What if Jacob's friend is a manifestation of the Smoke Monster?

[Joe Washington]

The Smoke Monster has been around before the Dharma Intiative arrived. The Smoke Monster is submissive to the island and whoever controls the island: Jacob. But the Smoke Monster has been growing sick of Jacob's games of bringing outsiders to the island and trying to prove his theory that they can grow beyond violence and corruption. So, for years, it's been plotting a way for it to get rid of Jacob without openly going aganist him, which it can not do because it's a written part of its nature that it cannot undermine completely.
It wasn't until Hurley disturbed the ring of ash around the cabin that the Smoke Monster ups its game, which it has been doing slowly and quietly prior to this. The ring of ash keeps the Smoke Monster from using the cabin, which is usually used by Jacob. Now that it's not the case, the Smoke Monster took this as its chance to use the cabin for its own purposes, forcing Jacob to leave the cabin and retreat to his home beneath the foot of the old statue.
The reason why Jacob didn't fight aganist it then is because the Smoke Monster has been slowly getting powerful by sucking the energy left behind by those who die on the island before and after the crash of the Oceanic 815. The man it was posing as in The Incident was probably someone who died on the island.
With Jacob dead, the Smoke Monster is freed of his servitude to him but now it has to deal with the people on the island, including the Losties from 1977.

 

[Stone_Cold_Sisko]

Yes, this is pretty much the common thought at the moment, that the Smoke Monster either is Jacob's "friend" (err, enemy), or at the very least controlled or a tool of the "friend"

 

[LitmusDragon]

Jacob's adversary seems to have knowledge of the history of the people it impersonates. The smoke monster has been shown to explore the memories of certain people. It seems reasonable to make the connection that the two are in fact the same thing.