Cade Smith has had an amazing season.

The 6-foot, 205 pound senior quarterback is in his third year as the starter for West Salem High School's football team and has already broken school records for passing and rushing yards in a career, those previously owned by his brother, Brett Smith.

Smith has passed for 2,120 yards and 30 touchdowns with three interceptions by completing 63 percent (108 of 172) passes and rushed for 1,031 yards and 14 touchdowns on 121 carries (8.5 yards per carry) this season heading into Friday's 7 p.m. OSAA Class 6A state quarterfinal game at Grants Pass.

For the first time since Cade Smith has been in high school, Brett – who graduated from West Salem in 2011 then played at Wyoming and has signed to play for the San Joe SaberCats of the Arena Football League – has been able to watch his brother play for the majority of the season after being cut in September by the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League.

The only other time Brett Smith saw his brother play was in 2012 in a game against Lincoln.

The Statesman Journal sat down with Brett Smith to talk with him about what it's been like for him to watch Cade Smith play this season and analyze Cade as a player.

Question: What was your impression of him as a sophomore?

Answer: I saw him at Lincoln and that first game I remember they got up on them quick so he had a couple runs then he threw one touchdown. I don't remember a lot, I just remember walking away saying that he had a good command of the offense for it only being the third game of the year or something.

I walked away most impressed with how he was able to take control and command of that offense at a young age. I was really proud of him for that.

Question: Which was the first game you got to see him in this year?

Answer: I did see Forest Grove. I missed the first one then I got back right after my dad's birthday. My dad's birthday is September first, then I got back the next week.

Question: What was your impression of him?

Answer: I would say the thing I saw was, especially from being a sophomore to a senior, confidence was No. 1, because you can really see the confidence as a quarterback. You can really see who's confident and who's not, if they possess that attribute or not.

I felt like he, again, was faster than I remember and then accuracy. Accuracy was the biggest thing. During that South (Salem) game he threw a post that was I think 40 yards just right on the money and he threw passes that were just right in stride to guys that are really, really tough throws.

His deep ball accuracy is better than I've ever seen, better than I've ever had, too.

Question: What do you see on that development? Is that arm strength? Is that practice?

Answer: Yeah, I think it's a combination of both. I think part of it as a sophomore he was 170 pounds, now he's over 200 and just strong as heck. I know that he cleans 320 pounds or something like that and it's not important for a quarterback, but I know that he benches over 300.

He's just strong as heck, and he's really working extremely hard to better himself in every aspect of playing quarterback, and I definitely saw that with how hard he's working. You can see that in the confidence that he displays on the field, and obviously with his running ability, how he's able to take shots and also run away from guys with that breakaway speed.

Question: How does he respond to a loss?

Answer: He and I are very different. He's a lot more, I guess, calm, cool and collected. I kind of wear my emotions on my sleeve a little bit. I know he's an emotional guy, too, but he's a lot more quiet and I'm a lot more outgoing. With him, he kind of just has the night to process it and he's an extremely hard worker. I know that both games he watched that night and kind of critiqued himself and figured out what's wrong.

He does a great job in owning his mistakes and really looking at what he needs to work on for the next game and getting back to work on it when they go Sunday nights, I guess they do.

Question: Is he watching the game film two hours later at home?

Answer: Yeah, we do. We watch that together. It's fun. That's something we all enjoy doing just because football is something we love and something that we know about. Any time we can help him, he loves talking to us about it.

With his high school experience, I've kind of just wanted to stay back and let him enjoy it and not try to get too involved trying to help him with this because I know it's his deal.

Question: As the season has gone on what has he gotten better at?

Answer: I think he does a great job of creating plays with his feet. I feel like when there is something that isn't there, if a play goes wrong, there's always an opportunity for him to make a good play because he possesses the ability to make plays with his feet.

That's a great attribute for a quarterback. The plays never over. He does a good job of moving around and finding the open receiver or he sees a hole and he goes. He's able to make yards regardless if it's a pass play or a run play. He does a good job of finding yards and keeping the chains moving.

Question: Do you see the development throughout the season as far as where he was against Forest Grove to where he is now?

Answer: One thing that I talked to him about that I learned high school to college that I would have liked to have learned in high school because you're able to run around and do some things that maybe you're not going to be able to do in college, what I learned quickly is with route concepts that are in college, you have to be able to go from the first receiver in the progression to the second receiver to the third, to the fourth as opposed to that receiver's not open, I'm going to pull it down and run or try to create the play.

Question: When you're a professional football player, you don't want to be unemployed, but to get the chance to see your brother play, is that a nice side effect?

Answer: Definitely. Obviously I do wish I was playing right now, but at the same time I'm very thankful that I am able to spend time with my family here at home and see some old friends, and even though it's been a tough year for me football wise, I'm a Christian, we all are, so I've just been really thankful for get the opportunity to get to watch my brother, because that was something I always felt like I missed out on.

As much as I loved playing I would love to see him play in high school. I got to do it. I got to watch this entire season. That's something that I thank God for because that's been a lot of fun to be with my family and get to enjoy his senior year with him., (503) 399-6701 or follow at