Pat Smith to lead team at quarterback position

 A year ago this time, quarterback Pat Smith was admittedly not worried about seeing the field much.

                  The person slotted ahead of him, Andrew Krewatch, was entering his third consecutive season as a starter and was poised to break some school records.

                  Learning the ins and outs of his position was the least of his worries.

                  That all changed when Krewatch went down with a shoulder injury, which forced Smith to get brush up on what it takes to play the quarterback position and IUP and he had to do it fast.

                  As expected, the redshirt freshman struggled. He completed only 51 percent of his passes and threw for an average of 79 yards a game and that was with a slimmed-down offense.

                  After the rough go of things in 2009, Smith made it a point to learn everything there is to know about the offense.   

                  "When [Kre] watch was here I would supposed to be the fourth quarter, hand the ball of guy. I was like ‘I don't need to worry about protecting myself' and then when that happened I was like ‘Oh man, I better start studying' and it was just so much and I was thinking way too much and not playing football. Now I'm just playing football," Smith said.

                  Smith means it when he says that he's just playing football as did not play his other sport baseball this past spring to fully dedicate himself to the football team.

                  According to Smith, the dedication has paid off as he said in an interview Sunday that he has improved his footwork in the pocket and his knowledge about the protection schemes, both of which helps him from being put on his back numerous as was the case last season.

                  "My protections are very crucial because last year I wasn't real positive on what I was doing, but now it's like bang, bang, bang," Smith said.

                  Knowing the protections is a little easier with the return of lineman Jim O'Rourke and Anthony DiPasquale. O'Rourke missed all of last season with a severe knee injury and DiPasquale missed a few games last season because of injury, but was still voted offensive most valuable player by the team last season.

                  Both O'Rourke and DiPasquale bring toughness and experience to the line that will be protecting Smith and making sure that he is upright.

                  Despite having the job all but locked up, the IUP coached still do not want Smith to get comfortable in his situation. A prime example of that is back-up quarterback Bo Napoleon.

                  Napoleon was brought in from El Camino, a junior college in California, to create a bit of completion with Smith and to provide some depth at the quarterback spot. Napoleon has impressed so far in fall camp.

                  Despite the bit of competition leaving him no room for error, Smith does not seem to be worried and plans on getting better with every rep.

                  I take it as a battle between Bo […] and me," Smith said. "They brought Bo in for competition and whoever wins, wins. I take it as the best man wins, but I'm going to try each day to improve on everything. No more mental mistakes, better accuracy and everything."

                  Smith will get a chance to show if the competition and dedication has really paid off when IUP hosts Southern Connecticut State September 4 at 4 p.m.

"We worked real well this summer," Pat Smith said.

                                    "It comes from studying a lot more," Smith said.

                  "I'm going to have butterflies," Smith said. "It's football you're going to have butter flies. Every athlete has butterflies. Either it's nervous or confidence, but I'm going to go out there and play."

                  "Just demand respect," Smith said. "Even if they're upperclassmen you got to tell them ‘Hey, we're here together as a team and we got to bond as a team."

                  "It wasn't that hard," Smith said. "You got to follow your leader and if he tells you this you got to go with it."