Geno Smith: A Biography

[Villain The Foe]

Andy Lyons

We take a look at the Jets new QB and #39 selection overall.

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INTRODUCTION

Most people considered Geno Smith to be a top 10 selection and the best Quarterback in the draft. The Jets considered taking Geno with the 13^thoverall selection; however it wasn’t needed as he fell to their selection at #39. Representing excellent value at a position of need, the Jets simply had to pull the trigger. Geno looks set to compete with Mark Sanchez and David Garrard for the starting quarterback position in year one. There is a lot to like about Geno and below is just a summary of why we can all be excited about our new QB.

via l2.yimg.com

HIGH SCHOOL

"HIS VISIONS OF THINGS HAVE ALWAYS BEEN BEYOND HIS YEARS,"-TRACEY SELLERS (MOTHER)

Born in Miami, Florida, Geno would go on to play his football at Miramar High School. Growing up Geno was always special. After taking an intelligence test early in his life, he was labelled 'Gifted'. So gifted that his mother was offered the option of skipping him a grade, she declined. He was entered into a gifted program emphasizing creative arts. He was a good chess player early and took up drawing as a hobby, the thing about Geno, he always was and always will be a perfectionist. Some say that is a bad thing when it comes to football, I think it's a great thing.

In his junior season, Geno threw for 2,200 yards 25 touchdowns and just three interceptions. Following this impressive performance, he was invited to the Elite 11 quarterback camp which is held annually in Aliso Viejo, California. During his senior season, Geno led his team to an 8-2 record completing 205 of his 338 passes for 3,089 yards and 30 touchdowns. He also rushed for 300 yards on the season. He led his team to the state 6A semi-finals. On a personal level he was named All-State First Team in Florida class 6A as well as being named a Parade All-American. He was named the Sun Sentinel Florida class 6A player of the year. He also finished second in the voting for Mr Florida and excelled in the classroom with a 2.8 core GPA and 1390 SAT score

COLLEGE

via cdn.rsvlts.com

Smith was a highly regarded prospect but not the elite can’t miss prospect. Considered a 4* star recruit by both rivals.com and scout.com, and graded at 81 by ESPN recruiting, Geno’s positives were listed with release, pocket awareness and arm strength among the positives, the main negative? Ball handling. Geno was not short on options, he received offers from West Virginia, Alabama, LSU, Michigan, Clemson, South Florida and Boston College. Although only rated as the 8^th best QB by ESPN that season, he headlined the recruiting class that also included Stedman Bailey and Tavon Austin, Bailey a player he had played high school football with.

 

"I COULD CHEW HIM OUT AND BARK AT HIM, AND SOME KIDS THEY WOULD GO IN A SHELL. HE NEVER DID, JUST STAYED UP, FIRM AND HIGH."-DAMON COGDELL (HS FOOTBALL COACH)

Although Geno would act as the backup quarterback for the Mountaineers in his freshman season, he would see action in 5 contests, completing 32-49 passes for 309 yards and a completion % of 65.3%, while tossing once touchdown and one interception.

 

2010 would see Geno start for the first time, where he saw action in all 13 contests. He completed 241 of 372 pass attempts for 2763 yards and a completion percentage of 64.8% while throwing 24 touchdowns and just 7 interceptions. By the end of the season, Geno’s star was growing, as he was named to the All-Big East First Team by ESPN, Rivals and Phil Steele, and he made the All-Big East second team by the coaches selection. He was the No.1 QB in the Big East in pass efficiency and was responsible for 148 points scored that season.

 

After his impressive 2010 season, there was a lot of pressure on Geno heading into the 2011 campaign. He took on a bigger role increasing his passing attempts by over 150 but also increasing all the important stats, yards, completion percentage, touchdowns and not increasing his interceptions. Geno completed 346 passes in 526 attempts for 4385 yards which is a completion percentage of 65.8%. He also threw 31 touchdowns to just the 7 interceptions. He was named the 2012 Discover Orange Bowl MVP after his West Virginia team decimated the Clemson Tigers winning 70-33, where he threw for over 400 yards and 6 touchdowns as well as rushing for another. The accolades rained down on Geno as he took home the All-Big East First Team ESPN, Phil Steele and coaches selection. He set or tied 21 West Virginia single game, season or career records, he set five Orange bowl records and four West Virginia bowl records.

