Geno Smith

Smith is the son of Geno Smith, Jr., and Tracey Sellers, who was 17 at the time. Until Smith turned 4, he and his mother, lived in Miami with his maternal grandmother, Mosetta Bratton. During those early years, Bratton cared for Smith during the day, while Sellers finished her schooling.^[1]

Simth's cousin, Melvin Bratton, was a star running back at the University of Miami.^[2]

Smith was classified as gifted and taught an advanced curriculum emphasizing creativity and the arts, including writing stories and poetry. Smith acted as well, performing in his school’s production of “The Nutcracker”. In fifth grade, Smith won an oratorical contest reciting work by the poet Langston Hughes. Smith even competed in chess tournaments, however, he enjoyed sketching cartoon characters the most.

Smith was admitted to Norland Middle School’s magnet program, which dedicated two hours a day to arts instruction. "There, Smith thrived, drawing with pencils and charcoal. Painting with pastels and acrylic paints required touch, foresight and patience. Minor mistakes could nullify hours of work. No matter what tools he employed, he was a perfectionist."^[1]

Miramar is a Miami Florida suburb in Broward County, and is Geno Smith's hometown. Former attendees of Miramar High School included Hollywood star, Johnny Depp. Smith was coached there by former West Virginia Mountaineer, Damon Cogdell.

Smith passed for 2,200 yards 25 touchdowns and three interceptions as a junior and was named Second Team All-State QB. He was also named Second Team All-Broward County as an athlete for 2007.

During Smith's senior season that led his team to the state 6A semi-finals he completed 205 of 338 passes for 3,089 yards and 30 touchdowns and rushed for over 300 yards. Smith was a All-State First Team in Florida Class 6A and player of the year.

He was the No. 1 rated player in Broward County according to the Miami Herald and South Florida Sun Sentinel and finished No. 2 in the voting for Mr. Florida.

In High School, Smith was benching 215-pounds and squatting 355 lbs. He finished his career as the third-best passer in Broward County history, and was named to the ESPN Top 150 prospects list.University of Miami.^[3]

Geno Smith saw some action his freshman year, being the backup behind senior Jarrett Brown. His first snap in a regular season game came against Auburn University, where he completed 5 of 8 passes for 50 yards and one interception. He would see action again against Syracuse, Marshall, Louisville, and in the Gator Bowl against Florida State. In his freshman year at West Virginia University, Smith completed 32 of 49 passes for 309 yards, throwing one touchdown and one interception, and rushing for 7 yards on 17 attempts as the backup to starting quarterback Jarrett Brown. He finished his freshman season with an 81.1 quarterback rating.^[4]

In his sophomore year, Smith completed 241 of 372 passes for 2763 yards, throwing 24 touchdowns and 7 interceptions, and rushing for -32 yards on 106 attempts in his first year as the starting quarterback.^[5]

Geno Smith got his first start in the season opener against the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers. He completed 20 of 27 passes for 216 yards, two touchdowns, and one interception. He led his team to a 31-0 victory over the Chanticleers.^[6]

With the Mountaineers down 21-6 against in-state rival, Marshall University, Geno Smith led his team to a 4th quarter comeback victory. Smith led the first drive from the WVU 4 yard line. With help from senior running back Noel Devine, the Mountaineers cut Marshall's lead to 8 points. After the WVU defense stopped Marshall, a punt put the Mountaineers near their own end zone again, starting from the 2 yard line. After completing 9 of 13 passes and scrambling for 20 yards, Smith found tight end Will Johnson in the corner of the endzone for a touchdown. With Marshall still leading 21-19, Bill Stewart elected to go for the two-point conversion. Smith completed a pass to wide receiver Jock Sanders in the back of the end zone for a two-point conversion. The Mountaineers went on to win the game in overtime by a score of 24-21. Smith finished the game completing 32 of 45 passes for 316 yards and one touchdown. He rushed for 13 yards on 14 attempts. After two games, Smith lead the Big East in passing yards and passing efficiency.^[7]

In a 31-17 victory over Maryland, Smith completed 19 of 29 pass attempts for 268 passing yards and four touchdowns. Two of his touchdowns were to Tavon Austin, and two were to Stedman Bailey.^[7] Smith won his first Big East Offensive Player of the Week for this performance.

In WVU's first meeting ever with LSU, the Mountaineers lost at Tiger Stadium by a score of 20-14. Smith completed 14 of 29 pass attempts for 119 yards, two touchdowns, and one interception. He rushed for 10 yards on five attempts.^[8]

Smith threw for 220 yards and ran for 19 yards in West Virginia's 49-10 win over UNLV.^[9] It was the most points WVU had scored since playing Connecticut in 2007.^[10]

In an overtime loss to Connecticut, Smith was 22 for 34, throwing for 160 yards. He had a season high of 64 rushing yards. This was the first game all season Smith did not throw a touchdown pass. The loss was the first time Connecticut had ever beaten West Virginia.^[11]

Smith tied his record for touchdowns in a game in a 37-10 win over Cincinnati, where he was 15 for 25, throwing for 174 yards, four touchdowns, and one interception. The win came after a two game losing streak. It was the first time the Mountaineers beat Cincinnati since 2007.^[12] Smith won his second Big East Offensive Player of the Week for this performance.

With the arrival of new WVU football head coach Dana Holgorsen and a new pass based offensive system, Smith saw his passing numbers improve drastically. In the fourth game of the season against the #2 LSU Tigers, Smith set school records for completions (38), attempts (65) and passing yards (463) in the 47-21 loss on September 24.

With 372 passing yards against the Cincinnati Bearcats on November 12, Smith tied a Big East record with his seventh 300-yard game of the season. He tied the record that was set in 2007 by Brian Brohm of the Louisville Cardinals.

Set single-season school records for pass completions (291), attempts (448) and yards (3,741) on November 25 against rival Pitt Panthers. He broke the records that were held by Marc Bulger in 1998.

In West Virginia's 70-33 rout of the Clemson Tigers at the 2012 Orange Bowl Smith tied three individual bowl records: most touchdown passes (six), most touchdowns overall (seven) and total points (42).^[13] Smith's 401 yards passing broke Tom Brady's Orange Bowl record of 396 that he set in 2000. Smith, who was also the game's MVP, also became the Big East single season passing leader with 4,379 yards breaking Brian Brohm's record that he set in 2007.

With his performance against the Marshall Thundering Herd (32–36, 323 yards, 4 TDs) on opening day, Smith became the school's all-time leader for career completions and touchdown passes, passing Marc Bulger's totals from 1996–1999.^[14]

In Smith's game (34–39, 411 yards, 5 TDs) against James Madison (second game of the year), Smith became the all-time leader for career passing yards, passing Bulger's total of 8,191 yards.^[15]

Against Baylor in a 70–63 win, he threw for 656 yards and 8 TDs with 45 completions (all three Mountaineer records), and only six incompletions. As of September 29, 2012 he has gathered a large amount of hype as the Heisman Trophy frontrunner having thrown for 20 touchdowns, and no interceptions.^[16]

Regular season and postseason

• All-Big East Conference Second Team (2010)
• All-Big East Conference First Team (2011)
• 4x Big East Offensive Player of the Week
• 2012 Orange Bowl Most Valuable Player
• Big 12 Offensive Player of the Week
• National Offensive Player of the Week (for week ending September 3, 2012)

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