‘Long overdue’: Kyle Whittingham praises Alex Smith and the honor that finally came his way
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Alex Smith was only a backup quarterback when he began his sophomore season at Utah, but the team’s defense began to see what the future held. Kyle Whittingham, the defensive coordinator at the time, still remembers — 20 years later — that Smith made life difficult for his defense in practice.
“As soon as Alex got control of the offense, we were lights out. I remember after he started playing full time, we coaches were wondering, how did we not see that? We were trying to figure that one out.” — Kyle Whittingham
“We were thinking this guy is pretty darned good,” he says. “We had an inkling he was special. But you never know until he goes out there.”
In the second game of the 2003 season, Brett Elliott, the team’s starting quarterback, broke his wrist, and Smith came on in relief and didn’t stop playing until he’d reeled off 21 wins in 22 games, finished fourth in the 2004 Heisman Trophy race, led the Utes to an unbeaten 2004 season and a No. 4 finish in the national rankings, and became the No. 1 overall pick in the NFL draft.
“In came Alex and he never looked back,” says Whittingham. “The rest is history.”
This week it was announced that Smith will be inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame. No Utah player has ever been voted into the Hall (Ike Armstrong was inducted as a coach in 1957). Not Steve Smith, not Luther Elliss, not the great, versatile Eric Weddle (a finalist this year), not Pro Football Hall of Fame inductees Larry Wilson and Mac Speedie.
Smith, Whittingham and Urban Meyer — Utah’s head coach at the time — changed the course of football at Utah; it has been on an upward trajectory since that era. It’s not an overstatement to state that Smith and Meyer also changed the college game on and off the field.
At the end of Smith’s final year at Utah (2004), the Utes became the first “non-BCS” school to break into a BCS bowl game, forcing their way into the Fiesta Bowl, where they clobbered Pitt to complete a 13-0 season. Because of the closed system of that era, the Utes never had a chance to compete for the national championship, and because of pressure exerted by outsiders like Utah (and later TCU, Boise State and Hawaii), they played a part in eventually forcing college football to adopt the College Football Playoff.
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Smith and Meyer also were among the early pioneers of the read option and spread offense and, in great part because of their success, that offense became the rage and continues to be so today, catching on first in college and then the NFL.
As Whittingham tells it, “As soon as Alex got control of the offense, we were lights out. I remember after he started playing full time, we coaches were wondering, how did we not see that? We were trying to figure that one out. He’s a natural-born leader, extremely intelligent, competitive and tough. He had good size, a strong arm and was exceptionally fast. He got a lot of yards in the running game.”
Smith was an outstanding student and athlete at Helix High in La Mesa, California. He was president of his senior class. He earned college credits from San Diego State while still in high school, enabling him to complete an economics degree at Utah in 2 ½ years and to begin work toward a master’s degree. At Helix, he won 25 of 26 starts (giving him a combined high school and college record of 46-2). He was the team’s two-time MVP at a time when future Heisman winner Reggie Bush was one of his teammates.
He played one season as the backup at Utah under head coach Ron McBride. Ask Whittingham what Smith was doing in practice that caught his eye that season, he says, “You mean besides completing every ball?! He was just so accurate. And we couldn’t tackle him. That’s when the read-zone was just getting started and that he ran so well.”
Meyer took over the team a year later and, after Smith fell into the starting job, the Utes rolled. Smith passed for 5,203 yards in 25 games (three as a backup), and had a passer rating of 164.4. If you don’t understand the passer rating, simply consider two stats: his touchdown-to-interception ratio (a superb 47:8) and his yards per completion (an equally superb 8.9). He completed 66% of his passes. He also ran for 1,072 yards and 15 touchdowns.
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Smith passed up his senior year to declare for the NFL draft. The San Francisco 49ers made him the first overall pick. Smith played 16 years in the NFL, throwing for 35,650 yards, 199 touchdowns, 109 interceptions and compiling a 99-67-1 record while playing for the 49ers, Chiefs and Redskins. He missed one entire season and part of another after suffering a gruesome leg injury that nearly resulted in amputation. His comeback in 2020 inspired the entire country and led to a powerful documentary. He was named the NFL’s 2020 Comeback Player of the Year.
Smith, who retired in 2021, will take another bow for his performance at Utah with his induction into the College Football Hall of Fame.
“It’s well deserved,” says Whittingham. “It’s a great honor for him. And long overdue.”
