By Bob Hertzel
For the Times West Virginian
MORGANTOWN — The first thing you notice about Geno Smith is … well, that you notice him.
He has this thing about him, a quiet presence, a confidence that you either have or don’t.
The good quarterbacks all have different qualities. Some are nifty ball handlers, some accurate passers, some strong arms to throw deep.
But all of them, every last one of them, radiates this aura of control.
Sometimes it is a flamboyant control, a Brett Favre kind of control, a quarterback who gets in your face in the huddle and buys you a beer at night. Other have a cooler, calmer control, a Marc Bulger kind of control where you follow because you know he will lead.
This is where Geno Smith falls.
“I encourage the guys a lot,” Smith said. “I’m not one of those guys who scream at the other guys or get in their face. I am more of a person who encourages others, so I think they respect that. I set an example in the weight room and in the classroom and on the field.”
There is really only one other ingredient a quarterback needs to become a winner.
Talent.
And the kid who will replace Jarrett Brown as a sophomore this year has that in abundance.
His arm is not as strong as Brown’s, but do not misinterpret that to mean he has a weak arm. The other day the Mountaineers ran a play with a fly pattern down the right sideline. The receiver was 60 yards downfield from the place Smith let the ball go.
It was overthrown by five yards.
That tells you something about the arm strength of the kid from Miramar, Fla.
There something else that tells you a whole lot about Geno Smith.
Coach Bill Stewart moved spring practice back two weeks after he broke the fifth metatarsal bone in his left foot during a January workout to give it time to heal so they could salvage as much of the spring for him they could have.
See, without Geno Smith, WVU is without a passing attack and so there wasn’t a whole lot of sense moving forward until he could at least get out there and throw the ball around.
“I couldn’t have done anything,” Smith admitted, when asked about his readiness to perform two weeks earlier.
This is not to say that the Mountaineers quarterback of the futu … er, present is dong everything.
He really can’t run, even though the bone is now healed but still strengthening, and his footwork really isn’t where it has to be.
But he can take snaps in skeleton drills, read the defense, and most of all throw, working on timing and developing the kind rapport with his receivers that is necessary if you are going to have a strong passing attack.
Make no doubt, that’s where the Mountaineers are headed this year.
Yes, they have Noel Devine and Ryan Clarke to run the football, and those are weapons.
But the mentality at WVU has changed into more of a pass sets up the run than the run sets up … well, the run.
The days of a 13-pass game would seem to be over and Smith is one of the main reasons why.
If Smith doesn’t have rocket of an arm he has an accurate one. The mechanics are fluid, the ball sailing through the air in perfect spiral on most occasions.
He throws with enough zip to get the out to the sideline before a defensive back can step in and accurately enough to put it between a couple of defenders.
And this is April, not October.
Do not worry about him because he is a sophomore, his coach, Bill Stewart, says.
“I have seen a lot of sophomores in the past play very well,” Stewart said. “It is time for Geno to step up and make his mark, right now. Sophomore, junior, senior, it doesn’t matter, whoever steps up and takes those snaps is our guy and has to be ready.”
Smith played in five games last year and completed 65.3 percent of 49 passes, one for a touchdown, one for an interception.
More important, he got big game experience when Brown suffered a concussion against Marshall and then went out with an ankle injury against Florida State in the Gator Bowl. WVU beat Marshall, lost to Florida State.
“Playing a big game like the Gator Bowl was huge,” Smith said. “Obviously, we came up on the short end and I was very disappointed. Playing as a freshman, people say you’ll get jitters. I did all right. It wasn’t what I expected. It wasn’t want I’m capable of, but I did some things that could carry over.”
E-mail Bob Hertzel at bhertzel@hotmail.com.
