Cowboys’ Smith puts on a show

LARAMIE, Wyo. >> As Chris Gant watched, he saw something he’d seen only on television.

The Hawaii receiver looked on as Wyoming’s quarterback ran it for big plays and tossed it for even bigger ones. He seemed to score at will.

And that made Gant wonder.

“Is that (Johnny) Manziel?” Gant said comparing Wyoming’s Brett Smith to the Texas A&M quarterback and Heisman Trophy winner.

“He played an outstanding game. He’s a great quarterback.”

That’s one way to describe Smith’s performance.

The junior finished with Mountain West records in total offense (640 yards) and total touchdowns (eight), and tied for the conference record in passing touchdowns (seven).

All that and Wyoming (5-6 overall, 3-4 conference) still needed an overtime field goal to pull out a 59-56 win over the Rainbow Warriors.

Smith came into the game looking to break the Wyoming record for career yardage, needing just 7 yards to pass Casey Bramlet.

He got that with an 8-yard run on the first play from scrimmage.

From there, Smith guided his offense to 793 total yards and eight trips to the end zone. The 793 total yards ranks second in the NCAA this season. Smith’s 640 yards of total offense is also the best performance by an individual player in the NCAA this season. He topped the old mark set by SMU’s Garrett Gilbert (635) against Temple.

“Obviously I kind of realize I said (before the game) my confidence had wavered a little bit, but at the same time I think a reason why I was able to stay positive was I knew that we were capable of making these plays and I knew that we’d be able to have this kind of success … if we just string together drives and just come together,” Smith said.

Hawaii quarterback Sean Schroeder had a big game of his own, finishing with 499 yards passing, the best individual performance in the conference this season. Sitting just behind him is Smith with 498.

“We were trying to go out and score every possession, that was our goal,” Schroeder said. We came close to it, but we didn’t make enough plays, though, on offense.”

The two teams combined for 1,417 yards of total offense.

Smith’s favorite targets, Robert Herron and Dominic Rufran, finished with 141 and 121 yards receiving. In all, Smith connected with eight receivers, half of whom caught at least one touchdown.

“It’s awesome, not just me and my performance, but I feel like he spread the ball a lot, got a lot of receivers looks and they made big plays too,” Herron said. “It feels good when everybody is just clicking.”

Hawaii coach Norm Chow called Smith’s effort “a tremendous job” and noted that scheming a defense against him is hard because of how he runs the football.

It’s a performance he hopes not to see again.

“(He’s a) junior? Oh boy,” Chow said. “Maybe he’ll go out early.”