Tramel's ScissorTales: Geno Smith back in the spotlight, 10 years after his Big 12 debut

On Nov. 10, 2012, the West Virginia Mountaineers came to Stillwater and were beaten 55-34 by OSU, which scored the game’s final 17 points. It was WVU’s fourth straight loss.

But quarterback Geno Smith was effective. He completed 36 of 54 passes for 364 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions.

A week later, the Sooners went to Morgantown. That was the famous Tavon Austin game. OU won 50-49, on Landry Jones’ final-seconds touchdown pass to Kenny Stills, but Austin rushed for an incredible 344 yards on 21 carries.

Smith was good, too. He completed 20 of 35 passes for 320 yards, four TDs and two interceptions.

But West Virginia suffered its fifth straight defeat. Smith and the Mountaineers were doomed to a disappointing season.

That was WVU’s first year in the Big 12. It was Smith’s first and last year in the Big 12.

The season had started swimmingly, with the Mountaineers going 5-0 and rising to No. 5 in The Associated Press poll. In those five games, Smith had thrown for 24 touchdowns, no interceptions and 1,996 yards while completing 81.4% of his passes.

Smith was considered a Heisman Trophy favorite.

That was 10 years ago. And not until now has Smith again found real success on the gridiron.

Smith slipped to the second round of the 2013 NFL Draft, taken by the Jetropolitans, who made him their starting quarterback.

Smith didn’t play well as a rookie in 2013 – few rookies do – but the Jets went 8-8. The next year, Smith played better but the Jets went 3-10 with him as the starter, and he soon enough was demoted.

The next two years, Smith was Ryan Fitzpatrick’s backup in New York, then Smith began an odyssey that included stops with the Giants, Chargers and finally the Seahawks.

Smith backed up Russell Wilson the last two years in Seattle, going 1-2 as a starter, but in the off-season, the Seahawks traded Wilson to the Broncos, seemed to be going in tank mode and made Smith the starter.

The Seahawks haven’t tanked. Seattle is 6-3 and leads the National Conference West. Smith has completed 73.1% of his passes, with 15 touchdowns and four interceptions.

He’s not exactly the comeback player of the year, since Smith never had real NFL success to start with.

He’s not a most valuable player candidate. That’s the domain of the Josh Allens and Patrick Mahomeses.

But Smith if there was an award for most inspirational player, he would be at the front of the line. A player condemned to backup, journeyman status for seven full seasons suddenly reemerges as the leader of one of the NFL’s most successful franchises.

A team predicted to be one of the league’s worst is instead one of its best.

When coaches, fans, media, everyone “wrote me off ... I never wrote back,” Smith famously said earlier in the season. “I’ve just been working.

“As far as worrying about naysayer or anything like that, I don’t get into that type of stuff. People can write you off, but life is about what you make it. I’ve just been blessed enough to be in the NFL for 10 years and been working my butt off.”

It’s been a strange ride. Smith seemed headed for Big 12 glory. Then he didn’t even make all-conference. Smith seemed headed for Broadway status with the Jets; then he became an NFL journeyman.

But now Smith quarterbacks the Seahawks, and he’s the story of the year in the NFL.

Falcons at Panthers: Atlanta 26-7. Ouch. This is really going to test the hunger for pro football. Carolina-Atlanta, Thursday night, Amazon Prime streaming.

Seahawks vs. Buccaneers in Munich, Germany: Seattle 23-20. We never think about Munich much anymore. Fifty years ago, Munich hosted the tragic 1972 Olympics. Munich today is a city of about 1.6 million people, with a urban population (Europe has strange-to-us designations) of about three million and a metro/regional population of about six million.

Vikings at Bills: Buffalo 30-13. Bad break for Minnesota that the Jets upset the Bills last week. They won’t be happy in Buffalo.

Lions at Bears: Chicago 28-17. Justin Fields has come alive with the Bears. These teams are only a half game apart in the standings but the gap seems a lot wider.

