Leave It to Beaver

Super-stardom doesn’t radiate from Jonathan Smith. There is no Joe Namath air, no Kobe Bryant swagger.

He is what he is. The boy next door, the baby-faced son of Len and Robin Smith, the younger brother of Josh, a former high school phenom at Glendora who wasn’t enough of a phenom to attract any big-time college recruiters.

He is a throwback. In conversation, he makes eye contact. His nouns agree with his verbs, he uses unusual phrases such as “sir” and “thank you” and he has missed the jewelry and tattoo stage.

For some reason, Jonathan Smith is college football’s best player that nobody knows about. He has quarterbacked Oregon State on an incredible journey the last two years, leading the Beavers to a 10-1 record this season, a No. 5 ranking and a spot opposite Notre Dame in the New Year’s Day Fiesta Bowl.

Outside of Corvallis, Ore., and Glendora, dozens have seemed to notice.

Quarterbacks from two of the four teams above Oregon State in the polls were sitting in the front row when the Heisman Trophy winner’s name was announced earlier this month. Chris Weinke of Florida State won and Josh Heupel of Oklahoma was second. Smith, a junior, was nowhere to be seen, either at the New York Athletic Club or in the voting.

When Jim Rome interviewed Notre Dame Coach Bob Davie on national television Friday night, Davie pointed to three areas of concern: Oregon State’s receivers, running back Ken Simonton and the Beavers’ stingy defense. Smith’s name never came up.

He doesn’t even own bragging rights in his home foothill community of Glendora. Despite his accomplishments, and despite the upcoming Fiesta Bowl, the hottest athlete from Glendora these days is Stanford basketball standout Casey Jacobsen.

The main issue is size. Smith is 5 feet 10 and 194 pounds. During interviews for this story, the word “pro” came up in one only context. That he wouldn’t be one.

Tim Lappano is Oregon State’s offensive coordinator and quarterback coach. He showed up with Dennis Erickson’s new coaching crew early in 1999. The year before, he had been coaching in the pros at Seattle, and before that, he had been a Purdue assistant and had been responsible for recruiting Boilermaker standout quarterback Drew Brees, who was also in that front row Heisman night.

Lappano knows quarterbacks.

“So I get to Oregon State and I’m sitting in my new office,” Lappano said, “and this kid sticks his head in my door and says something and I figure it is the ball boy. Has to be. He’s about 5-10, short haircut.

“But he says, ‘I’m Jonathan Smith and I play quarterback here.’

“All I could think was, ‘Holy cow. I just left the NFL and Drew Brees. . . .’ ”

Now, Lappano is quick to say, “Jonathan Smith is the reason we are 10-1,” although he hastens to add, as many at Oregon State do, that Smith does have quite a good cast around him.

The Fiesta Bowl will be Smith’s 27th consecutive start as Oregon State’s quarterback. Since he took over as a starter against California in 1998, he has won 18 games and lost eight. He has been the first quarterback to produce a winning season in Corvallis since 1970 and the first to take the Beavers to a bowl game since the 1965 Rose Bowl.

That bowl game was last season’s Oahu Bowl, where the Beavers lost to Hawaii and finished with a 7-5 record in Erickson’s first season as coach. Things had gotten so bad in Corvallis that the last coach who had shown up and turned in a winning record in his first season was Tommy Prothro, in 1955.

When Smith finished his high school career, he wanted to play in college. He had been a prep star, an all-conference player by the collective nod of conference coaches who didn’t even feel the need to hold a ballot. His parents helped him make a highlight film, and he sent some out. And the long wait began.

“My best trips were Humboldt State and UC Davis,” he said.

Neither are Division I programs, which was Smith’s goal.

Then he got a break, although many with his prep credentials would have considered it a snub. Oregon State assistant coach Greg Newhouse was looking at film with then-line coach Jim Gilstrap. They were checking out huge Glendora center Dustin Janz for a possible scholarship award, and Newhouse, a linebacker coach, kept noticing that the quarterback, a little guy for their purposes, had some things they always look for.

“I told Gilstrap, ‘Don’t you see a great quick release?’ ” Newhouse said. “Then I told him, ‘Don’t you see the ability to throw long?’ ”

They decided to contact Glendora’s coach, Gary Day, and once an interest was shown, dialogue began. Smith and his family were told that there were no scholarships available, something that still gets giggles all-around, but that Jonathan could walk-on. Janz got a scholarship and has played little.

