When West Virginia rolls into town this weekend, the Texas Tech defense is going to have its hands full.
Along with the nation’s most prolific offense, Geno Smith brings with him the astounding stat line - 24
Touchdowns and 0 interceptions.
You read that right. ZERO interceptions through five games
and 202 pass attempts.
In fact, you would have to go back all the way to December
1, 2011 to find his last interception. That one came in Tampa against South Florida in a thrilling 30-27 victory for the Mountaineers.
However, West Virginia Head Coach Dana Holgorsen
is treating this stat like a no hitter.
“The first step is to not talk about it and obviously when
it comes to you guys, you’re going to want to talk about it,” he said. “If you
think he is the only one who can control that, you’re nuts. I know it’s his
stat, but everybody else can help control that. We don’t talk about that. We
talk about completions and putting the ball where you need to put the ball.”
Despite all the well-deserved hype for the West Virginia
gunslinger, he still sees a very tough task ahead as he prepares to face the
nation’s second ranked Red Raider defense and a hostile Jones AT&T Stadium.
“They have a really good defense as well. Every game has its
own story, and I expect them to be tough,” Smith said. “On the road, it is kind
of similar to what we faced this past weekend at Texas with a hostile crowd. It
should be a good game. They do a great job on making it tough on
quarterbacks. They get a lot of interceptions and turnovers. They really make
things complex with the way they react to the ball. They do a great job of
reading the quarterback’s eyes and reacting to the ball.”
This is clearly going to be the Chain Gang’s toughest task
on defense to boot, but if the Red Raiders can get some pressure on Geno Smith and force him out of the pocket, perhaps they
can make something happen and come away with an interception.