MORGANTOWN —
In some ways, Corey Smith’s job would seem to be an impossible one, at least this year.
As Jim Croce once sang:
You don’t tug on Superman’s cape
You don’t spit into the wind
You don’t pull the mask off the old Lone Ranger
And you don’t mess around with Jim, da do da do.
Jim, in this case, is Tyler Bitancurt, and while Smith is a pretty fair kicker, trying to beat him out for the kicking job with the West Virginia Mountaineers is like trying to take the Eifel Tower out of Paris, the Gateway Arch out of St. Louis, the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco.
He is a state treasure, the man whose fourth field goal with no time left on the clock beat Pitt, 19-16, last year.
He is currently recovering from surgery to remove a bone chip from his ankle.
The way he’s revered around this town, they may just send it directly to the state museum, if there is such a thing in Charleston. (An aside, if there isn’t, there should be such a thing.)
“Bitancurt is getting better every day,” WVU Coach Bill Stewart said after Saturday’s scrimmage. “He's doing better — he's kicking pain free, but we don't want him to kick just yet in a team situation. Tyler Bitancurt is our kicker until he is beaten out, and that has not happened.”
That does not mean that Corey Smith is giving up trying.
Hardly.
Smith is an interesting case study, a kid who went to Alabama from Musselman High in West Virginia.
You might know something about Alabama. It won the national championship last year under Marion County’s own Nick Saban, but Smith transferred to West Virginia.
Smith, who was one of the few placekickers in the country to get a scholarship, especially from a school such as Alabama, when he left Musselman, doesn’t talk much about the transfer.
The word from Denny Price, his high school coach, was that it was more about wanting to return to West Virginia.
You know, take me home, Country Road.
“I don't think it’s because of a lack of ability,” Price said. “He could play on any level. ... People transfer schools for a lot of reasons. He decided to come back to West Virginia.”
His experience at Alabama as a true freshman was not a good one on the football field, missing an extra point and field goal attempt when starter Leigh Tiffin was knocked out against Tulane. Smith’s most memorable play with the Crimson Tide was an unsuccessful fake field goal try in last year's SEC championship game, when Smith entered again in place of a banged-up Tiffin.
But that was not typical, although he does admit that going from Musselman to Tuscaloosa “is a pretty big jump.”
West Virginia was high on Smith’s list of school when he graduated but he scratched them after Rich Rodriguez’s departure to Michigan.
At Alabama his eyes were opened. West Virginia University football is a passion here. In Alabama college football is a way of life.
Auburn and Alabama are not separated by a state line the way Pitt and West Virginia are. Pitt lives in a city dominated by professional sports.
At Alabama, winning at football is demanded and if you can’t do that, you at least can salvage something by beating Auburn.
“Football there was different than anything I have experienced,” Smith admitted.
But now he’s here and he’s trying to win the punting, placekicking and kickoff jobs.
“I feel like I’m getting used to things but I’m still missing a kick every day,” he said, obviously setting high standards.
He is battling with Gregg Pugnetti for the punting job, hoping somehow to wrest the placekicking job from Bitancurt and almost certain to handle kickoffs, which is something WVU desperately needs after a couple of dismal years in kickoff coverage.
“I’m just doing all I can do,” he said. “You can’t look too far in the future. You do what you have to do to get better in one aspect or in all three.”
E-mail Bob Hertzel at bhertzel@hotmail.com.