Oregon State was Smith’s chance, so walk-on he did, and as a redshirt freshman in the fall of ‘97, he ran the scout team that emulates the upcoming opponent’s offense.

“I was Brad Otten, Cade McNown, Brock Huard,” Smith said. “We were just there to be the hamburger, but I was OK with it because I really had nothing to lose, and the way it was structured the defense couldn’t tee off on me all the time.”

Funny things started to happen. Assistant coaches such as Newhouse started noticing how well the hamburger squad quarterback connected with his receivers, despite facing the top defensive unit. And when players ahead of him on the depth chart began to struggle, more and more eyes started to turn to Smith as a possible savior.

To start the ’98 season, the quarterback job at Oregon State went automatically to junior college All-American Terrance Bryant. In the spring, Smith had actually moved to No. 1, since Bryant hadn’t arrived yet, and that was especially impressive, since the two quarterbacks behind him were scholarship players.

And Smith got into a couple of games in the ’98 season, one mop-up duty in a 28-13 victory over Nevada and later, when Bryant faltered, in a 28-7 loss against Arizona. For a hamburger guy with no scholarship, he had done all right. If that was all for ‘98, his freshman year of eligibility, he could live with it.

But it wasn’t all. Not by a longshot.

The next week, the Beavers and Coach Mike Riley took a 4-3 record to Husky Stadium in Seattle. Bryant started, didn’t do well, and was replaced by Smith late in the first half. Smith didn’t do well, either, and Bryant started the second half and the Huskies led, 21-3. But after a few series, Bryant was replaced again by Smith, and suddenly, this one nearly turned into the miracle by Lake Washington.

Smith had three scoring passes, but these weren’t just scoring passes. There was a 90-yard touchdown to Roddy Tompkins, the third-longest pass play in Oregon State history, and an 80-yarder to Greg Ainsworthy, the fourth-longest ever. He also added a 33-yarder to Tim Alexander. Oregon State ended up losing, 35-34, when Smith’s pass for a two-point conversion was batted away in the last minute.

When it was over, Jonathan Smith of the hamburger squad had set an Oregon State record for single-game passing with 469 yards. The previous record of 461 had been set by Erik Wilhelm in 1987, against Akron. This was against always-powerful Washington.

Smith’s parents had gone to the game. They didn’t know anything about records. They just knew their son had played the game of his life.

“Afterward, the other players kept coming up to us and telling us,” Robin recalled, “that he was their quarterback. They wanted him back there, running it.”

Smith started the next week against Cal and has started every game for the Beavers since. Two weeks after his near-miracle in Seattle, he had McNown and unbeaten UCLA on the ropes until the Bruins won on a last-second scoring pass by McNown. The next week, Smith won the Civil War game, beating Oregon in overtime.

Now, the quarterback nobody ever heard of is taking his team into the Fiesta Bowl as a favorite against Notre Dame. Oregon State’s only loss was at Washington, 33-30, when the Beavers missed a tying field goal just a few yards wide in the last minute. In other words, Smith may be only a few yards wide of being 11-0 and in the Bowl Championship Series title game against Oklahoma.

In any case, Smith is in good position, with the Fiesta Bowl and an entire season ahead, to break all of Wilhelm’s total offense and passing marks next season, needing a season similar to his 154 completions in 314 attempts for 2,468 yards and 17 touchdowns this year to get that done.

If he does that, maybe some people around Corvallis will start mentioning him with Terry Baker, the only Beaver to win a Heisman Trophy, achieved in 1962.

Probably not.

Lappano was asked how solid Smith’s job security was coming into this season, and he said, “Well, he was clearly the leader, but this spring, we wanted to take a long look at Shane House, a new recruit from [El Dorado High in] Camino, Calif. He’s about 6-4 and. . . .”

And had House shown well, Smith would have done what any self-respecting hamburger squad guy does. He would have strapped on the helmet again and gone out and won his job back. For about the fifth time.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

FIESTA BOWL

JAN. 1 at Tempe, Ariz.

Oregon State (10-1)

vs. Notre Dame (9-2)

5:30 p.m., Channel 7

Payout: $13.5 million