When the name “Steve Smith” appears in conversation, most sports fans throughout the state conjure up images of a certain 6-foot-8 basketball player.That is, unless those fans pay close attention to the Oregon football team.
The Ducks have their own Steve Smith. He may not be as storied as the Portland Trailblazers’ All-Star shooting guard, but Oregon’s Smith is one of several players who make the Ducks’ defense No. 1 in the Pacific-10 Conference.
Had things worked out a little bit differently, perhaps the pass-blocking Smith would have been more like his sharp-shooting counterpart.
“I planned on it,” said Smith, lounging on a couch in the lobby of the Len Casanova Center. “I planned on going to college as a basketball player. I chose Oregon because it was the biggest school for me at the time, and I just wanted to go somewhere big.”
The Ducks should be glad that Smith decided to play football. Smith entered the starting lineup Sept. 23 against UCLA as the right cornerback, shifting over from the rover position. He has recorded 20 tackles — 16 unassisted — this season.
“A guy like Steve Smith – if you have the opportunity to watch our practices, he goes hard every day, as hard as he can go and as fast as he can go at each snap,” defensive coordinator Nick Aliotti said. “He’s very coachable, he’s working his trade and it showed on Saturday.”
Smith, a native of Long Beach, Calif., was raised by his mother and five of 12 uncles. Three of those five uncles played basketball overseas, while another — Dennis Johnson — played 12 years in the NBA before retiring as a Boston Celtic. Johnson is now an assistant coach for the Los Angeles Clippers (who, ironically, beat the Trailblazers and the “other” Steve Smith Tuesday night).
Nobody in Smith’s family had ever played football beyond high school, but that didn’t mean Smith wasn’t exposed to the gridiron at a young age. He watched several Southern California games from the stands of the Memorial Coliseum as a child, then joined his high school football team at the start of his sophomore year.
As the 6-foot-1 multi-sport athlete neared the end of his high-school career, he was recruited to play basketball by schools such as San Diego State and Fresno State.
But Smith couldn’t turn down an offer to play football for the Ducks.
“When I first came up here it was kind of hard to adjust with the rain,” he said.Upon joining the team, Smith quickly became friends with teammate Rashad Bauman. It was a unique friendship because the two were competing for the same position on the field.
“I played behind him all my freshman year, but I kind of knew that I wasn’t going to play over him, so it wasn’t a big deal to me,” Smith said. “He helped me go over some plays — he’d tell me ‘this is what you should do here.’
“We still do that. We were doing it last night, as a matter of fact, while we were watching film, breaking down the receivers and all that.”
Since Smith was shifted to the right corner earlier this season, he and Bauman start on opposite sides of the field. They also extended their friendship off the field and became roommates.
“We just clicked out of the gates,” Bauman said. “We were best friends our first year, and it’s been that way ever since. We slowly bonded while competing for the same position, that got us to grow closer to each other.
“It’s good to know the person who you’re playing with. I know his game completely, in and out. He brings a lot to the table and complements our defense really well.”For now, Smith’s focus is solely on playing football. He talks about pursuing a career in the NFL rather than trying to make a basketball comeback.
“I can’t really play basketball anymore; you’ve got to take care of your body,” Smith said. “I still love it to death, but I’d choose football over basketball now if I had to choose.”
A sociology major, Smith said he’d like to be a counselor if a pro football career doesn’t pan out. One of his uncles works for the Boys and Girls Club in Los Angeles. When the Ducks faced the Trojans last Saturday, he knew about 40 adolescents who came to the game with his uncle.
Smith savored Oregon’s win over USC because when he was in Los Angeles, he was able to see almost all of his close family.
While there’s not another game near Long Beach set on the Ducks’ schedule, Smith has his eye on January 1, 2001. He hopes that fate, hard work and a little luck will bring him — and about 60 of his closest friends — back to the Los Angeles area.
“I wouldn’t mind going to the Rose Bowl because my whole family would be there,” he said. “I’m looking forward to it, actually.”