Flying Dub-V's Plays of the Year

Time to take a look back at a year full of fantastic performances and plays on the gridiron for West Virginia.

Game 1. WVU v Marshall: Tavon Austin's Kick Return. With a lightning storm nearing, Austin's kick return gave WVU some breathing room. After the delay, WVU would score again to make it an insurmountable lead and the game would eventually be called. It was a very timley score for WVU.

Game 2. WVU v Norfolk St: Ivan McCartney's 39 yard TD catch. Early in the fourth quarter, Sticks got loose. Geno was able to throw a perfect dart to Sticks in the end zone for the score. It was a beautiful pitch-and-catch

Game 3. WVU at Maryland: Eain Smith's Interception. Maryland was driving late in the fourth quarter, with a chance to win the game. The Terps were in Mountaineer territory, and the defense desperately needed to make a play. Enter Smith, who read Danny O'Brien perfectly, stepped into a throw, and picked the ball off on the six.

Game 4. WVU v LSU: Geno Smith's Perfect Pass to Tavon. This play shows the outstanding accuracy Geno can display. This ball is perfectly thrown to Austin, who nearly takes it to the house.

Game 5. WVU v Bowling Green: Dustin Garrison's Entire Performance. 291 yards says it all. An outstanding day for the kid.

Game 6. WVU v UConn: The Fumble Return. Halfway through the 3rd quarter UConn was driving deep into WVU territory, when Pat Miller stripped Johnny McEntee of the ball. Juwone Snow recovered it to go 84 yards. That set up a Tavon Austin TD catch, and it was smooth sailing after that. Just a huge play by Miller and Snow.

Game 7. WVU at Syracuse: Stedman Bailey's Acrobatic Catch and Score. It was an awful game, but at least Bailey gave WVU one thing to cheer about.

Game 8. WVU at Rutgers: Tavon Austin's 80-yard Reverse TD. While Geno Smith's TD late was the most important play, Austin showing off his speed on a frozen tundra was the sexier play to put on the list.

Game 9. WVU v Louisville: Stedman Bailey's One-handed Catch. This play was incredible, and it did keep WVU's hopes alive of a comeback. Sadly, they didn't have any Tim Tebow luck.

Game 10. WVU at Cincinnati: The Block. In the final seconds the Bearcats were trying to force overtime with a tying field goal. That's when Eain Smith and just about everyone else blew through the Cincy line to block it. It was nice to see WVU actually get the break in the kicking game for once.

Game 11. WVU v Pitt: The Stedman Bailey Stiff Arm. This needs no explanation.

Game 12. WVU at South Florida: Stedman's Diving Catch. Maybe the bigger play was Shawne Alston getting a woozy Bailey lined-up for the spike.

Deep Thoughts, WVU Style

I hate Tampa. I hate everything about playing at USF. Of course it doesn't help that WVU hasn't won there since 2005. It's always a struggle against the Bulls. The game is normally full of mistakes, with WVU usually dealing with an uphill battle early-on. It's critical for the Mountaineers to get off to a solid start. But, considering WVU has only played one good 1st quarter all year, I won't be holding my breath.

Tavon Austin got all the attention at the beginning of the season, and for good reason. The Junior has torn it up, but the big play star moving forward seems to be Stedman Bailey. It's incredible to watch him play. Bailey is a threat anytime he catches the ball. In fact, 18% of his 60 receptions are touchdowns. That's a pretty solid number. So, look for Bailey to continue to get better. And, don't worry about Austin. He'll put up close to 100 receptions next year as well. Not a bad one-two.

Jabarie Hinds is the real deal. What he did to Akron the other night was simply nasty. Hinds is starting to find the confidence that he needs to help lead the backcourt into the Big East schedule. He leads the team in assists and steals already, and also is shooting 60.5% from the field. Just like the rest of the freshmen, he needs to let the game come to him a little bit more. But, overall this kid is maturing nicely.

I keep thinking what the next school to have an abuse scandal is going to be. Should we be concerned that it could be WVU? I have no reason to believe it would be, but you could say the same thing about Syracuse and Penn State fans. Sadly, some type of abuse probably happens everyday on college campuses nationwide. It's prevalent, and the best way to deter it is to make it public. So, if something has happened in Morgantown, I hope it does go public. Nobody should have the live in fear and shame. And, who cares what the fallout will be. Humanity before athletics.

Records be Falling (Updated)

In Year One of the new offensive scheme that Dana Holgrosen brought with him, the Mountaineers have performed well. Yes, there have been some hiccups, mistakes, a few too many turnovers. But, considering where they were at this time last year, it's night and day. Actually this season has been so productive through the air that passing and receiving records are going to be broken all over the place. Here are just a few of the major ones that should be changing hands over the next few weeks.

