Strong safety Ray Smith has a lethal combination: football on the brain and Red Bull running through his veins. P The “Energizer battery” as his roommate and cornerback, Deon Smith, calls him, Smith has used his unending energy to torment opposing offenses, making him the second leading tackler in the MAC and number one for the Huskies with 34 tackles this season.

“The guy plays like he has stuck his finger in an electrical socket,” coach Joe Novak said. “He just makes things happen when he’s on the field.”

“The guy plays like he has stuck his finger in an electrical socket,” coach Joe Novak said. “He just makes things happen when he’s on the field.”

Combine all his energy with some of the best football smarts on the team and you have a very dangerous player, Novak said.

But the Indiana native did not just get that way overnight. He does what any student should do; he studies. In fact, to keep on top of his game, Smith spends hours going over game film. He nitpicks every move he makes, his teammates make, and most importantly, his opponents make.

“It’s gotten me where I am today,” Smith said. “Sometimes I’ll know the play before the snap just from watching tendencies of the quarterback on film. I’m a film junkie, but as long as it keeps paying off I’m gonna keep doing it.”

In a defense where everything revolves around the safety position, defensive coordinator Denny Doornbos knows his defense is in good hands with a player like Smith looking over it.

“He’s the guy I count on to get our secondary lined up,” Doornbos said. “He’s so smart and physical, but more importantly, he’s the leader out there for our guys.”

But Smith wants to be more than just a leader. He wants, he said, to be a winner like the guy he replaced, Akil Grant. Grant was picked up by the NFL’s Tennessee Titans over the summer as a free agent. He has since been released.

“I learned so much from watching his moves and his mistakes,” Smith said. “I know there are things he could do that I can’t yet. But I know I’m smarter on the field and the rest will come.”

And it is coming, if not for himself, then for his teammates, who look to him not only as a teammate but almost as another coach.

“It makes things so much easier on [the secondary] with a guy like him back there,” Deon Smith said. “He can alert us to things he has seen through film during a game, and in practice he gets on us and help us. It’s almost like he is just as smart as our coaches sometimes.”

And just like any good coach, Smith has goals. Well actually just one goal: to be the best secondary in the MAC.

“It’s something I know we can achieve, and if we can do that then every other team goal will come,” Smith said. “If we can get that done then the MAC is ours.”

To get it done though, Smith and the Huskies will have to stop the third-best passing offense in the MAC, Bowling Green, at 6:05 p.m. Friday at Huskie Stadium.

Smith knows that this is the game. That every goal for himself and the team must go through the Falcons.

“It still hurts after last season’s loss,” Smith said. “We got embarrassed last year on national television, but this is a new year and hopefully this year we will get the chance to embarrass them. All I know is that it’s gonna be electric out there.”