Huskies Won't be Fooled by Jonathan Smith — They Know the Guy

The Beavers coach and former UW offensive coordinator has stirred excitement in Corvallis.

Jonathan Smith, with his pudgy facial features and a receding hairline, looks more like a bawdy Oregon State football fan rather than the Beavers' made-to-order head coach.  

He seemingly could be clutching a beer and a hotdog and screaming insults rather than flipping through a playbook, twirling a whistle and acting reverent.

Yet that's always been the case with Smith — inside that supposedly every-man veneer is a serious competitor waiting to go for your throat and make you gasp for air. 

It's nothing new.

Smith arrived at Oregon State as a walk-on quarterback and left as the school's all-time leading passer. 

He said move aside all you scholarship QBs and opponents hang onto your defensive hats.

Smith engineered the Beavers' greatest success in the school's football annals by leading the 2000 team to an 11-1 record and a shocking 41-9 demolition of Notre Dame in the Fiesta Bowl.

The Irish had to be asking deadpan, from a certain level of authority, the following, "Aren't all Rudy look-a-likes supposed to get one series and sit the hell down?"

As he prepares the Beavers (3-1 overall, 1-0 Pac-12) to host the Huskies (2-2, 1-0) in a far more interesting Pac-12 game than envisioned in Corvallis on Saturday night, Smith is doing it again. 

Taking advantage of his power of the unexpected, Smith is faced with reeling in his players after leading them to a heady and historic 45-27 victory over USC in Los Angeles rather than propping them up.

It comes after the Beavers handed down a Trojan beatdown in SoCal for the first time in 61 years.

Since Marilyn Monroe was all the rage in Hollywood.

Since the Huskies were really Rose Bowl trendy.

Statement made. pic.twitter.com/bw864eKMNp

— Oregon State Football (@BeaverFootball) September 28, 2021

This football magic has turned Willamette Valley unbelievably giddy and energized, with fans actually making bowl plans, though the program is in the throes of seven consecutive losing seasons.

Washington, however, won't underestimate Smith or his football team. 

The Huskies have insider information on this person.

They once employed him.

They were once torched for 1,022 passing yards by him in three high-powered outings.

They followed his lead as Chris Petersen's offensive coordinator from 2014 through 2017, specifically as Jake Browning's QB tutor.

Jonathan Smith and Chris Petersen meet after the 2019 game in Corvallis / USA TODAY Sports

Jimmy Lake was the UW defensive-backs coach during that time, a friend of Smith's then and now.

"Smitty and I are very, very close," Lake said of his former Montlake colleague. "He knows what I like and I know what he likes, so it's definitely a fun competition. I'm expecting he's going to have an extraordinary plan against us."

The Huskies, themselves, haven't really had an extraordinary offensive plan in place since Smith was summoned by Oregon State to come home in 2018 and pull the Beavers out of their doldrums.

Since Smith accepted his OSU promotion, the UW has struggled to find much offensive creativity from Bush Hamdan for two seasons before he was fired and now John Donovan for two more, with his Husky future hardly secure. Neither one was welcomed by the fan base.

Jonathan Smith and QB Jake Browning trade pleasantries after the 2018 game / USA TODAY Sports

Things are a little crazy in Corvallis and surrounding areas these days with more and more signs of the Smith rebuilding effort really taking hold. He beat Oregon last year and the Trojans last week.

A win over the Huskies, who have won the past nine games in the rivalry, would blow the roofs off all of the grain elevators from Salem to Sweet Home.

Meantime, as USC tries to clean up its mess after jettisoning Clay Helton shortly after the season began, someone suggested the school take a good look at Smith, a SoCal native from Glendora east of L.A., and his contract situation.

The only problem with that is all the high-brow Trojans will see is this pudgy guy who probably won't impress them the more they keep looking at him. They'll want someone a lot more buttoned-down. Of course, Smith will probably keep beating them. Maybe the Huskies, too.

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