Understanding The Smelley Decision
posted by Scott Hood, Saturday, January 10, 2009
A few days after his poor performance in the Clemson game, I said Chris Smelley would be the starting quarterback for Div. I-AA Samford next fall.
Right state, wrong school.
From a football perspective, Smelley’s decision to transfer was probably the correct one on a number of levels.
First, Smelley isn’t stupid. In fact, he’s quite intelligent. He understood his four-interception outing in the final regular season game in the Upstate had forever tainted his relationship with Gamecock Nation.
But he realized something else as well. As long as Stephen Garcia was around, he had little chance to win the affection of USC fans, and possibly Steve Spurrier as well.
Good or bad, many Gamecock fans have anointed Garcia the savior of the USC football program. Does he really deserve that honor? Based on his performance late in the season, the answer is a resounding no.
As he showed in the Outback Bowl, Garcia needs a lot of work both on and off the field (hello, film room) to become the top-flight quarterback Spurrier and most Gamecock fans hope he’ll eventually turn into. But it won’t be an overnight process.
The Messiah? Not yet.
Yet, putting it in biblical terms, Smelley was King Herod and Garcia was Jesus in the minds of many USC fans.
The only thing missing from Smelley’s exit from Columbia was the crucifixion scene.
Clearly, Smelley predicted his place in the future pecking order at quarterback, and knew that he was in a no-win situation. No matter how well he played from this point forward, the fans would always embrace Garcia.
Quoted in a university press release on Friday announcing the transfer, Smelley said it better than I could with these 17 words: “I decided it was best for me to have a change of scenery and move on elsewhere.”
Right now, it appears he plans to transfer to Alabama to play baseball, but he hasn't ruled out returning to football. If he does, he'll have to sit out the 2009 season. But he's eligible to play baseball immediately.
Despite sharing snaps first with Blake Mitchell and then Garcia over the last seasons, Smelley leaves USC as the 10th leading passer in school history with 3,210 career yards and a 9-6 record as a starter.
How many other Gamecock quarterbacks with that many career starts can say they left USC with a 60.0 winning percentage? The answer is probably not many.
Bottom line, Smelley was a good quarterback but not a great one. He had a few outstanding performances (see Ole Miss this year) and some clunkers as well.
Unfortunately, two of his worst career outings came in his final two starts against Florida and Clemson, and those games will, I’m sure, haunt him.
While we can debate all day whether Smelley possessed the requisite arm strength to succeed as a SEC quarterback, there’s no questioning his personality. He treated the media very respectfully and never had a cross word for anyone in our business.
Did he always want to speak to the media? Of course not. No player does. But when he did he handled himself with class and integrity. He never felt sorry for himself. Instead, he carried himself confidently believing the next game would be better than the last.
So, while some fans threw poisonous darts at him following the Clemson game, my best memory of Smelley from that miserable afternoon was his willingness to stand in front of the media, look us straight in the eye and accept full blame for the discouraging defeat even though he had plenty of help from other USC players.
Smelley’s departure means USC’s depth at quarterback is dangerously thin with Garcia being the only quarterback remaining on the roster with any game experience at the Division I level.
Obviously, the sense of urgency to develop redshirt freshmen Reid McCollum and Aramis Hillary this spring has been be accelerated. Even if USC signs a quarterback as part of the 2009 class, he won’t be ready to play this upcoming season.
So, Garcia, McCollum and Hillary are it.
The lack of depth could move Spurrier to ask former starter Tommy Beecher to reconsider his decision to graduate and enter the corporate world. Okay, maybe not.
Whatever they’re paying G.A. Mangus to move from Middle Tennessee and become the USC quarterbacks coach, it may not be enough. He will earn every penny of his paycheck between now and the 2009 season opener at N.C. State trying to develop Garcia and the other young quarterbacks on USC’s roster.
Ironically, the twin announcements of Mangus' hiring and the decision by Smelley to leave USC occured late Friday afternoon about 10 minutes apart.
As they say, when one door closes, another one opens.
Goodbye, Chris. Hello, G.A.
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Unfortunately, something I predicted only half-jokingly in a conversation with a fellow journalist more than a month ago has come to fruition.
