or go 7-5.”

Or the one that temporarily stole his dream: “University of Oregon players do not get involved in bar fights; Akili, you’re suspended.”

Or that voice from two years ago: “Akili, you’re going to be a father.”

Or the one that came to him after four strikeouts in a minor-league baseball park thousands of miles from home: “You don’t belong here. You’ll never make it as a baseball player.”

Or the one that came from the sideline for all those years, out of his father’s mouth: “You can do better. Listen up, this is how.”

These are the voices the Oregon quarterback listens to. These are the ones that keep him firmly entrenched in reality while the public relations machine around him whirs in an effort to bring the Heisman Trophy and all its glory to the University of Oregon.

But he will not step into this mechanism’s maw. He knows better. Akili Smith knows what it took to get here and he knows what it’s going to take to stay.

“Got to stay level-headed,” he tells himself every day while smiling and laughing as his teammates tell him he’s a sure thing for the Heisman.

“Don’t start believing all that stuff,” he reminds himself as the 500 postcards with his face and his stats and the slogan “Mr. Smith goes to New York” plastered across the top, go out to the people who vote for college football’s top individual award.

But right now, in these early weeks, before the leaves have blazed and died and many players are still clinging to the top of the Heisman tree, Smith looks as if he is deserving as anyone in the nation.

He leads the country in pass efficiency (193.1 rating) on 58 of 98 for 1,138 yards, 12 touchdowns and two interceptions, while guiding the No. 2 offense in the country (543 yards per game) and second scoring offense (50.5 points per game). And he has the Ducks at 4-0 and No. 15 in the county.

The 6-foot-3, 215-pound multi-dimensional quarterback has defensive coordinators scratching their heads. And he has Washington State’s Mike Price wondering “what if?”

Smith took a visit to Washington State a couple of years ago. And he was close to signing with the Cougars.

“Only thing was, there was Ryan Leaf,” Smith said. “I knew that I would have to sit for a year and that’s not something I wanted to do.”

Smith was ready to play. He’d already waited two years to get back into college football and wasn’t willing to wait any longer.

After high school he spent two seasons sweating out a .200 average in Erie, Penn., with the Pittsburgh Pirates’ Class A team.

“You learn a lot,” said Smith. “I learned I couldn’t hit the curve.”

Not a good thing for a left fielder.

The thing Smith always could hit, ever since he switched over from the defensive line to quarterback in Pop Warner, was a wide receiver.

The college coaches knew it, too.

Price started recruiting him out of high school and took the campaign up again while Smith was shredding defenses at Grossmont College. Others weren’t far behind.

The first-team junior college All-American finished his final year with the Griffins with 3,212 yards, 32 touchdowns and a scholarship to Oregon.

More importantly he finished at Grossmont with direction.

He now had a little girl, Emani.

“And that changed everything,” Smith said. “Now, I know that everything I do I’m doing for her; trying to make everything better for her.”

He didn’t marry.

“Oh, no way,” he said. “Not even close.”

And mother and daughter still live in Smith’s hometown of San Diego, right near grandmother and grandfather (Smith’s parents).

Ray and Karen Smith brought little Emani to many of the games last year. There were many times Akili didn’t feel like talking much afterward.

“Last year, I just knew that I could play better,” Smith said. “It was frustrating for me a lot of the time.”

Smith spilt time with Jason Maas at quarterback. He threw 13 touchdowns, but there were also seven interceptions and too many plays where his impatience took over and he found himself scrambling rather than letting the offense come to him.

At the end of the season, he was scrambling to come up with an excuse for why he was involved in an altercation at a Eugene bar. The one he had wasn’t good enough.

Oregon coach Mike Bellotti suspended him from the team. Bellotti later found out all the facts and stepped to the side of his future star.

“He has been much-maligned in other situations that were not of his doing,” said Bellotti. “And I’m very pleased that he has been acquitted on any situation that occurred.

“Those are things in the past. And he would be the first to tell you that he has learned a lot.”

Smith learned he can’t take any of this for granted. That he’s an athlete with potential, a man with a family, a person with the ability to change others lives.

“He’s older,” said Bellotti. “He’s more mature and he’s a leader.

“And he is playing terrific football.”

Maybe more importantly, when people start telling him about what he’s going to win or ask if he has cleared any space on the mantle, Smith is just able to smile and listen to the voices of the past.