 

Many thought that Geno would elect for the 2012 NFL draft, however he decided to stay in school for his senior season. After such an impressive junior campaign, many didn’t believe he could go one better. Well Geno accepted the challenge. He finished the season completing 369 of his 518 pass attempts for a phenomenal 71.8% completion percentage. He also threw 42 touchdowns to just the 6 interceptions. A lot of Geno’s passes were short to intermediate and a lot were behind the line of scrimmage. But just consider that Geno Smith put the ball in the air 518 times during the campaign and only 6 passes were intercepted. I watched a lot of West Virginia this year and it’s not like he was getting lucky, he is just pinpoint on passes up to 15-20 yards. It’s passes over that mark where he starts to get a little inaccurate. However it was only fitting that his final regular season performance ended with 24 passes thrown and 23 passes completion for 407 yards. Statistically, what Geno Smith did at West Virginia is incredible, and it can’t be undermined.

 

"ON THE FIELD, HE’S VISUALIZING, IT’S LIKE A PUZZLE, HIS MASTERPIECE."-TRACEY SELLERS (MOTHERS)

There are absolutely no injury concerns or character concerns with Geno Smith

via dadonsverdict.files.wordpress.com

SCOUTING PROFILE

 

As we did with Milliner and Richardson, we’ll do a quick mini scouting profile just to go over his game:

 

Positives

 

+ Incredibly accurate on passes up to 20 yards.

+ Excellent pocket awareness

+ Mobility to extend plays and pick up much needed yards.

+ Excellent decision maker who does not throw into traffic.

+ Very quick compact delivery

+ Not a one read guy, checks down to 2^nd and 3^rd reads effectively

 

Negatives

~ Accuracy on the deep ball is questionable.

~Mental toughness, gets very disheartened when down.

~ Took 90%+ of his snaps in college from shotgun or pistol formation.

 

SUMMARY

There is no way to sugercoat it, I absolutely love Geno Smith. Over the first five games in 2012 he completed 81.4% of his passes. That kind of accuracy regardless of the routes or system is impressive. I like his decision making and he makes excellent reads on the defence which is why he doesn’t have big interception numbers. He does have flaws to his game, but to get him at pick #39 is incredible value and this could turn out to be the biggest steal of the draft. There have been some concerns about his ability to play in cold weather but that is really based on a small sample size so I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. However his ability to read a defence, his pocket awareness, his mobility and his accuracy make me believe he is going to be a very good quarterback for a long time. Let’s hope so anyway.

VIDEOS

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=wDPH12JWJ3w#!

[T0mShane]

Hagiography FTW

[Larz]

spoiled brat

circus

bust

[HessStation]

Borderline child genius.

Exciting!!!

[SayNoToDMC]

Where's the part about him stabbing orphans or poking holes in condoms during his free time?

[BurnleyJet]

Did we pick a diffrent Geno Smith?

[Bugg]

His Mom is a very objective source.

 

I hope he succeeds but nobody's mom is gonna badmouth their own kid.

[slats]

A mentally weak fumbler, what can possibly go wrong?

[Sperm Edwards]

Is that SAT score the old kind (1600 max) or the new kind (2400 max)?  1390 on the old SAT = he's super smart.  1390 on the new SAT = he's certainly not neanderthal stupid, but he's hardly got "gifted" intelligence, considering an enormous portion of his score (600) was awarded for filling in the bubbles for, and writing, his name 3 times.

 

24 on his Wonderlic (the average score for a QB) says he's smart enough to be a stud QB.  This and his 1390 SAT score (likely out of 2400 or he'd have aced the Wonderlic with at least a 45) says he's no genius but he definitely has enough "on paper" smarts for the job.  Whether that translates to field smarts is going to determine what type of player he is, since physically he's certainly up to the task.

