Here's a sampling of what national journalists have recently written about Utah quarterback Alex Smith:
My top three (on my Heisman ballot) goes like this:
Alex Smith, Utah; Matt Leinart, Southern California; Braylon Edwards, Michigan.
Interested in my rationale? Then keep reading.
In a year of standout quarterbacks (Leinart, Oklahoma's Jason White, Auburn's Jason Campbell, Cal's Aaron Rodgers, Louisville's Stefan Lefors), Smith still managed to stand out from the crowd.
And it went beyond his dazzling stats — a 66.1 completion percentage, a 28-to-4 touchdown-to-interception ratio and a 174.9 passing efficiency, second in the nation behind Lefors.
Smith was the perfect pilot for coach Urban Meyer's spread attack, which requires a quarterback to make countless reads using various formations. Smith starts a game with 40 plays on his wristband.
"That's probably a fifth of it," he said of the weekly game plan.
Good thing Smith has the brains to match his arm. He accrued so many Advanced Placement credits in high school, he entered Utah as an academic junior. He graduated in May with a 3.74 GPA and a degree in economics.
Bottom line, Smith was not only the nation's most outstanding player — the only official criteria for the Heisman Trophy — he was the most valuable player. He spearheaded an 11-0 team that scored 40 or more points nine times.
Smith also was arguably the Utes' biggest ground threat, rushing for 563 yards and 10 touchdowns.
"If you took him off that team," ESPN's Chris Fowler said, "I seriously doubt they would be within two or three games of where they are now."
Smith lost Heisman buzz for a reason that's not his fault: His Utes haven't played since Nov. 20.
— Teddy Greenstein, Chicago Tribune
(Alex) Smith wasn't widely recruited and ended up at Utah, where he spent a discouraging first semester under former coach Ron McBride. He was thrown in two games late in the season as the Utes tried to snap out of a six-game losing streak, losing a year of eligibility.
Smith was so disheartened he thought about transferring if McBride stayed. McBride was fired after the season, so Smith decided he would see who was taking over. When he found out it was Urban Meyer from Bowling Green, he wasn't quite sure what to think.
"Honestly, when they announced it, I didn't know who he was and I had been following it pretty closely," he said.
That was two years ago this month and was a bigger turning point in Smith's life than he knew. Smith battled upperclassmen Brett Elliott and Lance Rice through spring practice as all three tried to grasp Meyer's spread offense.
As the youngest of the bunch, Smith said he got the most attention.
"Everything I did was wrong and we were going to change it," Smith said. "My release was too slow so we've got to speed that up. We're going to change how you throw the ball. We're going to put 30 pounds on you. You're too small. We've got to get you faster . . . ."
Meyer did succeed in getting Smith a little bigger. At 6-feet-4, he was only about 180 pounds when Meyer took over. He weighs in around 210 now, still a little on the light side, but he can only eat and lift so much.
Learning the offense was a bigger challenge.
"He's gone from being a third-string quarterback to the best in college football," said Meyer, who accepted the coaching job at Florida last week. "I still believe that. I know some of these other guys are starting to put up some numbers, but I still believe Alex is as good as anybody in the country."
— Doug Alden, Associated Press
This can't be real. Alex Smith is just too perfect.
He graduated from college in two years and already is working on his master's degree in economics. He's a humble, blond-haired, blue-eyed quarterback who led his team to a one-of-a-kind season and doesn't have a bad word to say about anyone.
"I can't find a fault," says Utah wideout Paris Warren.
Oh yeah? Here's one: Smith actually talked about himself last week. OK, so it wasn't really about himself. But if you read between the lines, it's as close as you're going to get.
Question: Could you run the pro-style offenses at USC or Oklahoma?
Answer: "Oh, yeah, of course."
Question: Could USC quarterback Matt Leinart or Oklahoma's Jason White run Utah's read option offense?
Answer: "Well, I'm sure they could learn it."
But they certainly couldn't master it the way Smith has. And it's doubtful they could have flourished to the point of doing the unthinkable: leading a non-BCS team to a BCS bowl game for the first time in the history of college football's confusing postseason series. That is why Smith is The Sporting News Player of the Year.
— Matt Hayes, The Sporting News