A few days after his poor performance in the Clemson game, I said Chris Smelley would be the starting quarterback for Div. I-AA Samford next fall.
Right state, wrong school.
From a football perspective, Smelley’s decision to transfer was probably the correct one on a number of levels.
First, Smelley isn’t stupid. In fact, he’s quite intelligent. He understood his four-interception outing in the final regular season game in the Upstate had forever tainted his relationship with Gamecock Nation.
But he realized something else as well. As long as Stephen Garcia was around, he had little chance to win the affection of USC fans, and possibly Steve Spurrier as well.
Good or bad, many Gamecock fans have anointed Garcia the savior of the USC football program. Does he really deserve that honor? Based on his performance late in the season, the answer is a resounding no.
As he showed in the Outback Bowl, Garcia needs a lot of work both on and off the field (hello, film room) to become the top-flight quarterback Spurrier and most Gamecock fans hope he’ll eventually turn into. But it won’t be an overnight process.
The Messiah? Not yet.
Yet, putting it in biblical terms, Smelley was King Herod and Garcia was Jesus in the minds of many USC fans.
The only thing missing from Smelley’s exit from Columbia was the crucifixion scene.
Clearly, Smelley predicted his place in the future pecking order at quarterback, and knew that he was in a no-win situation. No matter how well he played from this point forward, the fans would always embrace Garcia.
Quoted in a university press release on Friday announcing the transfer, Smelley said it better than I could with these 17 words: “I decided it was best for me to have a change of scenery and move on elsewhere.”
Right now, it appears he plans to transfer to Alabama to play baseball, but he hasn't ruled out returning to football. If he does, he'll have to sit out the 2009 season. But he's eligible to play baseball immediately.
Despite sharing snaps first with Blake Mitchell and then Garcia over the last seasons, Smelley leaves USC as the 10th leading passer in school history with 3,210 career yards and a 9-6 record as a starter.
How many other Gamecock quarterbacks with that many career starts can say they left USC with a 60.0 winning percentage? The answer is probably not many.
Bottom line, Smelley was a good quarterback but not a great one. He had a few outstanding performances (see Ole Miss this year) and some clunkers as well.
Unfortunately, two of his worst career outings came in his final two starts against Florida and Clemson, and those games will, I’m sure, haunt him.
While we can debate all day whether Smelley possessed the requisite arm strength to succeed as a SEC quarterback, there’s no questioning his personality. He treated the media very respectfully and never had a cross word for anyone in our business.
Did he always want to speak to the media? Of course not. No player does. But when he did he handled himself with class and integrity. He never felt sorry for himself. Instead, he carried himself confidently believing the next game would be better than the last.
So, while some fans threw poisonous darts at him following the Clemson game, my best memory of Smelley from that miserable afternoon was his willingness to stand in front of the media, look us straight in the eye and accept full blame for the discouraging defeat even though he had plenty of help from other USC players.
Smelley’s departure means USC’s depth at quarterback is dangerously thin with Garcia being the only quarterback remaining on the roster with any game experience at the Division I level.
Obviously, the sense of urgency to develop redshirt freshmen Reid McCollum and Aramis Hillary this spring has been be accelerated. Even if USC signs a quarterback as part of the 2009 class, he won’t be ready to play this upcoming season.
So, Garcia, McCollum and Hillary are it.
The lack of depth could move Spurrier to ask former starter Tommy Beecher to reconsider his decision to graduate and enter the corporate world. Okay, maybe not.
Whatever they’re paying G.A. Mangus to move from Middle Tennessee and become the USC quarterbacks coach, it may not be enough. He will earn every penny of his paycheck between now and the 2009 season opener at N.C. State trying to develop Garcia and the other young quarterbacks on USC’s roster.
Ironically, the twin announcements of Mangus' hiring and the decision by Smelley to leave USC occured late Friday afternoon about 10 minutes apart.
As they say, when one door closes, another one opens.
Goodbye, Chris. Hello, G.A.
Link to this entry - Discuss this entry - Return to Blog Home
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Scott Hood. Since February of 2005, Scott has covered the South Carolina football, men's basketball and baseball programs for GamecockCentral. He may be reached by email at scottblog(at)gamecockcentral.com. Replace (at) with @.