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WVU vs. Texas: Can Geno Smith keep this up?

Was West Virginia's 70-point outing in its first Big 12 game a fluke? Texas coach Mack Brown praised Geno Smith's performance thus far in the season, saying he hasn't seen many teams as strong offensively as the Mountaineers.

Justin K. Aller - Getty Images

The West Virginia Mountaineers hung 70 points on Baylor in their Big 12 debut, perhaps setting unreasonable expectations for the rest of their season, but still putting the rest of the conference -- including the No. 11 Texas Longhorns -- on notice.

Mack Brown spoke gushingly about the Mountaineers offense in the Big 12 conference call Monday, saying Dana Holgorsen's attack could be "as good as any offense I've seen."

"That's what we're trying to figure out today," Brown said. "They're just unbelievable. Geno [Smith has] thrown 20 touchdowns and no interceptions. He's probably ahead of the curve that Robert Griffin set last year. He's got to be a leader for the Heisman and he just makes no mistakes."

The Big 12 this season is rampant with strong offenses and shaky defenses. Although the Baylor-West Virginia game might not be equaled, there's no reason to believe Smith and the Mountaineers won't put up gaudy numbers all year -- even if they're slightly less gaudy. Holgorsen praised Texas' linebacker corps, but Brown said his team could give up 70 as Baylor did last week. The Longhorns were tasked with stopping Oklahoma State -- the team with the highest points-per-game total in the nation -- last week, and held them to 36 points. That's still a lot of points, but not enough for a win, as Texas won 41-36.

As for Brown's comparison of Smith to Griffin, last year's Heisman winner notably entered Big 12 conference play having thrown 13 touchdowns and only 12 incompletions. Smith had 12 scores and 22 incompletions entering the Baylor game, a slightly less absurd number, but Griffin never threw for over 500 yards or more than five touchdowns in his Baylor career.

Photographs by dizfunk used in background montage under Creative Commons. Thank you.