Troy Smith is widely recognized as the best quarterback in Ohio State football history. Why? Well, he won the Heisman trophy, of course. Not only that, he was a Womanrines killer, going 3-0 and racking up 1,061 totals yards (most in Ohio State history) and 9 TDs versus that team up north. Unfortunately for Smith, he was handcuffed by good ol' 'Tressel Ball', which was coined after former Ohio State head coach Jim Tressel's conservative offensive approach. You see Troy Smith listed on almost every all-time Ohio State football dream team list, including mine, which was posted on April 27, 2012.

Here's the kicker; a decade has passed since I wrote that article. Here's another thing; Smith had a net total of just 14 yards versus Florida in the 2007 BCS National Championship, which is widely regarded as the worst bowl performance by a Heisman trophy winner. Here's CBS.com's take on his performance:

Smith set the gold standard for Heisman flops, completing just four of 14 passes for 35 yards and an interception in No. 1 Ohio State's 41-14 loss to the No. 2 Gators. The visibly overweight Smith also rushed for -29 yards on 10 carries.

So, this raises a question. Has anyone dethroned him since I wrote that article over a decade ago? There have been a lot of talented signal callers since then, including Terrelle Pryor, Braxton Miller, J.T. Barrett, Cardale Jones, Dwayne Haskins, Justin Fields, and now C.J. Stroud. All of these guys put up more impressive numbers than Smith, and none of them had a worse bowl performance than he did versus Florida.

I understand that under Urban Meyer and Ryan Day's offenses, quarterbacks are bound to put up bigger numbers than Smith did while playing Tressel ball. However, each starter from Dwayne Haskins (2018) on has had a better touchdown to interception ratio than Smith in their perspective careers.

Smith played a primarily spread concept just one time in his career, which was against No. 2 Michigan in 2006 whose defense ranked No. 1 in rushing yards allowed (42) per game, No. 2 in sacks (42) and No. 8 in points allowed (14.6) per game. Smith torched that defense, going 29/41 (70.7%,) with 316 yards and four touchdowns.

What are your thoughts? Is Troy Smith still the greatest quarterback in Ohio State history? If not, who has surpassed him? Also, what do you think Smith's numbers would look like in the spread offense under Meyer? What would his numbers be in Ryan Day's offense which emphasizes stretching the field with vertical passing?

Comment below.

As always, God bless and GO BUCKS!