Troy Smith Signs With the Alouettes

CFL Talk
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From CFL.ca:

The Alouettes announced on Wednesday that the club has signed import quarterback Troy Smith to a two-year deal.

Smith won the Heisman Trophy with Ohio State University in 2006, leading the Buckeyes to the BCS National Championship game at the end of the season. In three seasons as the Buckeyes’ quarterback he completed 420 of 670 passes for 5,720 yards and 54 TDs.

"We've been in discussions for well over three months and have been patiently waiting for Troy to finish his commitments at Ohio State," Alouettes general manager Jim Popp said. "We'll have to fast track Troy in order to get him over the learning curve of the CFL and caught up to speed over the next several weeks.

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This signing has the potential to be a great signing for the league. Only wish this took place 5 years ago when it would have made headlines around North America (as it is it was reported by USA Today) and been a shot in the arm for the image of the league.

Highlights from his Heisman season:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALLOplBMHJs
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You got to admire the patience of Jim Popp. He's been on his neg list for 8 years !

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Two things come to me about this. A)Smith has the potential to be a great QB here, however he's many years removed from his Heisman days at OhioSt and not the same QB he was then , some may even say he's lost a step. B)They fire the coach who was bringing in the read option then sign a read option QB???

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This will come down to desire and coaching.

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Good signing...he played well for the 49ers a few years back. Canadian game could suit him...time will tell of course.

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Very interesting. Who knows how it will turn out but I think he has a skill set that is definitely worth a look.

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Here's hoping Smith truly appreciates and respects the subtle differences of the three down game and takes the time to truly learn the game. If he comes up here with the mindset this is a quick stopover before heading back to the CFL, he may find himself out of football sooner than later, which would be a shame as his skillset is tailor made for the CFL.

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Exactly, also this will be a big challenge for Doug Berry. Doug has been successful at coaching quarterbacks but has never developed one.

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What? What makes you think Hawkins was a read-option coach?

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[b]by tangledweb » Thu Dec 27, 2012 1:32 am

Re: 2 teams need a starting QB if available who would you choose?

“Troy Smith and Nichols (health permitting) would be my first choices, although I’d like to see former Packer and UFL’r Brian Brohm get a shot in camp.”[/b]

:cowboy:
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I think he meant that Hawkins was a “DEAD”-OPTION Coach !! :wink:

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LOL, that definitely. What kind of moron walks into a HC gig and then does exactly the opposite of what his boss (the GM) wants him to do? Lunacy…

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Well if it wasn’t read option it was pretty close, at least a spread type O that required a mobile QB. It just seems weird to fire a coach 5 games in because this season’s production is off then sign a QB who COULD thrive in that style of offence and do it for many years in a game where I think that style can be successful. I have this feeling like mtl isn’t intp rebuilding all that much

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Hawkins was either all hat no cattle or all cowboy no hat.

I liked his promo piece on ESPN2 at halftime in the US actually, and then 2 weeks later he’s fired after also not being able to coach effectively to manage a game with a team with a 24-point lead in the first half.

After he was given the boot, we are actually likely never to see that promo piece ever again because in retrospect it made him look like a serious fool.

Anyway, all the best to Troy Smith though I am not optimistic on him.

It’ll be interesting if Adrian McPherson finds work elsewhere in the CFL again and outshines Troy Smith too.

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Adrian left on his own. I doubt very much you will see him in the CFL again. He’s not interested in backup money and he’s not interested in putting spending any more time than he has to up here. You do the math…

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But how much could he be making in the Arena league? Seem to me he's making less starting there than what the Als were paying him in Montreal, no?

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But he can drive to the game and back from his house and put his daughter to bed every night…

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You kind of have to feel for Hawkins though

“here Dan we hired you so you can bring up fresh ideas from what you learned from NCAA kind of what like Trestmen did were excited to have you hear!”

Dan: That’s great! Lets get to work!"

'Oh but dan you know those ideas we were talking about, yeah put those on hold and just be a puppet for our exact offense from last year but yeah!"

Imagine you being hired to a job where they want your input and ideas upon hiring but then your boss says “oh the last guy did it this way soooo do it like him.” It sucks and he was in a tough situation.

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That was never the case. Hawkins was brought in to keep the ship on course and maintain continuity on offense in a year when we'd lost our entire coaching staff. He wasn't brought in to shake things up. But he chose to spit in his boss's face (figuratively). So he walked the plank...

As for the hiring scenario you mentioned, it happens a lot, especially when you walk into an organization that is going through a transition. Likely you spend some time learning the ropes before you start making sweeping changes. Hawkins thought he could just change everything right away and still have success. For my money, the biggest issue with him, apart from the arrogance, wasn't his lack of CFL coaching experience but his lack of pro coaching experience. It's clear he had no idea how to run a tight ship in a pro football organization, from conducting practices to playbook design to basic admin stuff like getting everyone where they were supposed to be on the road...