 

Hey, at least we finally have a QB over 6'2" tall!  (Two if you count Matt Simms...who no one counts.)

[Smashmouth]

Is that SAT score the old kind (1600 max) or the new kind (2400 max)?  1390 on the old SAT = he's super smart.  1390 on the new SAT = he's certainly not neanderthal stupid, but he's hardly got "gifted" intelligence, considering an enormous portion of his score (600) was awarded for filling in the bubbles for, and writing, his name 3 times.

 

24 on his Wonderlic (the average score for a QB) says he's smart enough to be a stud QB.  This and his 1390 SAT score (likely out of 2400 or he'd have aced the Wonderlic with at least a 45) says he's no genius but he definitely has enough "on paper" smarts for the job.  Whether that translates to field smarts is going to determine what type of player he is, since physically he's certainly up to the task.

 

Hey, at least we finally have a QB over 6'2" tall!  (Two if you count Matt Simms...who no one counts.)

 

Im not sure the SAT is a good judge of actual intelligence its an assessment test based on what you learned in HS and your readiness for College. Some atheletes do not put as much effort into learning when playing major college sports. Sure some do but for the most part book smarts should not play into the intelligence equasion.

 

"After taking an intelligence test early in his life, he was labelled 'Gifted'

 

I would base more on the intelligence test than anything else.

[jetsjetsjetss]

Im not sure the SAT is a good judge of actual intelligence its an assessment test based on what you learned in HS and your readiness for College. Some atheletes do not put as much effort into learning when playing major college sports. Sure some do but for the most part book smarts should not play into the intelligence equasion.

 

"After taking an intelligence test early in his life, he was labelled 'Gifted'

 

I would base more on the intelligence test than anything else.

 

psh idk man if its anything like my old elementary schools "intelligence test" it means nothing.

 

1/5 of my grade was labeled as "gifted" and a lot of them didnt even make it to college lol

 

your not really developed enough to be classified at a young age. Its only an educated guess and being able to skip a grade is no big deal my best friend is a year younger because he skipped a grade. Now the kid down the hall who skipped 3 grades now that kid is a genius

[JohnnyHector]

Im not sure the SAT is a good judge of actual intelligence its an assessment test based on what you learned in HS and your readiness for College. 

 

Sounds like someone got < 700 on their SAT's back in the day.

[itsJETStime]

Is that SAT score the old kind (1600 max) or the new kind (2400 max)?  1390 on the old SAT = he's super smart.  1390 on the new SAT = he's certainly not neanderthal stupid, but he's hardly got "gifted" intelligence, considering an enormous portion of his score (600) was awarded for filling in the bubbles for, and writing, his name 3 times.

 

24 on his Wonderlic (the average score for a QB) says he's smart enough to be a stud QB.  This and his 1390 SAT score (likely out of 2400 or he'd have aced the Wonderlic with at least a 45) says he's no genius but he definitely has enough "on paper" smarts for the job.  Whether that translates to field smarts is going to determine what type of player he is, since physically he's certainly up to the task.

 

Hey, at least we finally have a QB over 6'2" tall!  (Two if you count Matt Simms...who no one counts.)

 I am 100% positive the SATs were out of 2400 when Geno took them because the SATs changed to the 2400 format in May 2005. Geno would have taken the SATs in 2008-2009

[Sperm Edwards]

Im not sure the SAT is a good judge of actual intelligence its an assessment test based on what you learned in HS and your readiness for College. Some atheletes do not put as much effort into learning when playing major college sports. Sure some do but for the most part book smarts should not play into the intelligence equasion.

 

"After taking an intelligence test early in his life, he was labelled 'Gifted'

 

I would base more on the intelligence test than anything else.

