MORGANTOWN — Bill Stewart gathered his team around him on Monday as game week finally began.
“Saturday, at noon, our journey will begin,” Stewart said. “Remember, the first impression is the most lasting. What will your role be in it?”
That was the food for thought Stewart was putting forth before West Virginia University’s opener against Division I-AA Liberty, a team that was 10-2 last year but which suffered massive losses through graduation.
But they are not the only team that had losses. West Virginia, too, is trying to create a new identity itself without Patrick White at quarterback and with a rebuilt offensive line.
That makes it a journey into the unknown, and Stewart knows it.
“I do not know where this football team is,” he admitted as he began his Tuesday afternoon media conference.
He knows his team worked hard. He knows they had a physical camp, a hard-hitting camp.
But there is so much more.
“The barometer is the opponent,” he said.
While it is the same every year, the anticipation is hard to deal with.
“I want to see us play. The staff wants to see us play. The fans want to see us play. The players want to play,” he said.
They have hit each other, run routes against each other, but in the end that is teammate on teammate. It lacks the emotion that comes with a real game, the anxious moments in the tunnel waiting to enter the field, the filled stands, officials, scoreboard working, PA announcer on.
Stewart thought back to his own playing years, to his first game.
“There’s a rush that goes through you that’s unknown to man unless he has been in the arena,” he said.
So many questions, so few answers.
“I don’t know about Tavon Austin,” Stewart said, referring to his freshman wunderkind who has proved himself to be elusive and evasive in camp. “I don’t know if he’ll run the right way or the wrong way. I want to see Jarrett Brown. I want to see the offensive line. I want to see Ricky Kovatch.”
As a coach you think you know, but then didn’t Rich Rodriguez think Pitt would be easy pickings two years ago?
Stewart offered some news during the course of the day.
Jock Sanders’ summer-long suspension is over. He will start at the slot.
“He’s done everything that’s been asked of him,” the coach said.
Sidney Glover, who has battled injuries all camp, will not start at safety, putting that job into the hands of senior Nate Sowers.
“He has not played enough football to start,” Stewart said of Glover, who came into camp figuring to be the starter.
Perhaps the offensive line has Stewart the most anxious, but there’s nothing he can do about it now.
“I’m excited about the offensive line,” Stewart said. “There’s no waiver wire. They’re our guys and I love them.”
And then there’s the matter of how well he patched up the kickoff unit that gave opponents many happy returns ... too many. He spent a lot of time visiting pro camps to check on their schemes. He has altered personnel. Even as late as Tuesday afternoon he had them going in full contact to put the finishing touches on.
“I want to see it today so Saturday it won’t be a thrill a minute,” Stewart said.
Like any coach, Stewart is getting antsy.
“I wish it was Friday,” he said. But then, after thinking about it for a while, he added, “but when Friday gets here I’ll wish it was Tuesday.”
o o o o o o
Right now about the only player who figures to miss Saturday’s game is special teams player Trippe Hale.
E-mail Bob Hertzel at bhertzel@hotmail.com.
Bob Herzel
Stewart: Journey begins Saturday
- Bob Herzel
-
-
Jones nears milestone as Notre Dame visits WVU
That it is a crucial game in a season that seems to have nothing but, today’s 9 p.m. visit to the Coliseum by a streaking Notre Dame team comes with a historical footnote in the history of West Virginia University basketball.
Kevin Jones enters the game having scored 20 or more points in nine consecutive games. -
WVU source: Battle to join Big 12 nearing conclusion
Indications were growing that West Virginia University’s battle to leave the Big East and join the Big 12 in time for the 2012 season was about to be won, possibly as early as today.
A source within the Mountaineer athletic department said on Tuesday that the matter was nearing a conclusion and also told the Times West Virginian that West Virginia would be reinstating a golf team to compete in the Big 12. -
HERTZEL COLUMN: WVU, Irish strikingly similar
Consider, if you will, that it is Nov. 25 past, that the West Virginia University basketball team is running a routine drill four games into its season, getting ready for the Akron game when Kevin Jones goes down in a heap on the floor, his ACL torn, his season over.
-
WVU source: Battle to join Big 12 nearing conclusion
Indications were growing that West Virginia University’s battle to leave the Big East and join the Big 12 in time for the 2012 season was about to be won, possibly as early as today.
-
HERTZEL COLUMN - Truck drives Mountaineers to needed win
Perhaps it is what has kept him going through a West Virginia basketball career with as many turns as a trip to Pineville down in Wyoming County, but Truck Bryant enjoys being Truck Bryant.
-
WVU finds a way, wins in overtime
Truck Bryant made the headline plays, including a 3-point shot with 3.3 seconds left to play, as West Virginia saved its season with an 87-84 overtime victory at Providence, but the subheads had to be reserved for Deniz Kilicli and a pair of freshman guards.
-
Mountaineers face critical test today at Providence
The schedule tells you it’s another game in the marathon run that is the Big East season, a trip to Providence to play a team with only two conference victories, but somehow everyone connected with the West Virginia University program knows today’s noon meeting with the Friars is much more than that.
-
HERTZEL COLUMN: Jones on the brink of WVU history
On the one hand there is yesterday’s Warren Baker, who entered the WVU Athletic Hall of Fame in the latest class for the work he did from 1973 to 1976, and on the other hand there is today’s star Kevin Jones, who has emerged from the shadows of the likes of Joe Alexander and Da’Sean Butler this year to carve his own niche in Mountaineer basketball history.
-
WVU backs out of Florida State game
West Virginia University has canceled its Sept. 8 football game at Florida State.
Once again, as they have done with virtually everything since announcing they planned to move from the Big East to the Big 12, they did it behind closed doors, without any announcement or statement. -
WVU women upset Louisville
It is foolhardy to put it up there with the Baylors and Notre Dames of the women’s world just yet, but really if you look closely and see potential, much of which came out Saturday afternoon when the Mountaineers upset No. 12/14 Louisville, 66-50, you realize that this team is closer to greatness than it is to mediocrity.
- More Bob Herzel Headlines
-
Jones nears milestone as Notre Dame visits WVU
