By Bob Hertzel
MORGANTOWN — The day still sticks in Bill Stewart’s mind, try as he might to erase the memory.
His team had gone on the road to Tampa, Fla., to play the South Florida Bulls and, to be quite honest, the Mountaineers stunk the place up.
At that time a couple of catch phrases were born as Stewart tried to gather his team together and start the season anew.
The first was “Remember November.”
“After the tough USF loss, we went with the motto ‘Remember November’,” Stewart said. “We knew it was a four-game season from there on. We’ve been blessed to win two. We lost to the No. 5-ranked team in the nation (Cincinnati) at their place by three points. Then we had an emotional win over a Top 10 opponent (Pitt) this week in the Backyard Brawl.”
Indeed, it was a November to remember, the valiant effort at Cincinnati, playing a team that believes it is good enough to be national champion to a standstill and then slapping Pitt around and winning on a last-second field goal by Tyler Bitancurt.
The second catch phrase that has grown out of this season is “Finish the fight.”
Indeed, all season Stewart has referred to the Big East season as a seven-round fight, each game a round.
Now there is only one round left, the final round.
“It’s round seven of the Big East battles,” Stewart said. “The signs are up already and it’s on their practice schedules. I tell them to just finish the fight. I want to be 5-2 and be second in the league. We have won the Big East title before at 5-1, so this big.”
To go to 5-2 in the conference and keep alive a chance to win 10 games, including the bowl game, he must beat Rutgers and Stewart understands that will not be an easy chore on the road.
He believes it certainly isn’t made any easier as the talk began almost as soon as Bitancurt’s field goal cleared the crossbar about a potential Gator Bowl bid and it’s talk he doesn’t want to hear.
“I can’t stop what people put out there,” Stewart said. “As soon as we got off the field on Friday night, I started hearing things about the Gator Bowl and the Meineke Car Care Bowl.
“It’s the same thing I said last season — let us get through Game 12 before we worry about Game 13,” he continued. “It would be so much easier on keeping these young men focused. I’m going to have to rely on the seniors to keep this bunch focused. We are playing Rutgers before we play in any bowl.”
And Stewart respects the Scarlet Knights, even though they’ve had an up and down season that included a stunning loss at Syracuse but that also included dominating victories over Louisville and the same South Florida team that beat WVU.
“Rutgers is back,” Stewart said. “They were hitting on all cylinders this past weekend. We could barely get through Louisville, and they just absolutely dismantled them.”
The Scarlet Knights were a team in transition, fitting in a freshman quarterback, rebuilding.
“Good football teams always get better in November; that’s what I always stress to our team. What Rutgers did to USF and Louisville can happen to us. They dismantled two teams. One we got shellacked by and the other we barely beat at home.
“Rutgers is better and on a roll, and there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that they are gunning for the Mountaineers. This is going to be a gut check.”
E-mail Bob Hertzel at bhertzel@hotmail.com.