Broncos at Titans: Tennessee 23-6. The Titans put the kibosh on Patrick Mahomes. I assume they can put the kibosh on Russell Wilson.

Jaguars at Chiefs: Kansas City 34-16. Patrick Mahomes is fun to watch, win, lose or overtime.

Browns at Dolphins: Miami 27-16. Three games left for 3-5 Cleveland to play without Deshaun Watson.

Texans at Giants: New York 13-10. Still only five teams with winning records in the National Football Conference, and the G-Men are one of the five. They would have to lose four straight to fall from that status.

Saints at Steelers: New Orleans 20-16. How far has Pittsburgh slipped? Only two teams have a worse record than the Steelers’ 2-6. Houston is 1-6-1; Carolina is 2-7.

Colts at Raiders: Las Vegas 31-13. Indianapolis demoted quarterback Matt Ryan two weeks, fired offensive coordinator Marcus Brady last week and fired head coach Frank Reich this week. Is general manager Chris Ballard next week?

Cowboys at Packers: Dallas 29-10. The Cowboys might have the better offense even if Cooper Rush still was playing quarterback.

Cardinals at Rams: Los Angeles 23-21. The Rams are 3-5; Arizona is 3-6. The loser can start thinking about 2023.

Chargers at 49ers: San Francisco 24-20. The 49ers 4-4. The Chargers are 5-3. But why does everything seem fine in Santa Clara but not so much in Costa Mesa?

Commanders at Eagles: Philadelphia 24-20. Give Washington credit. The Commanders are hanging tough in football’s best division.

Last week: 9-4. Season: 78-57-1.

More:How can Oklahoma State football get its touted defensive line back on track?

Why the playoff committee dropped Tennessee to No. 5

The second College Football Playoff rankings were unveiled Tuesday night, with Texas Christian rising to No. 4, behind Georgia, Ohio State and Michigan. Tennessee and Oregon were ranked 5-6.

CFP committee chairman Boo Corrigan conducted a teleconference after the announcement.

And here’s a stunner for you. No one asked a question about TCU. Literally no one. We don’t have a horse in this race, but I might have to jump on the teleconference next week and get some Horned Frog insight.

Here are excerpts, with my responses.

Q. Last week you said Ohio State was one of the three teams you were considering at No. 1 along with Georgia and Tennessee. (Is) Ohio State still getting any consideration at No. 1, and (is) that was a reflection on the way that Northwestern win went for them or if it was just Georgia separating with the way it beat Tennessee.

Corrigan: “Yeah, I think there was consideration given to everyone, but I think as we got more into it, the decisive win by Georgia over Tennessee was the primary reason. Again, you're looking at Ohio State and the balanced offensive scoring, scoring defense, scoring offense both being in the top 10, averaging 47 points a game. Really good team. But we felt that Georgia separated.”

Tramel: Balanced. These committee chairs love the word balance more than I love Sonic’s cherry root beers, and I love cherry root beers. I’m not saying Ohio State’s not a great team. I am saying keep your offensive and defensive stats to yourself when the Buckeyes’ opponents include Arkansas State, Toledo, Rutgers and Northwestern.

Q. Also on Georgia-Tennessee, what conversely went into the decision to keep Tennessee up there pretty high, still the highest of the one-loss teams?”

Corrigan: “Looking at the Alabama win, looking at the LSU win, looking at the Kentucky win, we do value wins. TCU with their record, six wins over .500 teams, teams above .500, what they've done, what Max Duggan has done at TCU, again, I don't think it was as much what Tennessee didn't do as much as what TCU did do, and Georgia played really, really well, as everyone saw, and what they did with their defense versus the Tennessee offense was incredibly impressive.”

