… with room to spare.

Fun little anecdote from WVU’s quarterbacks coach, Jake Spavital, and a perfect segue for me and this post.

I continue to be enthralled by Spavital’s job this season. I mean, not in judging the effectiveness of his players or evaluating his instruction, but in the content of these conversations he has to have with the media. That story was encouraging, to me, because I fear that sooner or later we’re going to run out of questions and he’s going to exhaust his supply of answers as together we try to best explain how very good Geno Smith is at what he does.

How in the world does one criticize Geno when he, no lie, plays one of the best games a quarterback can play? Smith had four incomplete passes and only one of those was a pass a receiver didn’t get his hands on — and that one, that playaction pass in the end zone to Stedman that sailed over Bailey’s head, remains a mystery.

He seemed to make the right call every time he had a run-pass option and didn’t simply stick with the run, or the pass, because the run, or the pass, was working. His coaches say he mixed it up with wonderful results.

Oh, and he ran the ball very effectively. Take away the touchdown, which shouldn’t have happened because Andrew Buie should have taken the handoff and not forgotten the play. Smith moved the pocket and thew on the run. He shuffled to find a play down the field. He scrambled to evade pressure and pick up but a few yards. This is all nuanced stuff from him and it’s going to matter to defenses.

Plus, that touchdown did happen, and though it might not happen gain, trust that defensive coaches got a look at that and added it to the list.

So considering the totality of the game, the management and the stats, I found it pretty funny that the best Spavital could come up with was “Uh, yeah, when Geno’s making awesome decisions and running with the ball and not forcing it, he needs to be a little more secure with that thing.”

Remember when we talked yesterday about Dana finding his rhythm behind the podium and treating us with the prospect of 12 more press conferences? Well, poor Spavital has the duty of trotting himself out 12 more times to talk about his damn-near perfect quarterback. He’s already used the over/under line and deadpanned the “We’re a dual-threat team now” joke. That arm only goes so deep into the bag of tricks, right? He might send a G.A. after James Madison and do a puppet show after Maryland.