Can you play in the Big Ten, lead your team to the BCS Championship game and win the Heisman Trophy and still be forgotten? The answer is yes...just ask Mr. Smith.

“Pro football is like nuclear warfare. There are no winners, only survivors,” Hall of Famer member Frank Gifford once said.

If you ask current Baltimore Ravens’ quarterback Troy Smith if he agrees with that statement, I’m willing to bet he answers in the affirmative. Nobody said it was easy to make it as a quarterback in the National Football League.

It is a tough world out there in the NFL and the former Heisman Trophy winner can attest to that. It seems like just yesterday that Smith and his Buckeyes were on top of the college football world. Ohio St. was a marked team during that season, the unanimous favorite to win the 2007 BCS National Championship. However, even with those lofty expectations, the Buckeyes went out and dominated nearly every opponent they faced, due in large part to the precise passing of Smith.

The thing that separated Smith from every other player in the country that season was his uncanny ability to throw accurately on the run. Let’s take a look back at some of the key throws that highlighted his ability to escape and make something happen.

In the Penn State game, with the heavily favored Buckeyes only up 7-3 with 13:06 remaining in the contest, Smith takes the snap and looks for receivers, standing at his own 42-yard line. He bounces backwards and trails to the right side of the field at around the 50-yard line, where a Penn State defender forces him to spin back inside. He runs backward four more yards to the opposing 46-yard line, plants his left foot on the “O” of the Ohio Stadium turf, then begins his lengthy wind up before unleashing a hissing spiral that travels 60 yards. The football hits receiver Brian Robiskie perfectly in stride in the middle of the end zone just before Smith a Penn State defender brings him down from behind. While the fans of Buckeye Nation breath a collective sigh of relief, Smith extends his arms outward, looks toward the Buckeyes sideline, and races down the field as if to say: “Come on guys, I had it in me all along.”

Smith made a plethora of dazzling throws look routine that season, which makes it even more amazing that so many people seem to have forgotten how good he actually was in 2006. Perhaps his best throw came in Austin against the Longhorns. The game was tied at seven with 21 seconds remaining in the first half. Smith calmly takes the snap at the Texas 36-yard line in the shotgun formation. He takes a step back to the 37 but then bounces back to the 36 to set his feet. He sets both feet, winds up and sends a beautifully lofted spiral through the Austin sky. Receiver Ted Ginn, Jr. tracks the football from behind his head until it lands directly on his chest right on the number 7 of his jersey, nose up. It’s yet another touchdown for the Big Ten school, and yet another dazzling throw for Smith to put on his Heisman resume.

Those are just a couple examples of dazzling passes for Smith during the 2006 college football campaign. He completed 203 of his 311 (65.3 percent) passes for 2,542 yards while tossing 30 touchdowns and just six interceptions. Those are simply stunning numbers by anyone’s standards and they were good enough to earn him the most coveted individual honor in Division 1-A college football (Football Bowl Subdivision)—the Heisman Trophy. Smith not only won the Heisman, but he racked up an astonishing 86.7 percent of the first place votes—a record. His margin of victory (1,662 votes) was also the second largest in the history of the award, eclipsed only by O.J. Simpson who won by 1,750 votes.

Unfortunately, what happened after he won the Heisman Trophy made everybody forget about his spectacular season. He led the Buckeyes to a Big Ten Championship, a BCS National Championship berth, an undefeated regular season record, and a hard fought victory over hated rival Michigan. Those are all very impressive accomplishments folks, but in American society today, you’re either number one or you’re nothing, just ask John Madden.

“The only yardstick for success our society has is being a champion. No one remembers anything else,” the famed announcer stated.

The Buckeyes were completely embarrassed as the Florida Gators throttled them before a nationally televised audience—41-14. Troy Smith posted the worst numbers of his entire college career—he was 4 of 14 passing for 35 yards, threw an interception, fumbled once, was sacked five times, and was held to minus 29 yards rushing. It was a rough day at the office to say the least.

In Smith’s defense, he had absolutely no blocking in that game—left tackle Alex Boone looked as if he had blocks of cement strapped to his cleats as Jarvis Moss continually beat him to the edge. He also was without Ginn Jr., who left the game after the opening kickoff with a sprained left ankle.

The National Championship embarrassment opened the floodgates of criticism toward Smith. A man that was the toast of the college football world for nearly the entire season was suddenly was a goat. He was too short to succeed as a quarterback in the NFL. Many scouts argued that his release was too slow and all of a sudden the nation’s college football memory had been completely erased. I guess all those awards that Troy racked up didn’t mean a thing. Nor did nearly took his team wire-to-wire in Division 1A college football. Or all those remarkable throws in the 2006 campaign?

Fast forward to a year and a half later and the Baltimore Ravens’ starting quarterback job is nearly Smith’s to lose. In just his second NFL game as a starting quarterback, he led the Ravens to a victory over the Steelers in Week 17 (granted the Steelers had pulled some of their starters for the playoffs). He completed 16 of his 27 passes for 171 yards, while tossing in a touchdown and no interceptions. While everybody in the world has since decided to crown former Delaware signal-caller Joe Flacco as the Ravens’ quarterback of the future, Smith has been doing nothing but impressing folks in the Ravens’ camp, outperforming Kyle Boller. According to an article written by Don Banks of cnnsi.com, Ravens’ offensive coordinator Cam Cameron has played a huge role in Smith’s development in the off-season.

"Cam's very good at figuring out a player's strength, figuring out what he does well, and then tailoring the offense around those skills,'' an anonymous Ravens source said. "He's got Troy moving around and doing a lot of the same things he had success doing at Ohio State.'' That’s the definition of an excellent OC right there—somebody who makes the playbook fit their quarterback, not the other way around.

You see, ladies and gents, Smith was born to throw the football on the run. Everybody is given a certain talent in this world: some people draw beautiful paintings, some people can juggle, and some people might be able to shoot the breeze with anybody on this earth. Smith just happens to be able to throw a remarkably accurate spiral down a football field when he is off-balance. If the Ravens decide to put him in a moving pocket (like Cameron is reportedly doing) then they will be handsomely rewarded. You can go back to Smith’s highlights from his high school days at Glenville and you’ll see him running the bootleg with flawless efficiency. Watch his highlights from Ohio State and you’ll see his remarkable ability to improvise, escape pressure in the pocket, and toss a beautifully thrown football on the move. It is truly a no-brainer to put him in a moving pocket, put some bootlegs in the playbook, and let him use his greatest asset—throwing on the run.

It’s amazing how one game can erase so many people’s memories of how good a quarterback Troy Smith truly is. This fall will be the time when the “forgotten gunslinger” refreshes the nation’s memory and claims the starting quarterback position for the Baltimore Ravens. For once, we won’t be hearing about Boller or how Flacco is the quarterback of the future. We’ll be hearing about Mr. Bootleg himself, Troy Smith.