Tramel: My problem is with the question. Why keep Tennessee that high? Why did the committee drop Tennessee so low? The Volunteers beat Alabama and won going away at Louisiana State. Drop the Vols four slots just because they played Georgia? That’s madness. Tennessee was much more impressive than Ohio State and Michigan before Saturday, and the Vols were more impressive on Saturday, even in a dominant defeat.

Q. How much does the committee look at margin of defeat to common opponents, with the obvious one in this case being your No. 5 and No. 6 teams, Tennessee and Oregon, both having lost to the same team (Georgia)?

Corrigan: "As a committee I think we're looking at the game itself, and is it more one-sided. From our standpoint, it's not this one was X number of points and this one was X number of points from that standpoint. You look at the overall game, the flow of the game, and making sure that we're doing the evaluation on the overall big picture as opposed to a late score or an early score, that type of thing.”

Tramel: I like that. Some 14-point games are tight. Some are blowouts that got a little closer at the end.

Q. When you guys were evaluating Ohio State this week, how much did the weather that Ohio State played in at Northwestern factor into your evaluation and ultimate decision to keep Ohio State at No. 2?

Corrigan: “As we looked at all the different factors, whether it's injuries or going back to last year, coach not being available, those types of things, we're going to consider weather, as well, and it was a topic of discussion as we went through it, just as everything else is, just to make sure we understand all the factors as well as the time that people spend watching the game and being able to reflect on that.”

Tramel: Northwestern played in the wind, too. And it was 7-7 in the third quarter, Ohio State against a team that hasn’t won this season in the Western Hemisphere? And we’re supposed to cut the Buckeyes some slack? Ohio State should dominate Northwestern without ever needing to throw the ball.

Q. You put Clemson at No. 10. Did you feel like you maybe overvalued Clemson last week, or was this related to the way they looked against Notre Dame, or was it both?

Corrigan: “Coming off of last week, the win over Wake, over N.C. State, Florida State, Syracuse, this was in large part based on the game that they played against Notre Dame and how that game went at the time, an unranked Notre Dame team that has been improving and is improving. But in large case it was the Notre Dame game itself.”

Tramel: No kidding. I’ll cut Corrigan some slack. Often times, his answer is way better than the question deserves.

Q. What specifically separates Tennessee from Oregon at 5 and 6?

Corrigan: “I think the wins. As a committee, as we talk about it, the wins over Alabama, the win over LSU and Kentucky, in looking at that, with Oregon you've got eight consecutive wins, a win over UCLA, but at this point as we're looking at it, I think that was the primary reason. As we were looking at two really, really good football teams, we felt that Tennessee was deserving of the 5 and Oregon of the 6.

Tramel: Asking specifically what separates Tennessee and Oregon is like asking what separates roast beef from beef jerkey. Nothing against the Ducks; I think Oregon can make the playoff. But Tennessee has two fantastic wins.

Q. Do you judge the quality wins differently week to week? In other words, if you have a top-10 win but then that team drops significantly, do you judge those differently week to week?

Corrigan: “Over the course of the season, what we're looking at is the body of work of the team as a whole and making sure that we're doing the evaluation with a clean sheet every week, but making sure that we're taking everything into account going back to the previous question about weather or injuries or anything else and making sure we really dive as deep as we can on as many levels as we can.”

Tramel: That’s a good question and a fair answer. Hard to know for sure. Here’s an example. When Kansas State beat OU in September, seemed like a great win for the Wildcats. Now, not so much. So do the Wildcats get any credit for beating what OU was or we thought was? Probably the answer is somewhere in the middle.

Q. Between LSU and Oregon, is Oregon ahead because they simply have the one loss, or was that actually a pretty close discussion despite the fact that LSU has two losses?

Corrigan: “We talked about everything. We have multiple teams on the board. We're looking at as much information as we can find on it. Obviously, the LSU wins the last couple of weeks with Alabama and Mississippi has played in strong. If you think back to last week, we had LSU at 10, so there was a lot of respect for LSU going into that room. Again, the Oregon piece of losing that game early and averaging over 40 points in their last eight games, the job that Bo Nix has done both running for touchdowns and throwing for touchdowns, it's really an impressive team, as well. Again, we're looking at everything that we can find as well as watching the games and making sure we're doing a full evaluation.”

