That's a very suggestive headline, isn't it? But after what he did to Maryland, we'll say it: give Steve Smith fifteen minutes, and he'll score twice, either on the field or with your significant other. WVU's run-wackiness turned the Terps to cinders in fifteen minutes last night, with Slaton going for 149 in the first quarter, scoring twice, and reducing Kirk and Chris to stuttering bystanders as Friedgen hovered like a furious blimp on the Maryland sidelines.
Great point by Herbstreit last night about WVU choosing oddball schemes in order to compete. WVU can't get the same players as other programs, so they take who they can and place them in three-dollar-bill schemes you can't possibly take enough time to prepare for. On offensive snaps the whole offense scatters like mice, and just when you figure out Slaton doesn't have the ball Pat White's twenty yards into the secondary.
The Mountaineer misdirection spreads to the defensive side of things, too. At times last night Maryland looked catatonic in the face of the 3-3-5; blitzers coming clean in unblocked pairs off the edge happened on multiple occasions, and Sam Hollenback dropped back and appeared to be scanning the walls of a Chinese optometrist.
What do you see, Sam?
Pat White still has yet to put in demonstrably effective work as a passer--that may be the only real critique of WVU, aside from a penchant for nasty dumb penalties after the play. Critiques don't come in economy-sized buckets big enough to cover what's wrong with Maryland. A field full of Friedgen's players--all recruited by him--and there's not enough speed out there to cover a fit intern's reasonably prompt visit to an office copier and back. They looked slow and out of it from the start, and only the lethargy of easy victory kept the 'Eers from pouring the kerosene on Maryland's couch and making the flames leap higher.
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