MORGANTOWN —
If West Virginia thought it was going to sneak up quietly on the Big 12, it can forget it, but then you kind of know that if they could sneak up on such a strong, successful conference, that conference probably wouldn’t have wanted it in the first place.
Those 70 points in the Orange Bowl against Clemson set off the alarms for the Big 12 and the words uttered Wednesday morning by Stedman Bailey during a routine pre-camp media session were sure to find their way onto every locker room bulletin board from Austin to Ames and Lubbock to Lawrence.
Bailey, of course, is the wonderfully gifted West Virginia wide receiver who caught 72 passes for 1,279 yards and 12 touchdowns last season, including the season-saving catch to beat South Florida and help WVU find its way into the Orange Bowl, and he spoke honestly about what he believed for Dana Holgorsen’s offense, saying he saw no reason why the team could not score 50 points in every game this year.
Apparently, the Big 12 has taken notice of that offense, too, for the first media preseason poll that included the Mountaineers put them second in the conference behind perennial Big 12 power Oklahoma and ahead of such contenders as third-place Texas, fourth-place Oklahoma State, newcomer TCU in fifth and Kansas State sixth.
Rounding out the predictions in order were Baylor, Iowa State, Texas Tech and Kansas.
The Sooners received 32 of 41 first-place votes and totaled 396 points. West Virginia was chosen second with 339 points and garnered seven first-place tallies
This comes a day after the conference selected quarterback Geno Smith as the preseason Offensive Player of the Year, an honor that would seem to back up the confidence Bailey showed in the offense.
Certainly it is a driven West Virginia team that comes into the Big 12.
“This is a new conference and we’ve got some big things to prove,” Bailey noted. “People think because we are coming from the Big East, that the things we were able to do were sometimes a fluke. We are ready for every challenge coming our way.”
That 10-touchdown Orange Bowl performance in which nearly every offensive record was shattered by the Mountaineers certainly sent up a flair.
“As far as what we did in the Orange Bowl, we were able to put up 70 points. People are thinking today that was a fluke but I knew all along we could come together and put a game up like that,” Bailey said.
He believes, however, that this is the beginning, not the end.
“We just have to continue to do that. I don’t expect nothing less than 50 points a game, really, for us this year. This is our second year in the offense. We can only get better,” he said.
That is a bold statement, saying his team is capable of scoring 50 points in every game, especially coming after a season in which it scored 50 points or more but three times. In fact, the Mountaineers were actually held to 23 or fewer points four times.
But Bailey believes the team was just growing into the offense and that this year it should be better and that the way it is constructed it leaves very few options for the defense that can’t be countered offensively.
“This offense, I feel like for every coverage a person can come up with, we have a play for. I’m not sure how teams can come out and defend us. As long as we put together a complete game on offense it will be very hard,” Bailey said.
The Big 12 is not known for its defense and that adds to the confidence the WVU offense possesses.
“We’ve been able to go toe-to-toe with one of the best defenses around,’’ he said, meaning LSU. Against the national runner-up WVU ran wild for 533 yards, but could turn it into only 21 points.
Email Bob Hertzel at bhertzel@hotmail.com. Follow on Twitter @bhertzel.
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