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The Gambler: Smith's daring decisions pay off
Journal Photo by Bruce Chapman
Alphonso Smith (2) of Wake Forest forces Kevin Smith (49) of Duke to down the football in the end zone for a safety to give the Deacons a 9-7 lead in the first quarter.
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Published: November 2, 2008
In a hollow-stomach flash early last night, Alphonso Smith's gut instincts turned logical defeat into a surreal Wake Forest victory.
Cornerback Smith saw trouble coming before anyone else. He saw a supporting teammate line up in the wrong defense, saw the Duke quarterback recognize the flaw and saw everything falling apart on the last play of overtime.
Smith's solution: He changed the scene.
His end-zone interception foiled the possible Duke touchdown and preserved a 33-30 win. His end-zone interception ignited a delirious celebration and pushed Coach Jim Grobe's smile button.
"Sometimes," Grobe said, "having a guy like Fonz is better than coaching them good."
Ever since he lured Smith from Pahokee, Fla., five years ago, Grobe has balanced his personal restraint on one side of the scale against Smith's gambling nature on the other.
Balance has its place in college football, all the way down to the Deacons' unusual hybrid offense of necessity, but there's really no way to dilute the daring and guile in Smith's personality, nor should there be. For every outlandish risk turned sour, senior Smith has delivered a sweeter counterpoint -- if not in the same game or the same month, then eventually.
"I'm a ballhawk," he said. "If it came down to a big hit and a turnover, I'd take the turnover every day."
He took two turnovers yesterday, interceptions that broke the Wake Forest career record and moved him into second place on the ACC list with 19, one behind North Carolina's Dre' Bly. The first interception negated quarterback Riley Skinner's fumble and set up a 46-yard drive that put Wake Forest ahead 19-7 in the third quarter.
Before that, Smith shelved his punt-return duties and instead blocked a Duke punt in the end zone, good for a safety and two points that became larger as time grew shorter.
Smith had bored in on kickers before, but Grobe narrowed his role to returns early this season. The punt-returns coach lobbied for more aggression, and you know Smith did. Grobe relented last weekend at Miami, where the Hurricanes barely diverted Smith's path toward the ball.
"I'm too conservative, as I've mentioned a few times," Grobe said. "It makes me want to throw up, I'm so conservative. Brian Knorr has wanted to go after punts all year. I was more content to let Fonz catch them and see if we couldn't break a return. Consequently, we put no pressure on punts. We let them just stand back there and take their time and punt the football. I just got tired of watching that."
Assistant coaches asked Smith if he could block one. Smith's reply: "Watch this." Then Smith watched Duke react to him moving toward the scrimmage line instead of dropping back to wait for the punt.
"When I first lined up," Smith said, "I was like, ‘I've probably got this guy.' He kind of looked confused because he probably saw me back returning a lot."
Smith got him.
At the end, though, Smith sensed that Duke might get him. Shane Popham had kicked a 28-yard field goal on Wake Forest's first overtime possession. On second down from the 25-yard line, the Blue Devils deployed receivers in a set that Wake Forest hadn't seen all day. Smith noticed that safety Kevin Patterson, his rear support in the "Purple" coverage the coaches had called, was out of place.
He hollered at Patterson, but they were near the loud student section and Patterson couldn't hear him.
"What?" Patterson shouted back.
"No, it's purple," Smith said, to no avail. He noticed quarterback Thaddeus Lewis studying their exchange, and he sensed Lewis hurrying to get the ball snapped. He quit worrying about Patterson.
"I thought there was more than me back there," Smith said. "I just zoned out. I just saw the quarterback and the ball and didn't know it was a busted coverage until after the game. I thought K.P. got back because I didn't see him any more, but he didn't."
Groans turn to cheers
The assistant coaches upstairs knew that Patterson hadn't recovered and that Smith would have to handle two Blue Devils on that side of the end zone. Grobe heard the panic in his headset.
"There was kind of a groan from the press box," Grobe said. "I think they felt like that could've been a touchdown. It was a little bit like the Maryland game last year, where Fonz ended up playing two people. He got stuck right in the middle of both of them and just took off and went and made a play."
The play, a 100-yard interception return, fueled the fire than enabled Wake Forest to rally from 21 points down and beat the Terps. This time, Smith followed Lewis' eyes and shoulders as he turned toward receiver Eron Riley, who adjusted his route and took off for the back corner of the end zone.
It looked like a sure thing, but Lewis threw a short floater that Smith intercepted, ruining another trip for Coach David Cutcliffe and the Blue Devils.
"Thad threw it off his back foot," Cutcliffe said. "If Thad had been able to maybe sit in there or see it earlier, it probably would have been a walk-in touchdown."
But it wasn't. Smith made sure of that, and he made sure every sportswriter knew that Patterson had saved him more times in blown coverages than he had saved Patterson.
The interception's place in Smith's personal history?
"The last one," Smith said, "was the best one by far in my entire life."
Until the next one.
■ Lenox Rawlings can be reached at lrawlings@wsjournal.com.
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