Tramel: The truth about the committee is that it doesn’t like to step outside the line of ranking teams by number of defeats. When it does, it’s impressive. Like LSU at No. 7 over Southern Cal. Alabama at No. 9 over Clemson, Ole Miss and UCLA. Utah and Penn State over No. 15 North Carolina. It needs to do more of that, starting with Tennessee over every team except Georgia.

Q. Just wanted to ask about Michigan and them moving up to No. 3. How close were they with Ohio State? Did they have any consideration for No. 2?

Corrigan: “Again, we put them up and we talked about each team individually. We talk about them in groupings to make sure that we've got it in the right area or in the right spot as we go through this. The win over Rutgers this weekend and the second half in particular and the way they've played, they've done a really good job of pulling away from teams. As you look at Ohio State, obviously they both have the win over Penn State but Ohio State has that win over Notre Dame. Both have top-10 scoring offenses, top-10 scoring defenses, and we're going to continue to evaluate it as we move forward. If anything, that non-conference schedule from Michigan has been a factor.”

Tramel: Good information. What we expected a good committee to surmise – that the Buckeyes beating Notre Dame vs. Michigan's non-conference schedule of Colorado State, Hawaii and Connecticut should be the determining factor – came to pass.

Q. Back to the Tennessee and Oregon comparison, both playing Georgia, you did mention both games that you thought Georgia had control of that game and it was kind of one-sided, but do you factor in Tennessee actually had a lead in that game? It was early, 3-0 in the first quarter; do you look at that? Also, do you factor in the elements with the rain in that game?

Corrigan: “Yeah, we're going to look at everything associated with it. You've got to take the total 60 minutes when you're watching the game and making sure that you're doing an evaluation from that standpoint. Again, really good -- Tennessee is a really good team with big wins at the top. Hendon Hooker has had a great year to date. Their defense is giving up about 22 points a game and playing well. Again, as we look at it, it's not this quarter here's what the score was; everything changed. At this point we're looking at the totality of the game and making sure that we're making the right decisions as a group.”

Tramel: He didn’t answer the weather question. Bring in weather place, you’ve got to bring in weather in another.

Q. Concerning USC and UCLA, USC is ranked four spots higher but both teams have a similar strength of schedule, UCLA has two ranked wins and UCLA beat the team that beat USC, and UCLA's loss is to a higher ranked team. What kind of balanced out those factors and ended up making USC the higher ranked team?

Corrigan: “I think the one-point loss by USC at Utah, going for two, the emotion of that game is something that the committee certainly has talked about the job that Caleb Williams has done with the 28 touchdown passes, one of the top offenses in the country, putting up 41 points. That being said, there's a lot of respect for UCLA, with their one loss being to Oregon by 15 at Oregon. Again, we're taking what we have to date and going to continue to evaluate and make sure that what we're doing and how we're looking at this is in the best interest of college football and making sure we get the top 15 right.”

Tramel: This is a case of got-ya. The committee clearly erred on USC/UCLA. The Bruins have a marquee win in Utah. The Trojans do not. Easy choice. UCLA should be ranked higher.

Tramel: SEC football is getting even tougher, and it's not because of the Sooners

National pregame: Lane Kiffin vs. Nick Saban

Jimbo Fisher and Kirby Smart beat Lane Kiffin to the punch. In the last 13 months, Texas A&M's Fisher and Georgia’s Smart became the first former Nick Saban assistants to beat the old boss.

But Kiffin can become the third Saban lieutenant to do it, Saturday when Ole Miss hosts Alabama.

