THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Geno Smith and the West Virginia Mountaineers played their first Big 12 game Saturday. They wasted no time reworking its record book.
Smith tied a conference mark with eight touchdown passes and threw for 656 yards to lead No. 9 West Virginia to a 70-63 win over No. 25 Baylor.
Smith outdueled Baylor’s Nick Florence, who had a standout game of his own with 581 yards and five TDs.
How wild was it? Smith had more TD passes than incompletions (six).
The Bears’ Terrance Williams set a Big 12 record with 314 yards receiving. The old mark was set minutes earlier by West Virginia’s Stedman Bailey, who had 303 yards and a school-record five TDs.
Williams’ 8-yard scoring catch brought Baylor (3-1) within 70-63 with 3:08 left.
But Dustin Garrison ran for 17 yards on third down and the Mountaineers (4-0) ran out the clock to snap Baylor’s nine-game winning streak, the second-longest in the nation.
The teams combined for 1,507 yards of offence and 37 first downs. Six receivers had at least 100 yards receiving.
The record books were rewritten for the schools, the conference and the FBS as West Virginia made its Big 12 debut after moving over from Big East.
It also marked the most points scored in a game involving a team ranked in The Associated Press poll. The previous record of 124 was set in No. 12 Oklahoma’s 82-42 win over Colorado in 1980.
The combined 19 touchdowns tied an FBS mark, last reached when Navy beat North Texas 74-62 in 2007. That matchup set the FBS record for most points in a regulation game at 136.
Baylor, meanwhile, tied an FBS mark for the most points scored by a losing team.
Among the other records, Smith set school marks for completions, yards and touchdown passes. He still doesn’t have an interception this season.
Bailey and Tavon Austin became the first FBS teammates with 200 yards receiving since 2007.
West Virginia went ahead for good early in the third quarter, but Baylor almost always had an answer.
Austin made long touchdown grabs three minutes apart while Baylor punted and missed a long field goal. Smith stayed in a groove, throwing three passes of 45 yards or more in the third quarter alone. His 47-yarder to Bailey set up Andrew Buie’s second short TD run for a 56-35 lead.
The way this game was going, though, no cushion seemed safe.
Williams caught a 37-yard scoring pass from Florence and, after Baylor’s defence forced a rare punt, Florence’s sneak brought the Bears within 56-49, and there was still 14:14 left.
But Bailey scored on TD grabs of 87 and 39 yards after that.
West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen talked at length about how impatient he got watching Maryland’s offence run the clock down before each snap last week.
There was no chance of a slowdown from Baylor.
The teams scored on 10 of their final 13 possessions of the first half. Seven of those drives lasted under two minutes.
Smith completed a school-record 14 straight passes at one point. After a dropped pass, Smith completed 12 more in a row.
Smith’s fourth TD pass came with 29 seconds left until halftime, but that was more than enough time for Florence. On second down he threw down the left sideline to Lanear Sampson, who juked two defenders and went 67 yards untouched to tie the score at 35-35.
The Mountaineers now must hope they can generate points before on the road when they head to No. 12 Texas and Texas Tech over the next two weeks.