MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen, who must have a football video game embedded in his brain, told Mountaineers fans this week that life in the Big 12 would be very different than what they had grown accustomed to in the Big East.
But what they saw on Mountaineer Field yesterday against Baylor left them with dazed eyes, sore throats and goofy grins.
The Mountaineers gained 807 yards, run 88 plays, scored 70 points, picked up 33 first downs and would have gotten more had they not gone to the “victory formation” on the last two plays.
West Virginia held a coming-out party that will be the buzz of college football this week. In their first game in the Big 12, with quarterback Geno Smith getting his first opportunity this season to perform in front of a press box crammed with Heisman Trophy voters, the Mountaineers did everything but torch a couch at midfield.
Smith threw eight touchdown passes and No. 9 West Virginia beat No. 25 Baylor, 70-63 in the highest scoring game in Big 12 history. We can talk about the horrific defenses another day. This day belonged to the greatest offensive show East of the Oregon Ducks.
“Everything we did worked,’’ Mountaineers center Joe Madsen said. “It was just like old times.’’
The Mountaineers (4-0, 1-0 Big 12) picked up where they left off in last season’s Orange Bowl when they unleashed this 4G attack on Clemson and embarrassed the Tigers, 70-33.
We will learn if West Virginia is for real next week, when it plays its first road game of the season at mighty Texas. But Smith, who completed 45 of 51 passes for 656 yards, those eight TD passes (tying a Big 12 record) and no interceptions, left no doubt he is as good an offensive player as there is in the country.
“He was dang near perfect,’’ said Baylor wide receiver Terrance Williams (17 catches for a Big 12 record 314 yards and two touchdowns) who played with 2011 Heisman Trophy winner Robert Griffin III last season.
Though West Virginia scored more points, Baylor (3-1), which saw its nine-game winning streak snapped, almost was more potent. The Bears had 700 yards, ran 92 plays and had 34 first downs.
Quarterback Nick Florence (29-of-47 for 581 yards with five touchdowns and one interception) has proven Baylor wasn’t just the RG3 show. But Smith, an admitted perfectionist who gave himself an A-plus grade yesterday, was a little better.
“I played a really good game today,’’ said Smith. “I can’t even deny that.’’
No, he can’t. Many a player has shrunk in his first national audition. Not Smith, a serious artist who painted a masterpiece. He has now thrown 26 TD passes and no picks dating back to that Orange Bowl game.
“He’s the one kid on our team that’s not fazed by anything,’’ said Holgorsen “I don’t care what you throw at him.’’
Smith threw touchdown passes of 7, 47, 20, 2, 45, 52, 87 and 39 yards. He completed 14 straight passes to break Marc Bulger’s West Virginia record. He completed 88 percent of his passes, setting a national record for a QB with at least 50 attempts.
The Mountaineers didn’t take their first lead until the third quarter, when Tavon Austin (14 catches, 215 yards and two touchdowns), who would be a Heisman Trophy candidate on any other team, scored on a 45-yard pass. They stretched their lead to 56-35, but couldn’t stop Baylor just as the Bears couldn’t stop them. Finally, the clock did.
“There is nothing this offense can’t do and no one that can stop us if we take care of business,’’ Austin said earlier this week. “If we don’t turn the ball over and execute, this is the best offense in the country.’’
So good that even seeing was hard to believe.