AFA Football: Leader of the flock

On the morning after Air Force's season-opening victory over Southern Utah, senior receiver Spencer Armstrong headed to the training room to stretch and receive treatment for postgame bumps and bruises.

He arrived at about 11 Sunday - pretty early, he thought, for an off day when no meetings were scheduled.

But senior quarterback Shea Smith already was there, already had gone through a stretching routine and already had watched film of the previous day's game. He was getting ready to go over the film again.

"No surprise," Armstrong said with a laugh.

"He puts in a lot more hours than a lot of guys," senior tackle Chris Campbell said.
Those hours have helped Smith overcome a lack of size (5-foot-11, 190 pounds), average arm strength and pedestrian speed to become the starting quarterback for the Falcons, who open Mountain West Conference play Saturday at Wyoming.

Smith began fall practice listed as the backup to junior Eric Herbort and seemed destined to spend his career wearing a baseball hat and carrying a clipboard. But he climbed to the top of the depth chart in August. And while coach Troy Calhoun said he'd rotate Smith and Herbort in the opener, Smith forced Calhoun to keep him on the field for nearly the entire game by playing steady and mistake-free and providing strong leadership for an inexperienced squad.

"He's a reliable guy," senior tight end Keith Madsen said. "We love having him play that many snaps because we know that when he's under center, he knows what he's doing."
Smith didn't seem overwhelmed in his first start, just as he wasn't overwhelmed when he had to step in after then-senior Shaun Carney's injury in last season's Armed Forces Bowl. That's in part because of his high school career. Smith started at Permian High - the school made famous in the book, movie and TV series "Friday Night Lights" - and played in front of crowds of 20,000.

"Playing at Permian definitely prepared me for (playing in college) because we've had some games where the crowd's been so loud that it affects you offensively," Smith said.

"You have to do silent counts and things like that. So that was some good experience."
His background also accounts for his high football IQ. His father, Scott, is a coach who has spent time on the sideline at the collegiate level (SMU, Baylor and Arkansas) and in the hyper-competitive world of Texas high schools. Wherever his father was coaching, Shea was there.

"I was a stadium rat, I guess," Smith said. "Just always around, hanging out at practices, coaches' meetings and just being around it."

"He understands the game, and he works at it really hard," said his father, who now coaches at Rockwall High. "It's very, very important to him. He wants to understand it inside and out."

When he was at the academy in the offseason, Smith organized 7-on-7 passing drills, calling plays and lining up teammates. Now he stays after practice to throw extra passes to receivers. And in what little free time he has at the academy, he watches film. His attitude has been contagious.

"If I see him in (the weight room) stretching, I'll go in and stretch with him," Campbell said. "He draws you to him to want to work like him."

"You see a handful of guys working after practice, he's always the guy in the middle of them," senior defensive end Jake Paulson said.

Smith's team-first attitude also is attractive to teammates. To Smith, "whatever helps the team" isn't a cliché sound bite but a credo. At practice Wednesday, when coaches needed a fill-in tight end for the second-string offense, Smith sprinted to the line and got in a three-point stance. In fall practice, he consistently cheered for the quarterbacks with whom he was competing.

And he has gone out of his way to be a coach on the field and set an example with his hard work.

"I don't know if there's been a quarterback that's ever been more of a ball rat and a gym rat more than he has," Calhoun said. "He's been extremely dedicated."

He'll likely be the first to the film room Sunday.

"I'll try to get down here early sometimes, and he'll be here before me," Campbell said. "And he'll definitely stick around later than me, too."