LINCOLN — Florida Atlantic devotes all of its recruiting resources to its own state, and coach Howard Schnellenberger said that allows the Owls to scour every inch and study every prospect until it’s pleased with its findings.

That brings him to a story about Rusty Smith. A good quarterback on a running team in high school, he didn’t throw enough for some teams to make a true evaluation.

The Owls did their due diligence, though, and added him just as they were transitioning from Division I-AA to I-A.

“We didn’t have to beat anybody for Rusty,’’ Schnellenberger said.

“What we do is we see all of these kids in practice a lot, see them in clinics in different places, all-star games, spring practices. We get a real feel for them.’’

Several years later, Smith is the Sun Belt Conference’s all-time passing leader and a legitimate NFL prospect. Using big-name quarterbacks from his University of Miami days for comparison, Schnellenberger said Smith has “the talent of a (Bernie) Kosar and the experience of a (Jim) Kelly.’’

Score one for being thorough.

“I’ve been saying he’s going to be a first-round pick for a long time,’’ Schnellenberger said. “Since he was a sophomore, I’ve told people to remember and draw a circle around my statement — and I’ve never changed my mind about it.’’

Smith brings his sturdy frame (6-foot-5, 230 pounds), big arm and crazy statistics to Nebraska on Saturday night when Florida Atlantic visits Memorial Stadium. The fifth-year senior surely will flash a little of what others missed by letting him slip to FAU out of Jacksonville, Fla., in 2005.

Asked if he’s overachieved or punished teams for overlooking him, Smith toys with the question in a way that shows it may irritate him a little.

“I’m pretty much just a guy that has taken a situation given to him and run with it,’’ Smith said.

Going to FAU allowed Smith to work with Schnellenberger and former FAU offensive coordinator Gary Nord, who left after last season to become offensive coordinator at Purdue.

Smith said that’s been a major reason behind his 8,197 career passing yards and 62 touchdowns.

“I was just blessed with an opportunity,’’ he said.

Smith barged onto the scene as a full-time starter in 2007, when he passed for 3,688 yards and 32 TDs. He lit up Minnesota for 463 yards and five scores in a 42-39 win over the Big Ten opponent.

What bothers him is the dropoff he experienced as a junior. And that was mostly because of the way last season started.

The Owls stumbled to a 1-5 mark. In those losses, Smith completed just 46.1 percent of his passes with nine interceptions and two touchdowns. Although he threw for 253 yards at Texas, he was intercepted four times by Minnesota and was just 8 of 34 in the rain at Michigan State.

Smith can see it now as a benefit to his development. His comeback was capped by going 20 of 35 for 306 yards against Central Michigan and being named MVP of the Motor City Bowl.

“It was just a really bad first six games,’’ he said. “For me now, looking back on it, I can say to myself and see what I did wrong, and see how I was able to overcome it for the next half of the season. The experience of being down and not playing really well, and overcoming it with the help of my close friends and teammates, it helps me out going into the future.’’

The immediate future is Saturday night and another big-time opponent for Florida Atlantic. And a crowd of 80,000-plus.

Once upon a time, Smith would get himself too worked up for a game like this. He admits that he crumbled under the pressure at Clemson in 2006, a performance that cost him the starting job during his redshirt freshman season.

“It really doesn’t bother me that much anymore,’’ Smith said. “As the years have gone by and I’ve gotten older, and played in front of it more, I can honestly say it’s not that big of a deal anymore.’’

Schnellenberger said the Owls put a lot of responsibility on Smith these days. It’s because he also has the mind and the makeup to get FAU into the right calls and situations.

“He’s a very special kid,’’ Schnellenberger said. “A bright guy who knows how to be a leader, knows how to handle his teammates, and who’s been great at being able to run our offense.’’

Smith is ready for NU, which he expects to be “extremely big, extremely strong’’ across the line from him. He knows about Ndamukong Suh and the Huskers’ other returning starters.

But he said he’ll take a confident attitude into the 6 p.m. game.

“We’ve played these teams before,’’ Smith said. “We feel as long as we can limit our mistakes, limit our turnovers to as few as possible and limit our offensive penalties to as few as possible, we think we’ll be able to put some points on the board and hang with them as long as possible.’’

Contact the writer:

444-1042, rich.kaipust@owh.com

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