The #8 WVU Mountaineers and Geno Smith are headed to Texas to face the #11 Longhorns this Saturday night. Here is what they are saying in Texas.
Cedric Golden: When Mr. Smith comes to
Austin, Texas must pressure him
Published: October 3, 2012 Updated 13 hours ago
Deals!
AUSTIN, TEXAS — West Virginia quarterback Geno Smith appears unstoppable.
He's college football's version of a runaway train, headed straight for Royal-Memorial Stadium.
Smith is in the middle of arguably the most prolific season of throwing the football in college football history.
Yet he seems angry.
Why is he upset, you ask? What could possibly trouble the best football player in America? Isn't he happy to be the Heisman front runner? "I don't listen to it," he told me on a national conference call Tuesday night. "Not to disrespect the Heisman and their voters, but that definitely remains in the back of my mind."
How can a guy who's ahead of Robert Griffin III's 2011 pace not be skipping along at a light-hearted beat? Didn't he just throw for 656 yards, eight touchdowns and no interceptions against Baylor? What quarterback completing 83 percent of his passes with 20 touchdowns and no interceptions would have anything to frown about? If it's raining in Morgantown today, Smith should go outside and do his best Gene Kelly.
It's not that simple. Smith is a bit put off because he's been good for a good while. Problem was, he was doing it in the Big East, which lives in the dilapidated trunk upstairs in the BCS attic. And now that he's brought his golden arm to the Big 12, the whole world suddenly wants a piece of him.
"I throw 31 touchdowns and seven interceptions last year and people still don't think you're good enough," he said. "The world is like, 'What have you done for me lately?' But I won't hang my hat on what I've done in the past. We still have a long way to go and a lot of work to do."
Smith's angst is understandable, but let's be real. Since the BCS began in 1998, only one team from the Big East (Miami) has won a national championship, and that was 11 years ago. Only three Big East schools have even made it to the final game. So forgive us for casting a skeptical glance at the Mountaineers, who put up 70 points against Baylor last week, but won by only seven.
Offense has never been the problem there, and Smith and talented wideouts Tavon Austin and Stedman Bailey have provided plenty of that.
The defense? Another issue. The Mountaineers are giving up 474 yards per game, which makes them the 15th worst defense among FBS schools. But it's the formula that's been working so far for head coach Dana Holgorsen.
West Virginia is college football's best run-and-gun attack, capable of scoring 28 in a quarter without blinking. So does defense really matter if you've scored 69 or more in three of your last five games? For his part, Smith isn't worried about the national perception of his team.
"I could care not less about what people say about our performance," he said. "We let the media and critics do their job. Our performance speaks for itself and our product speaks for itself. Look at my stats over the last three years."
They're great stats, indeed: 8,876 passing yards, 75 touchdown passes, only 14 picks. The stat that sticks out? After being sacked 54 times in 2010 and 2011, Smith has been clean as new money in 2012, having been sacked only three times in 169 attempts.
Word of advice to Longhorns defensive coordinator Manny Diaz: You saw what Smith did to that Baylor defense that decided to rush three and drop eight into coverage. Shred City. It's time for defensive ends Jackson Jeffcoat and Alex Okafor to live up to that All-America hype we gave them in the preseason. It's also time to see if Duane Akina has some NFL defensive backs in that secondary.
"I was watching film all week, and I noticed a lot of time that (Smith) was getting to his third read," said safety Kenny Vaccaro. "He was just sitting back there and no one was coming. You have to put pressure on guys that can sling the ball like that or else they will pick you apart." Mack Brown said he won't use the same approach with Smith that he took with RG3, who ambushed the Horns with a 59-yard touchdown pass 22 seconds into the game en route to 320-yards day last season.
"I told them to keep the Heisman from (Griffin), and they handed it to him at halftime," Brown said. "I don't think we're in a position to try and stop Geno Smith. We have to play better defense because he's going to make his plays."
Here's what we do know: Smith is coming to Austin with a world of confidence and one huge chip on his shoulder.
The Horns need to make sure he leaves with some dirt on his back.
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