Smith will make his first career start for WVU on Saturday as the Mountaineers start another college football season with a new signal caller, their third in three seasons. Smith will be expected to step up as the Mountaineers are once again back in the top 25 and are only one of two Big East teams to begin the season ranked in both Top 25 polls.So expectations are huge for the sophomore quarterback from Miramar, Fla.
But Saturday will not be the first time the highly recruited QB will play significant time for WVU, Smith saw the field in the Mountaineers' last game of the season in the Gator Bowl against Florida State.
Jarrett Brown, last season's starting QB injured his ankle on the second to last possession of the first half and Smith got the call to take over in a bowl game on New Year's Day opposite one of the most storied programs in college football, oh and it was Bobby Bowden's final game as head coach....just a little bit of pressure for the true freshman.
Smith did his best to keep the Mountaineers in the game when he engineered an 80-yard drive that culminated in a touchdown that pulled WVU within two, but that was as close as the old Gold and Blue got as the Seminoles finished the game on a 10-0 run.
The positives from that game is the experience Smith got from playing in a game of that magnitude, he finished the game with modest numbers. He went 8 of 15 with 91 yards on the day in a 33-21 loss.
Smith is ready to be "the guy" this year as he told WVIllustrated.com.
“I’ll probably have mixed emotions – I’ll probably be a little anxious, but I always calm myself down,” said Smith. “When the time comes to play I’ll be ready – and I just want to continue to progress as the season goes along.”
Head coach Bill Stewart wants Smith to take command of the team on Saturday when the first-team offense finally takes the field.
"I want Geno to play fearless and I want him to lead. I want him to get in that huddle and command that respect. That is what all great quarterbacks do – they commanded that presence."
A lot of people are down on this team because of their lack of confidence in Smith. And the funny thing about that criticism is that as a true freshman Smith got a good chance to see the field and performed fairly well.
In five games last year, he had a 65% completion percentage and threw 49 passes with only one interception, which isn't bad for a guy who was thrust into many undesirable positions last year and was expected to perform.
We may not learn much this Saturday since the first opponent is Coastal Carolina, but what we will see is how much being the guy from the beginning will help Smith is his development as quarterback for this team.
Now to Noel Devine, who is looking to leave his mark on this West Virginia football program as one of the best backs to step foot on the turf at Milan Puskar Field.Devine has 3,381 yards in his career as a Mountaineer, which is the fifth-most in Mountaineer history, all while averaging 6.5 yards on over 520 career carries.
He was second in the conference last season in rushing with 1,465 yards and will need 1,784 to overtake Avon Cobourne as the school's all-time leading rusher and if he does that, you might as well give him the Heisman as well.
It's always exciting when football returns and it's even better when your team has something to be excited about and it looks like Mountaineer fans will have something special on their hands this season after consecutive 9-4 finishes.
Photos courtesy WVIllustrated.com and the Associated Press
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