MORGANTOWN —
It could have been a late November day. The Milan Puskar Stadium scoreboard still had the opponent in West Virginia’s last home game on the board, perhaps a subtle reminder of what may be next season’s biggest football battle — Pitt.
As the Mountaineers took a break, a cold wind out of the north lending to the late November feeling, the giant video board came alive with a recruiting video, played for a posse of recruits, all rising juniors, who were taking in the first scrimmage of the spring.
All of a sudden, Darius Reynard was running around people, Steve Slaton was running past them, Owen Schmitt was running over them and Patrick White, well, let’s just say he was putting so many moves on them that by the time he reached the end zone they needed help pulling the rubberized supporter that was around their ankles.
Over and over the plays ran, all by players who had found their way from Morgantown to the big time, each an NFL player, be it Corey McIntyre or Mortty Ivy.
But there was one player, in particular, whose image seemed to have more meaning than any other on this afternoon. He wore No. 10 on his uniform, a tall, slender gunslinger who, like the wind, had blown in from the north.
His name was Marc Bulger.
You look at the West Virginia record books and his name stands atop most of the passing records.
If Patrick White was the greatest quarterback ever to play at West Virginia — and Major Harris may have an argument that he belongs right alongside him, considering the Maj is in the Hall of Fame now — Bulger was the greatest passing quarterback.
The point?
On this cold, wind-blown afternoon, West Virginia may have just discovered the best throwing quarterback since Bulger in Geno Smith.
Now, you have to understand, that Smith is limited in what he can do because of a broken bone in his foot suffered before spring drills began. He cannot take part in any live action, so he is performing only in what they refer to as skeleton drills, the offensive skill people going against the linebackers and secondary.
That means he isn’t under a pass rush, his vision isn’t blocked and there’s no urgency to get the throw off. It’s more a matter of making reads, spotting the open receiver and then hitting him with the pass.
But even as untrained a bloodshot eye as that of a sportswriter could see there was something special in his delivery, his arm strength and his timing.
“He reminds you of Marc Bulger,” Donnie Young, who was coaching for Don Nehlen
when Bulger was going through his record-shattering years, noted.
Bill Stewart, who a night early had been hobnobbing with the Pittsburgh elite at a roast, put it this way:
“Today was as good of a day as I have seen the Mountaineer quarterback throw the ball in pass skeleton in a long, long time. It will soon be 11 years I have been here, Geno was hot. He was hitting the target, his reads were good and his timing was good. He just looked really good.”
It is difficult to explain just what Smith did, but there were touchdown passes from up close and far out, to Jock Sanders and Will Johnson and Bradley Starks.
The gem, though, was a perfectly thrown bomb that Tavon Austin caught on the run and carried into the end zone.
Smith, as we’ve come to learn quickly is his way, accepted what he had done gracefully and in stride, noting that it was only skeleton work.
What’s more, he said, it’s what he expects of himself.
“I don’t,” he said, “have anything to prove.”
There are those who saw Bulger and White who would disagree, that there is much to prove, but if attitude is anything, then Smith will able to handle it all.
“It was important (to) be out there on the field to lead,” he said. “This offense is looking for a leader. It’s has Noel, yes, but the quarterback is supposed to be the leader of the team.”
Just from an arm stretch and timing standpoint, Smith seemed at ease with all types of tosses, be they tight fits or balls he had to float downfield, such as the touchdown to Austin.
“It’s all in the offense,” he said. “There’s a variety of things we can do. We can go pro style or zone read.”
In some ways, the offense is taking on aspects of Nehlen’s old offense, with a lot more bells and whistles. But there’s the great running back like an Amos Zereoue or Avon Cobourne in Devine, there’s a strong fullback in Ryan Clarke, and there’s a go-to receiver like David Saunders or any of the others Bulger had to throw to in Jock Sanders.
Who knows, they might even throw in a third-and-20 draw play, just for the old-timers who remember that.
E-mail Bob Hertzel at bhertzel@hotmail.com.