UPDATE: Here are the latest numbers for WVU. Some of the records have already been broken.

(records courtesy of wvustats.com)

Geno Smith

Total Yards

Record: 3,515 yards (Marc Bulger, 1998)

2011 Geno: 3,662 yards (NEW RECORD)

Passing yards

Record: 3,607 yards (Marc Bulger, 1998)

2011 Geno: 3,741 yards (NEW RECORD)

Pass Completions

Record: 274 (Marc Bulger, 1998)

2011 Geno: 291 (NEW RECORD)

Pass Attempts

Record: 419 (Marc Bulger, 1998)

2011 Geno: 448 (NEW RECORD)

Passing Touchdowns

Record: 31 (Marc Bulger, 1998)

2011 Geno: 25

Tavon Austin

All-Purpose Yards

Record: 2,104 (Steve Slaton, 2006)

2011 Tavon: 2,086

Receptions

Record: 77 (David Saunders, 1998 and Shawn Foreman, 1997)

2011 Tavon: 82 (NEW RECORD)

Stedman Bailey

Receiving Yards

Record: 1,043 (David Saunders, 1996)

2011 Stedman: 1,117 (NEW RECORD)

Receiving Touchdowns

Record: 12 (Darius Reynaud, 2007 and Chris Henry, 2004)

2011 Stedman: 11

Records Be Falling

In Year One of the new offensive scheme that Dana Holgrosen brought with him, the Mountaineers have performed well. Yes, there have been some hiccups, mistakes, a few too many turnovers. But, considering where they were at this time last year, it's night and day. Actually this season has been so productive through the air that passing and receiving records are going to be broken all over the place. Here are just a few of the major ones that should be changing hands over the next few weeks.

(records courtesy of wvustats.com)

Geno Smith

Total Yards

Record: 3,515 yards (Marc Bulger, 1998)

2011 Geno: 3,413 yards

Passing yards

Record: 3,607 yards (Marc Bulger, 1998)

2011 Geno: 3,497 yards

Pass Completions

Record: 274 (Marc Bulger, 1998)

2011 Geno: 269

Pass Attempts

Record: 419 (Marc Bulger, 1998)

2011 Geno: 417

Passing Touchdowns

Record: 31 (Marc Bulger, 1998)

2011 Geno: 25

Tavon Austin

All-Purpose Yards

Record: 2,104 (Steve Slaton, 2006)

2011 Tavon: 1,964

Receptions

Record: 77 (David Saunders, 1998 and Shawn Foreman, 1997)

2011 Tavon: 72

Stedman Bailey

Receiving Yards

Record: 1,043 (David Saunders, 1996)

2011 Stedman: 1,037

Receiving Touchdowns

Record: 12 (Darius Reynaud, 2007 and Chris Henry, 2004)

2011 Stedman: 10

Deep Thoughts, WVU Style

I wonder if Dana Holgorsen just watches last year's tape and laughs at how anemic the offense was. Hell, he even took a few swipes at the scheme in his weekly press conference (start at the 9:30 mark). He has good reason to. How bad was the Mountaineer offense? Well, lets just say Jeff Mullen made Steve Addiazo look like a fantastic play-caller. Holgorsen must look back, and take away nothing. Talk about having no legit game tape to work with.

Would joing the Big 12 help WVU keep Holgorsen? It would seem to be his true comfort zone. He has coached at Texas Tech and Oklahoma State. Holgy also spent time at Houston, which is in the Big 12 region. I imagine Holgorsen would be much more likely to stay if the Mountaineers future opponents are Texas and Oklahoma, not Air Force and UCF. Texas and Oklahoma are also fertile recruiting grounds...grounds that Holgy knows very well. Of course, this all means nothing if WVU gets into the SEC, which would trump all.

The defense seems to be poised to kick some serious ass in the Big East. The line continues to bring more pressure. The linebacking unit is getting deeper. And the secondary is gaining in confidence. Plus, the highest ranked offense left is South Florida, a team that hasn't scored over 17 points since Sept 24th. Look for Jeff Casteel to fire up the aggression as WVU looks to build on the last few performances.

Is it possible that Stedman Bailey is still underrated? The kid has 634 receiving yards, which includes four straight 100+ yard games. He also leads the team with five touchdowns. Bailey also bested some of the best cornerbacks when he went off against LSU. So while we constantly talk about Tavon Austin (with good reason) Stedman Bailey just continues to truck on through the season.