MORGANTOWN — In the midst of a season that has reached dizzying proportions with quarterback Geno Smith landing squarely in the lead for Heisman Trophy consideration, with the first Big 12 game now just a week away, with the installation of new defense and defensive staff, No. 7/8 West Virginia University will have to get its feet back on the ground and get ready for a slugfest with regional rival Maryland.

Kickoff at Mountaineer Field at Milan Puskar Stadium is at noon today.

WVU has won its first two games with a record-shattering offensive performance, scoring 111 points in the first two games with Smith completing 88 percent of his passes and matching his number of incompletions, nine, with nine touchdown throws while also running for one TD.

Maryland has won two of its first three games, mostly on the strength of its defense, which is eighth in the nation in total yards allowed, setting up a classic offense-defense battle of wills.

The contrast was vivid in each team’s last game. Maryland allowed 223 total yards to Connecticut in a 24-21 loss. West Virginia gained 201 total yards … in the first quarter of a 42-12 victory over James Madison.

Maryland has been especially tough on the run, holding opponents to just 2.8 yards a carry.

WVU has shown improved rushing this year with running backs Shawne Alston and Andrew Buie, along with reverses from the elusive Tavon Austin, but the Mountaineers’ main means of attack is through the air with Smith throwing to Stedman Bailey and Austin, the Nos. 1 and 2 receivers in America, and spreading the ball around to others.

Smith remains the only person not impressed by the job he’s done to date.

“I don’t care about the stats. As long as we keep making positive plays and not making negative plays,” he said.

With a strong chance for rain, the passing attack will have another obstacle to face, already coming up against a strong pass rush from Maryland.

The offensive line is coming off a down game against James Madison, but Smith has kept his confidence in it.

“I always give those guys an A-plus because I know how hard it is, but there’s always room for improvement. I took a couple of hits. Some of that was on me, holding the ball too long. As an offense, they lead us, and they are doing a good job,” the quarterback said.

“They take it personally when I end up on my back. They hate it. They come up to me and apologize. They ask me if I’m all right, and I tell them I’m going to take some hits and that I’m a tough guy. They try to clean me off, though. That’s what I love about them.”

Maryland counters Smith with true freshman quarterback Perry Hill out of Pittsburgh.

“He’s just young, and he’s going to continue to get better,” said WVU coach Dana Holgorsen. “He’s a good looking kid that is trying to figure things out. What they’re going through is the same thing we’d be going through if we had to start Ford Childress.”

Hill has wound up rushing the ball 38 times, more than any other player on the Maryland roster, but most of them have come on scrambles as his protection has not been good.

“He’s been hit a lot,” Holgorsen noted. “That’s going to be something that’s important for us, and defensively we’re going to want to be aggressive. We’re going to want to attack them in a variety of ways, and with any young kid, you’re going to want to give them different looks and try to confuse them.

“We know what they’re going to try to do, but it’ll be our job to stop them. We don’t care who we’re playing and we don’t care how good they are — our job is to identify what they’re doing and try to get after them.”

The one thing that is certain is that, with Marshall and Pittsburgh leaving the WVU schedule, this remains a rivalry game even though WVU has won the last six to lead the series 25-21-2 and Terps coach, Randy Edsall, knows a whole lot about playing at Mountaineer Field.

He played here as a quarterback at Syracuse and as head coach at UConn, seeing both sides of the Mountaineer fans as they are hostile to an opponent but who gave with their hearts when Edsall came to town following the senseless killing of one of his players, Jasper Howard, at UConn.

“I see it as a rivalry,” Edsall said. “It’s a game that you’re playing pretty much every year. The states are bordering each other; we compete against them quite a bit in recruiting. It’s a game that has been played a number of times, but we have to do our part to get back on the winning side.”

Edsall recalled what it was like to come here when WVU played at old Mountaineer Field.

“I can still remember going to old Mountaineer Field when it was right in the middle of campus when I was a quarterback at Syracuse,” Edsall said. “We’d go and they pelted us with oranges, and we walked on the field pre-game and they had dogs out there catching Frisbees and tobacco-spitting contests.

“You know when you go play West Virginia you better strap it up, because it’s going to be a physical, 60-minute game. Especially when you go there, you know that their fans are going to be against you. I’ve always enjoyed playing against West Virginia teams from when Don Nehlen was a coach and Rich (Rodriguez) and now Dana (Holgorsen). I think it’s always good to be able to play good teams, and West Virginia is a very good team.”

Email Bob Hertzel at bhertzel@hotmail.com or follow him on Twitter @bhertzel.