It was not quite three weeks ago when we asked if Geno Smith could keep it up for an entire season. Not the stats, but the “prodigious drive” we had witnessed and marveled about and heard relayed through a variety of anecdotes.

And beyond that, we wondered, did those around him want him to keep going? They knew he’d try, trusted he was capable, were hopeful the kid could lead a somewhat normal life, but understood his definition of normal was a little different.

“Oh, yeah,” Spavital said. “He’s been this way since Day One. There are times I try to tell him to leave here, go be a college kid, go have some fun. Fun to him is to going out there and playing football. It’s very rare. I’ve never coached one like this, but the happiest he is is when he walks out there on the field.”

The numbers, while still gaudy, have not kept up the mighty pace, but there is no indication Smith has slowed his pursuit. Watch the above and it sounds like he’s ready to dig in even deeper and go in even harder than before. He is personally, deeply offended and angered by what’s happened.

He carries that responsibility as the quarterback, but he possesses that mentality because of how he’s conditioned himself as a competitor — and maybe that explains some of those 14-point plays the offense has gone after the past two games.  Whatever the case, his head coach says Smith is pressing and wanting to do too much to solve all the problems that go beyond the quarterback’s control.

“This doesn’t fall on his shoulders. This falls on all our shoulders – all of our coaches and all of our players. He is only one piece to everything. For him to be at his best, he needs to understand that the only thing he can do is take the snap and go where we want him to go with the ball. If that is all he worries about, then he is going to be more productive.”

Then Holgorsen hit upon the key point he was trying to make about the way Smith has taken the turn in fortunes the Mountaineers have suffered through.

“He needs to relax a bit and not bear that burden. We are going to get him back on track,” he said.