 

The SAT is an aptitude test.  Despite its obvious flaws it isn't definitively less accurate than an intelligence test at determining what Geno's got between the ears.  And who exactly labeled him as "gifted" anyway? Why is that opinion deemed more accurate or valuable than another test that he performed below average on?  The Wonderlic - which IS an intelligence test - is absurdly simple and he got a 24.  Not terrible, but clearly not "gifted" intelligence and it isn't like he didn't prepare at all for it - particularly as a QB.

 

Look, he's plenty smart enough to be a star QB and that's enough for me.  What he does with what he's got is what will determine if he's a beast or a bust, not what he got on a standardized test (be it an IQ test or the SAT or the Wonderlic). 

[Jetfan13]

excelled in the classroom with a 2.8 core GPA and 1390 SAT score

 

Last I checked, thats a high C, not quite excelling. Maybe it is a new scale also like the SAT. I didn't go to Miramar High but I lived in Miramar...this doesn't surprise me at all.

[Smashmouth]

Sounds like someone got < 700 on their SAT's back in the day.

 

I don't even know how to respond to your nonsense anymore.

[jetsjetsjetss]

excelled in the classroom with a 2.8 core GPA and 1390 SAT score

 

Last I checked, thats a high C, not quite excelling. Maybe it is a new scale also like the SAT. I didn't go to Miramar High but I lived in Miramar...this doesn't surprise me at all.

 

2.8 is normally a little above a B- (2.75)

 

but yea with that sat and gpa hes probably smart but hes no child prodigy

[Pac]

about time someone in the media said it...

 

Critics of Geno Smith everywhere ... but none of them believable

Gregg Doyel National Columnist

 

In a perfect world, Geno Smith becomes a star. He wins the starting job for the New York Jets. He wins games, awards, maybe even the Lombardi Trophy some day. 

 

Know who would lose, in that scenario? 

 

His critics. The gutless ones in the NFL who have savaged Smith for weeks behind the veil of anonymity. The mean-spirited ones in the media who have savaged Smith because it's safe, because
everyone else is doing it, so here's another story ripping him!  The guy from the scouting service, a guy whose name you recognize in 2013 if only because he did the same thing to Cam Newton in
2011.

 

I want Geno Smith to be right, because I want all those people to be wrong. Bad guys shouldn't win, and if Geno Smith becomes a star, they won't.

 

Maybe, just maybe, Smith is a bad guy himself. Time will tell, but today is not that time. Today is a day to stop swallowing what is being pushed toward your throat and start thinking for yourself. Who is attacking Geno Smith, and why? And where is the "information" coming from?

 

How, in a matter of months, did Geno Smith devolve from a humble, smart, hard-working kid at West Virginia to the scourge of the 2013 draft -- a cocky, disinterested, future flop in the NFL?

 

It started with Nolan Nawrocki. Well, it did. He's the guy from that scouting service who ambushed Cam Newton before the 2011 draft as being "disingenuous" and having a "fake smile" and then getting to the actual football by writing that Newton "will not prove worthy of an early investment. An overhyped, high-risk, high-reward selection with a glaring bust factor."

 

Cam Newton was the AP Offensive Rookie of the Year in 2011. He went to the Pro Bowl, threw for 4,051 yards, ran for 708 yards. And then he put up similar numbers in 2012.

 

Glaring bust, my ass.

 

Undeterred, Nawrocki went in on Geno Smith this year, predicting Smith would "be overdrafted and struggle to produce against NFL defensive complexities [because he] did not show an understanding of concepts on the white board [and is] not a student of the game."

 

Translation: Geno Smith is lazy and not very smart.

 

We don't know Nawrocki's sources, but we know the sources for these stories about Geno Smith from this past season at West Virginia, one in the Washington Post and another in the New York Times.

According to these stories Geno Smith is academically gifted, so smart that teachers offered to let him skip a grade in elementary school. By high school Smith was reading to hospital patients and working with teammates to help clean streets in Miramar, Fla.

