By Bob Hertzel
For the Times West Virginian
MORGANTOWN —
One of coach Bill Stewart’s top endeavors this summer has been to build leadership on his West Virginia University football team, especially the offensive unit which will be run by Geno Smith, a relatively inexperienced sophomore.
He is thinking the leadership will have to come from Noel Devine and Jock Sanders, his seniors, but knows that the quarterback position has to be a position of leadership, the man to whom players look for direction.
As far as Smith his concerned, Stewart has nothing to worry about.
“Leadership was built in at an early age by my mother and father,” Smith said last week during a morning interview session. “I have three younger brothers and a younger sister. I have to look out for them. My mom always told me I had to set the bar high as far as the level of achievement went.”
And the way Smith looks at it, dealing with those younger siblings in a family of five had him practicing his leadership skills for a long time, for it really isn’t much different than football.”
“Football is the game I love. Being around these guys, they’re like brothers. Any way I can help them I will,” he said.
The family structure is something like that of a football team. In Smith’s family, if Eugene Smith, his father, is the tactician, his mother, Tracey Sellers, tends to compliance, making sure young Eugene, sister Geonte Smith and twins Ranny and Rianny Williams are heading down the right road.
“She didn’t care much about the high school games,” Smith said. “It was all about grades in high school. It’s pretty much the same way now. She’s always on my mix seeing what classes I got.”
Support like that has make Smith wise and responsible off the field beyond his years. He is driven in the classroom as he is on the football field.
It is on the field that his father enters the picture.
“Dad just encourages me. He tells me every day, lets me know without this football thing it would be hard to excel in life,” he said of his namesake.
And so, he is pushing to make the most of it. Obviously, as it would be with most major college quarterbacks, the NFL and the riches that come with that are in the back of his mind, but he also realizes that for a kid from his area of Florida to earn a degree is a step up the ladder of success.
It’s not going to come easily for Smith. He’s a different kind of quarterback than the fans in this area have seen, following Rasheed Marshall, the heroic Patrick White and Jarrett Brown, three quarterbacks who would run as fast as they would throw.
The offense will probably look different, even more than it did with Brown, with the pass featured via Smith and an improved receiving corps.
What’s more, at present, the coaching staff can’t be wanting to get Smith banged up. He is cleared for full duty from a broken foot suffered over the winter, but they will be cautious with him.
As inexperienced as he is – and he has thrown only 49 passes, one touchdown in a college game – his backups are more so. Two freshmen – Barry Brunetti and Jeremy Johnson – are battling for that No. 1 backup job while Coley White could be used but plans are that he work at wide receiver so those two freshmen get as much work as they can.
Smith is not looking at his competition at present.
“I’m my biggest competition,” he said. “Not to be boastful, but I’m my biggest critic. I never feel I’m at the top of my game because there’s always room to be better. Every time I step on the field I go as hard as I can and try to be the best. The rest is up to the coaches. I look at it as extra motivation.”
That is, of course, the only way he can look at it. He can only control what he does and how he does it and to understand that he isn’t guaranteed anything will drive him even harder.
But if there isn’t any competition coming out of the gate from a pair of freshmen, there is going to be a whole lot of pressure, for even with Devine to carry a heavy running load, the Mountaineers will not win 10 games or more without solid quarterback play.
He scoffs at the pressure, however.
“I was at a charity event with (former Mountaineer All-America tackle) Brian Jozwiak and he was joking around, saying how much pressure there was on me. I don’t see it as pressure. I see it as being in a good position, and I’m really looking forward to the season,” Smith said.
That’s important.
More important is that next year he looks back on it as a successful season.
E-mail Bob Hertzel at bhertzel@hotmail.com.