Bama, 7-2, is ranked higher, ninth to the Rebels’ No. 11. But Mississippi, 8-1, has a better record and a much easier path to the Southeastern Conference title game, since Alabama needs Louisiana State to lose twice.

Of course, easy path is not a good description when it includes beating the Crimson Tide. Bama leads this historic series 54-9-2. Ole Miss pulled upsets in 2014 and 2015, but otherwise, the Rebels have beaten the Tide just twice since 1988.

Alabama’s demise is overstated. The Crimson Tide lost to Tennessee 52-49 on a walkoff field goal and to LSU 32-31 on a walkoff two-point conversion in overtime.

But Bama is vulnerable. It beat Texas 20-19 on a last-play field goal and Texas A&M 24-20 on a last-play defensive stand at the goal line.

Kiffin is buying nothing of Bama’s demise.

“I call it goat fuel -- the opposite of rat poison,” Kiffin said, referring the latter to Saban’s phrase for Bama praise.

Doubting Alabama, “You're just giving the goat fuel, which for him, that works, and he goes and proves them wrong every time. This is the best of the best. They are always ready to play. They always rebound over the years.”

Kiffin says Alabama has the best offensive player in the country (quarterback Bryce Young) and the best defensive player in the country (linebacker Will Anderson).

He’s not wrong. But four teams have taken Alabama to the wire, and two lived to celebrate. If Ole Miss can get this game into the fourth quarter, watch out.

Upset special: North Carolina over Wake Forest

Is any college football team more under the radar than North Carolina? The Tar Heels are 8-1 overall, 5-0 in the Atlantic Coast, yet they are ranked just 15^th, one slot ahead of North Carolina State and two slots ahead of Tulane.

Carolina has played the easy side of the ACC schedule – let's see; the best conference win for the Tar Heels is either Pittsburgh or Duke – but UNC did beat Appalachian State and lost to now-surging Notre Dame.

Saturday, Carolina plays at in-state foe Wake Forest, which is 6-3 overall and gives up points like they’re coming out of a fire hydrant.

Of course, so do the Tar Heels. Both teams win with big-time quarterbacks – Carolina's Drake Maye is a budding star, and Wake’s Sam Hartman is prolific.

The Tar Heels have dominated the series historically, but Wake has won seven of the last 14 meetings, making a case for the school doing the most with the least in all of college football.

And get this. Wake is favored, by four points. Las Vegas must think homefield advantage is paramount in this series, and the Demon Deacons indeed have beaten North Carolina three straight times in Winston-Salem.

But Carolina is the better team. Go with the Tar Heels in the upset.

Coach on the hot seat: Justin Wilcox

Sonny Dykes is a pretty good football coach, wouldn’t you say? Cal-Berkeley fired Dykes after a three-year stretch of 18-19 in 2014-16.

OK, so the ultimate Texan Dykes wasn’t a great fit in Berkeley. But Justin Wilcox is a great fit. The Golden Bear linebacker-turned-head coach went 20-18 his first three years on the job, 2017-19, but is just 9-16 since.

This Cal team is 3-6, 1-5 in the Pac-12, and can make the case for being the conference’s worst team – and there are plenty of candidates.

Wilcox signed a six-year contract extension last off-season, but the buyout is minimal -- $3.6 million. This isn’t Texas A&M.

California plays at Oregon State on Saturday. The Golden Bears will be big underdogs. But they were big underdogs last week at Southern Cal and hung tough with the Trojans. Play tough again, and maybe Cal decision-makers won’t let their eyes wander too far over to that enticing buyout.

Ranking the top 10 games

1. Alabama at Ole Miss, 2:30 p.m. Saturday, CBS: How’s this for role reversal? Mississippi has more at stake in this game than does Bama. The Rebels, with just one Southeastern Conference loss, have an easier path to the league championship game.

2. Texas Christian at Texas, 6:30 p.m. Saturday, ABC: Massive game with playoff implications. Oregon, Tennessee, Southern Cal, UCLA. All kinds of fan bases are on Team Bevo this week.

