Geno checked to Jock
MORGANTOWN--Bill Stewart had used a lexicon of words extolling Geno Smith Tuesday afternoon.
After he was done giving the media a tour of the last two long drives that beat Marshall Friday night, he came to an end and said, "Players make plays."
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Indeed Geno did at rowdy Joan C. Edwards Stadium on fourth-quarter drives of 96 and 98 yards which amounted to 15 points before Tyler Bitancurt came in and won it in OT: 24-21.
Stew talked about Smith's touch on all sorts of passes against the Marshall prevent defense, but the "gotcha" quote came in the form of this: Geno was on his second read when he found Jock Sanders at the back of the end zone for the two-point conversion, tying the game.
"The two-point conversion--that was his second read and he was going to his third target. That being said, the biggest throw of the night-the biggest (the two-pointer)-was on the second read and he was going to the third.
"If you saw Geno (from the back of the end zone looking in), you saw him gather his feet, throw a high-energy ball which Jock jumped up high to get," said Stew.
The two-point conversion was the first deuce the Mountaineers laid on somebody since Jarrett Brown did it with Dorrell Jalloh against Rutgers in 2006.
Discussing the two long touchdown drives, Stewart said he focused on the game plan because he was confident in Smith.
"I looked over there one time and he was getting into the offensive linemen's faces. He threw his helmet down and went on. I decided then I'd sty out of it. He had things under control."
"Before the last (possession), he gathered the whole team around him before he went out on the field. He told those people, 'We re going to score right here. You hear me? We're going to do this'," said Stew.
The Mountaineers tied it with 12 seconds left. They had scored two touchdowns on 194 yards in about eight minutes.
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STEW TO ALL MARYLAND FANS
"Tell, Ralph (Friedgen) this is 2010 up here. We're very cordial and will welcome your team," he told a D.C. reporter.
"That said," he said, looking into a bank of TV cameras, "Mountaineer Fans--I don't want you to ever change."
Game-time at Milan Puskar Stadium is noon. The game will be telecast by ESPNU.