LANDOVER, Md. —
It was rather easy to spot Stedman Bailey through most of the afternoon in FedEx Field on Saturday, the West Virginia wide receiver striding into the end zone with the football at the receiving end of a Geno Smith pass.
Three times did he take the ball in for a score, three of the school single-game record 13 passes he latched onto as the Mountaineers were routing James Madison, 42-12, before a disappointing crowd of 45,511.
Not that this is becoming an unfamiliar sight, for Bailey is rapidly putting himself into contention for the Biletnikoff Award as college football’s best receiver, having caught 22 passes for 274 yards with five touchdowns.
These are numbers that would boggle the mind, but the mind already has been boggled by the numbers being put together by the man throwing the ball, Smith managing in two games to complete 88 percent of his 75 passes for 734 yards.
And you ain’t heard nothing yet, for Smith has somehow managed to throw as many touchdown passes as he has thrown incompletions — nine.
But we will save the discussion of Smith’s spectacular start toward a Heisman Trophy for another time, as our subject today is Bailey ... and it isn’t just because he is shifty, elusive, sure-handed and as confident as any receiver ever to wear WVU’s gold and blue ... or gray, which is coming up in the Baylor game.
No, the truth be known, while Bailey was quite satisfied with his performance in this game, saying “it was a pretty big performance, but it’s what I expect out of myself,” it wasn’t what really made him stand out.
See, there is another part of Bailey’s game that goes unnoticed, yet in this game is vital.
Stedman Bailey may be the only All-American receiver, maybe even Biletnikoff winner, to play on the kickoff coverage team. And make a tackle.
He is the safety on the kickoff coverage team, a job quite often either given to a defender or even a scrub, and in this game he actually saved a touchdown.
While the final score makes this look as though it were another laugher, it was hardly that, for there was a time in the third quarter with the score 28-5 that WVU had to make a pair of goal line stands to keep its margin intact until the offense could crank up again.
And when it did and scored a touchdown, JMU almost ran it back down their throats, Dejor Simmons breaking through a crack and finding daylight.
“I saw the guy about to break it and he might have taken it to the house,” Bailey said.
And so he dropped him.
It does seem strange that you would risk such a valuable player on kickoff coverage, especially in this day and age when they find it necessary to change the rules to try and add safety to that part of the game, so dangerous is it.
Even Bailey wonders some.
“I was wondering why a starter would be there,” Bailey admitted, “but I will do anything I can if it helps make the team win.”
Not that he could get out of it if he wanted to.
In fact, this was his coach, Dana Holgorsen’s, answer when the question was breached as to why he was out there on a dangerous special team.
“He’s a good safety,” Holgorsen said. “I will take him off offense before I will take him off special teams.”
Whoa ... stop the tape. Hold your horses. Time out.
Holgorsen would take him off offense, where he might just be the best receiver in the Big 12, before he’d take him off special teams.
Let’s just let that pass as exaggeration for effect ... or was it?
“We have four special teams and all of my starters are on one or another,” Holgorsen said, again exaggerating, as he isn’t any time soon going to have Geno Smith returning punts ... of that you can be sure.
Email Bob Hertzel at bhertzel@hotmail.com or follow him on Twitter @bhertzel.
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HERTZEL COLUMN: WVU’s Bailey more than a wide receiver
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