The jackhammer hits that Clifton Smith enjoys dishing out turned on him last year.

For once, he was the one with the twinge of uncertainty. He was the one who carefully masked his pain. He was the one who, much to his dismay, took a hit greater and more jarring than any he’d ever given.

A junior year hindered by a shoulder injury and a summer weighted by the death of his father took Smith’s life on a jolting ride on that suddenly unfamiliar jackhammer.

In the meantime, Syracuse’s starting middle linebacker and senior poster boy had to maintain the statue of sturdiness he’d crafted during his first three years. Now, Smith says, he’s ready to toss aside a year of obstacles, and once more, do some hitting of his own.

‘This year was pretty difficult, one, because of my dad; two, because I was rehabbing,’ Smith said. ‘But I think I handled it pretty well. Now I understand that I just have to take my time and let things work out.’

So far, so good. As a senior captain, he is expected to lead a defense that is SU’s strongest returning unit. He’s a candidate for the Butkus Award, presented annually to the nation’s top linebacker. And he’s the Orangeman most likely to continue the team’s five-year streak of having at least one first-round NFL draft pick.

‘He’s the foundation of our defense from a leadership standpoint and from an experience standpoint,’ defensive coordinator Chris Rippon said. ‘He’s just so smart. I would say that, if he has a good season, he’s going to be a very high NFL draft pick — I would certainly project him in that category.’

To maintain that path, Smith rehabbed his shoulder under the guidance of strength and conditioning coach William Hicks. In last year’s season opener against Georgia Tech, a blocker’s helmet knifed under Smith’s pad and tore his pectoral muscle, an injury that rendered his left arm useless for the remainder of the year.

Once able to bench-press 405 pounds, Smith could barely raise the bar by the time Syracuse played in the Insight.com Bowl on Dec. 29. Still, he grabbed Defensive MVP honors that game by one-arming a team-high 12 tackles and a career-high two sacks.

‘Most of us didn’t even know that Clifton was playing hurt last year,’ fellow linebacker Rich Scanlon said. ‘He kept real quiet about it. So, you know, it was amazing what he was able to do last year. The example he sets really helps everyone else. It’s helped our entire linebacking corps become tougher.’

But even if the toughness has improved, Smith’s strength is still hindered. A year after suffering his injury, Smith benches just 235 pounds, but he no longer needs the pad he once used to protect his shoulder.

‘Preparation-wise I am 100 percent,’ Smith said. ‘Strength-wise, I’m definitely not. But no one is going to notice because I’ll be going 100 miles per hour.’

Coaches say that type of speed differentiates Smith — a 251-pound brick rated by Street & Smith’s magazine as the hardest hitter in the Big East — from other linebackers.

Rippon remembers a play last season against Tennessee when Vols running back Travis Stephens slipped into the flat with a screen pass. Smith promptly thumped Stephens to the ground for a four-yard loss.

‘The best part about it,’ Rippon said, ‘was that Clifton just stood up and looked to the sideline for the next play — that’s it. He didn’t strut around or stick his hands up.’

Said Smith: ‘I love stopping the run, just coming up on a running back and hitting him. Hitting somebody always feels good. My mindset is, if a running back tries to come at me and run me over, I take that personally. I feel like they’re trying to disrespect me.’

With Smith unable to lift with his upper body last season, Hicks made certain the Freeport native improved strength in his lower body, even when he had offseason surgery that kept him out of spring practice. Smith ran dozens of 20-, 40-, 60- and 80-yard sprints several times each week.

Because of that, Hicks said, Smith added further power.

‘Now I wasn’t real good at physics during school,’ Hicks said, ‘but power is weight times distance over time. From Point A to Point B very quickly — that’s when you deliver the punch. It’s that strike that Clifton has, like Mike Tyson in his prime. He can knock you out with a short punch.’

Yet Smith was the one recently sent reeling. In the middle of the summer, Smith’s father, Clifton I, suffered a fatal heart attack at age 62. Smith prepared for the season, even as his emotions were pile-driven into mourning.

Along with his father’s passing, though, came a slight change in attitude. Before, Smith often dwelled on the expectations, the growing mantel of awards and the ever-increasing pressure.

‘I was listening to everyone who was hyping me up,’ he said. ‘But since the death of my dad, I’ve just decided to go out there and play — without putting all the pressure on myself.’

That’s fine with Syracuse head coach Paul Pasqualoni, so long as the SU defense sees one more season of bone-jarring hits from a player who’s started all but three games during his career.

‘He is kind of an ideal 4-3 ‘backer,’ Pasqualoni said. ‘A guy like Clifton makes you look like you’re doing a good job of coaching, but I don’t really know how much I have to do with it.’

‘Because of all the attention he gets,’ Scanlon said, ‘that just opens everything else up. Just the style of defense we use sets up all the linebackers to make plays, and that’s what Clifton does well.’

Smith’s proven that ability — his passion for starting plays with a menacing glare and ending them with a rattling hit — for some time. But now he’s shown that he can take the hits too.

Published on August 29, 2002 at 12:00 pm