Being a Michigan fan I am not fond of Ohio State (understatement of the year candidate), but I do like Smith over Quinn. I agree with much of Miller's views on Smith. His may be biased, mine are not. A proven winner who makes plays even when things break down. This comes from excellent decision making. As for the Lions drafting him, I would be ok with it, but I hope they find a trade for more picks in the draft whether this draft is considered a deep one or not. Has anyone heard about the depth of this draft class? I know many more underclassmen will declare in the future, but how is it sizing up so far?

by the way, yes Calvin Johnson declared for the NFL today. But to get into the original argument I think both will have their moments in the NFL. I think Brady Quinn is another version of David Carr as well and won't do a whole lot in the NFL. As for debating whether a quarterback will make it just because of his stats or his height, what kind of decisions he makes or who he throws the ball to consider this.

Jason White: 6'3, Heisman trophy winner, in 2003 threw for 3,846 yards and 40 td's never played a single game in the NFL.

Chris Weinke: Heisman trophy winner. 1-17 record as a starter in the NFL.

Hines Ward: Good at everything at Georgia but not a highly sought after talent. 4 1000+ season, 8005 yards and 58 touchdowns in 9 yrs at the NFL level, plus a super bowl MVP.

Kurt Warner: Northern Iowa, 20591 yards 125 touchdowns, super bowl ring, undrafted.

Guys, its not always where you go or what you do in college. It's how you perform at the NFL level. Which noone can predict, they can only watch and find out.

Well after watching 3 quarters of the national championship game I think its very clear how long Troy might last in the NFL. This had to be the worst performance by a Heisman winner since Jason White.

Said all season he didn't deserve that trophy. He was nothing but a quarterback on what was considered the best team in the league. He had wide receivers that exposed every defense in college football, an outstanding running back, a very good offensive line, and a defense that gave him great field position.

One player leaves the field in a big game and he shows exactly how good he is. The guy is afraid to try and make a play. Wont be surprised if he drops to a second day selection now.

I think it is safe to say that Troy Smith has personally ended the Smith-Brady debate. What a horrible, horrible performance! Take the damn Heisman from him, he doesn't deserve it.

Troy Smith. Hit him once and he's done. No heart. Vince had heart. Bush had heart. Leak has heart. Smith is a runningback playing quarterback on a very talented team. If they had a good quarterback, they'd be unstoppable. With Smith, they're a talented team with no heart and no leader.

you all must be kidding me. apparently one game takes away from a whole season and a whole career. im not even going to bother responding more than that.

I didn't realize we were all members of flavor of the month. Yes, Smith had a bad game...no excuses. Yes, OSU in general had an awful game. However, I still believe that you can't judge Smith only on this performance. I will say slightly in his defense it is hard to pass the ball from you ass.

Still, I don't see anything that makes Quinn any better, as in two same type of games he didn't exactly show much either.

As an athlete and student, Troy Smith was very deserving of all the awards and accolades he received. You don't win that many games in the manner in which they won them without a leader at QB. It's harsh and mean spirited to discount his abilities based on a loss to a much better team with a much better game plan. OSU was out coached as much as they were outplayed. That said, I personally never saw him as anything more than a third round choice in the upcoming draft...ala Penn State's Micheal Robinson.

Troy's slow decision making was exposed last night (yes Mike, you hit the nail on the head)....however, it was ONE game. I agree with Phic and Bomb, you have to look at the whole picture, and not one game. And last time I checked, Quinn looked like crap against LSU as well, so not sure what he proved there either.

He has some shit to work on, but still is a very good prospect IMO. Guess we'll see how it all washes out in a few years.

im not sure any qb in the country wouldve played well last night with the poor osu line play and the dominant florida d line. last night was a case of trying to do too much with too little around him imo. smith doesnt get off scott free, but you just cant put that all on one guys shoulders. one guy doesnt make his team lose by 27.

Agreed. It was not so much he took too long in his reads. It was no one was open, and rather than get rid of it, or try to run...he was waiting to long to make a play. Other half of the time, he didn't even have time to look.

bottom line is that these kids will net 10's of millions of dollars over the course their careers. Both Quinn and Smith have the raw potential to play for a long time in the NFL. Though they both lost their final college game...a tip of the cap to Brady and Troy for making Saturdays in the fall, bearable.

Very well put.

He took far too long with his reads, just like he has done all year. In the final game, he lost one of his weapons, and he melted down as a result. When he did throw the ball, he threw it very poorly, and since he didn't have wide open receivers, he apparently lost his nerve to throw the ball at all.

Since when do you have to have open receivers to throw a ball? There were plenty single coverage opportunities where Smith could have thrown the ball. Bottom line is he no longer had Ginn running "wide open" and Gonzalez was no longer in single coverage. The pressure was put on Smith and he was completely unable to deliver. I am not saying this will always be the case, but this was the impression that he has always given me, and in this big game, with his team trailing, he showed me exactly what I expected to see.

I am not taking all the blame off of him Mike. Cool down. He had a bad game, and didn't play well at all. Yes, the loss of Ginn hurt, as it allowed the defense to take away Gonzales as well.

Oh, okay. Lets just throw the ball regardless of if the guy is open. Then you will come ragging on his interceptions.

To me..he was trying to hard to do it in the air. He easily in alot of cases could have taken the ball down and run with it, that in turn would have brought the LBs back in...and opened the middle up more...but for some stupid reason...he wouldn't take off with it. To me...that was his biggest flaw...not forcing it..but holding on to it instead of taking off, or throwing it away.

I don't need to cool down, I'm not upset


Here you go again, jumping to extremes. Sometimes you have to make plays, especially at the quarterback position. If Smith was putting the ball up into single coverage and making a pretty good throw, I would not be ragging on him if a couple ended up in interceptions. I would be commending him for trying to get the job done, even though he no longer had one of the best receivers in college football running routes for him. Thing is, he didn't try, he simply got rattled and would do nothing. When he did throw, it looked bad, very bad.

Just calling it like I seen it, and I seen a guy get put under the pressure of shouldering the load and he buckled, plain and simple. This game was the toughest test I have seen Troy Smith given and he didn't look like a guy that is up to the challenge. But....he has a few years to prove me wrong now.

I will say though that this one game probably cost him alot of money. Pre-national championship game, he was targeted as a solid 1st round pick. It will be interesting to see where he goes now. If he is smart, he will work extremely hard on moving his estimated 4.6 40 time to a 4.5 or better. That alone could save him on draft day.

Agree with this totally. He will learn a lot from this also.