Bad kid, Geno Smith? He sounds damn near perfect. He played chess. Wrote poetry. Won an oratorical contest by reciting a poem by Langston Hughes. And West Virginia offensive coordinator Shannon Dawson told the Post that Smith studied more film than any quarterback he'd ever seen.

But that's not the real Geno Smith, we're supposed to believe. And again, maybe it's not. Maybe he changed before the draft. Maybe stardom got to him. I'm not telling you it didn't happen; I'm telling you, I don't believe it happened just because anonymous sources with their own, unknown motivations say it did. My theory on this stuff? If you're going to rip somebody, put your name on it or shut the hell up. Anything less than full disclosure forces us to fill in the gaps, and I fill them in like so:

 

I don't believe you.

After Smith fell out of the first round, ESPN reported that he was going home. It didn't quote Smith, just reported it. People believed it. Smith stayed, and said his plan was always to stay. People didn't believe that. Why? Because the water already had been polluted by Nawrocki, and further muddied by Smith's fall out
of the first round, and now it was open season on Geno Smith.

 

Pro Football Talk piled on like an absolute champ with a story that dared Smith not to show up for Day 2 of the draft:

 

"If Smith doesn't return," the story waxed moronically, "he'll be confirming in the minds of many that he can't show grit and resolve under pressure. That he'll sink his head and slump his shoulders when the team is 14 points behind in the third quarter."

 

Lord have mercy.

 

Smith did return, but it was too late. Anonymous sources were everywhere, and Smith gave them fodder by firing his agents after his humiliating draft slide. The New York Daily News reported that he fired his agents because of his "belief that he would have -- and should have -- been the No. 1 overall pick ... even though he was given no assurances of his draft position."... even though he was given no assurances of his draft position.

 

Who do you suppose leaked that?

Smith countered that he fired his agents because they gave him bad advice -- to skip the Senior Bowl. EJ Manuel went to the Senior Bowl and won MVP and was the only quarterback drafted in the first round. Geno Smith skipped it and slipped to Round 2, though he acknowledged that skipping the Senior Bowl "was a decision I ultimately made."

 

Mature response. No matter. The wolves were out. Yahoo reported that Smith spent too much time on the phone when he was visiting with teams before the draft. ESPN.com had a source who couldn't come up with anything specific to smear him with, just the overall sense that Smith "is coming off as a spoiled, pampered brat."

Again, for the final time, maybe he is. Maybe. But that's not who Geno Smith was in college. It's not who Geno Smith was in high school. It's not who he was before that, when he was ripping through school so easily, so earnestly, that he was given the option of skipping a grade.

 

But that's who Geno Smith is now? I don't believe it.

 

Be great, Geno Smith. For yourself.

 

And them.

 

 

[BurnleyJet]

ESPN recruiting, Geno’s positives were listed with release, pocket awareness and arm strength among the positives.

All the things that Sanchez sucks at.

[Maxman]

Is that SAT score the old kind (1600 max) or the new kind (2400 max)?  1390 on the old SAT = he's super smart.  1390 on the new SAT = he's certainly not neanderthal stupid, but he's hardly got "gifted" intelligence, considering an enormous portion of his score (600) was awarded for filling in the bubbles for, and writing, his name 3 times.

 

24 on his Wonderlic (the average score for a QB) says he's smart enough to be a stud QB.  This and his 1390 SAT score (likely out of 2400 or he'd have aced the Wonderlic with at least a 45) says he's no genius but he definitely has enough "on paper" smarts for the job.  Whether that translates to field smarts is going to determine what type of player he is, since physically he's certainly up to the task.

 

Hey, at least we finally have a QB over 6'2" tall!  (Two if you count Matt Simms...who no one counts.)

 

It has to be the new one, I believe they made that change in 2005.

 

And agreed on the scores.  A 1390 on the old test would have been impressive.

[Bleedin Green]

It has to be the new one, I believe they made that change in 2005.

 

And agreed on the scores.  A 1390 on the old test would have been impressive.

 

Extraordinarily impressive considering that's even higher than what I scored on the old test, and I'm much smarter than all of you morons.