3. Washington at Oregon, 6 p.m. Saturday, Fox: The Huskies are a quiet 7-2, but quarterback Michael Penix Jr. is quite capable of engineering an upset.

4. Georgia at Mississippi State, 6 p.m. Saturday, ESPN: It’s almost Thanksgiving, and the Bulldogs have played two true road games – at South Carolina, at Missouri, and Georgia struggled in the latter.

5. Central Florida at Tulane, 2:30 p.m. Saturday: A UCF victory could set up a three-way tie atop the American Conference standings.

6. North Carolina at Wake Forest, 6:30 p.m. Saturday, ESPN2: The Tar Heels try to stay on the fringe of playing contention; they’ve beaten Wake 58-55 and 59-53 the last two years.

7. Kansas State at Baylor, 6 p.m. Saturday, Fox Sports1: The Big 12’s third- and fourth-most successful programs over the last dozen years, and one could be headed to the Big 12 Championship Game.

8. Purdue at Illinois, 11 a.m. Saturday, ESPN2: The Illini clinch the Big Ten West with a victory.

9. Louisiana State at Arkansas, 11 a.m. Saturday, ESPN: The Tigers can eliminate Alabama from SEC Championship Game consideration.

10. Louisville at Clemson, 2:30 p.m. Saturday, ESPN: The Tigers seem out of College Football Playoff contention, ranked 10th. But you never know. Louisville could end all doubt.

More:Thunder rookie Jalen Williams surprises Tinker troops for Veteran's Day

The List: Thunder field-goal percentages

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had another monster game Wednesday night in what is becoming a monster season. The Thunder lost to Milwaukee 136-132 in double overtime, but SGA scored 39 points on 13 of 25 shooting. He’s now averaged 31.6 points while shooting 53.7 percent from the field.

That’s remarkable efficiency for such a high number of points. Here are the 10 best individual shooting seasons in the Thunder’s 14-year history among players who averaged at least 20 points a game.

1. Kevin Durant, .510, 2014-15 (only 27 games) 2. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, .508, 2020-21

3. Kevin Durant, .505, 2015-16

4. Kevin Durant, .503, 2013-14

5. Kevin Durant, .510, 2012-13

6. Kevin Durant, .496, 2011-12

7. Kevin Durant, .476, 2009-10

8. Kevin Durant, .476, 2008-09

9. Kevin Durant, .462, 2010-11

10. Russell Westbrook, .457, 2011-12

Mailbag: OSU tiebreakers in Big 12 football

I wrote Monday about how OSU remains alive in the hunt for the Big 12 Championship Game, with the caveat, of course, that the Cowboys remember how to block and tackle.

My scenario was not far-fetched, other than the aforementioned problem of winning some games.

Phil: “Can you explain how the head-to-head with KSU would not put the Wildcats ahead of the Cowboys in the scenario you present in your article?”

Tramel: Sure. Remember, my scenario called for OSU winning out, TCU winning out and Baylor beating Kansas State.

The latter would make KSU finish with at least three losses. The TCU sweep would add at least a third loss on each of Texas and Baylor. The OSU sweep would get the Cowboys in at 6-3.

OSU would win most every tiebreaker except a two-team tie with KSU. So as long as Texas and Baylor get in on the tie at 6-3, or KSU falls below 6-3, the Cowboys would be in tiebreaker heaven. Beating both Baylor and Texas is the tiebreaking key.

Other things could happen that would muddle the pot – Baylor and/or Texas being upset elsewhere and falling to 5-4 – but if OSU can get to a second-place tie at 6-3, the Cowboys are in great shape.

Berry Tramel: Berry can be reached at 405-760-8080 or at btramel@oklahoman.com. He can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including FM-98.1. Support his work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today. 

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: West Virginia's Geno Smith finally strikes it big in the NFL