By Bob Hertzel
MORGANTOWN — You have just put your name alongside the legends of West Virginia University football … Major Harris, Amos Zereoue, Patrick White, Steve Slaton, Sam Huff and … Tyler Bitancurt?
You are legend in the state, a redshirt freshman who single-footedly beat Pitt with a 43-yard field goal as time ran out.
Now it’s late. The on-field and locker room celebrating is over. He’s visited with his parents, shared his joy with them.
Of course, the pain from being pummeled while at the bottom of a pile of happy humanity remains, but it has turned from a sharp pain to a dull ache by now.
And you are hungry. Oh, man, are you hungry.
So where does West Virginia’s latest football hero eat for his celebratory dinner?
“Went to Wendy’s,” he said, not so much in hopes of getting an endorsement, upon which the NCAA would frown, but simply in hopes of getting something warm and filling. After all, the choices are limited at 2 a.m.
And, for the record, just what did Tyler Bitancurt eat after taking a huge bite out of Pittsburgh’s dream season?
“Two chicken sandwiches,” he said.
“And two junior cheeseburgers,” he added.
“Two fries,” he continued.
“And a milk shake,” he concluded.
So there you have it, the dinner of champions.
And who does a West Virginia legend call first after beating Pitt with a field goal?
Another West Virginia legend, that’s who.
“I called Paul Woodside,” he said, referring to the former Mountaineer kicker who has been his kicking guru in Virginia. Woodside was a former assistant coach for Jack Renner at West Springfield, Va., when Bitancurt played there and now is doing a lot of kicking instruction. He holds the WVU record with 74 field goals, none of which beat Pitt at the last moment.
So, what did Woodside say to Bitancurt after the game?
“I didn’t get to talk to him,” Bitancurt said.
Maybe this legend stuff isn’t all it’s cracked up to be … dinner at Wendy’s and you can’t get your mentor on the phone.
Considering how the night started, how can he complain?
You might recall that twice early in the game, Coach Bill Stewart was reluctant to call on Bitancurt to kick a field goal from the 2 and from the 28.
He said at the time that he didn’t think Bitancurt had warmed up well, something Bitancurt disagreed with on Tuesday.
“I feel I was going all right. That’s how I usually am,” he said.
What he didn’t disagree with was Stewart’s decision to pass him by and go for the touchdown.
If nothing else, Tyler Bitancurt is a soldier.
“He doesn’t ask me how I feel,” Bitancurt said. “He tells me to kick it or he goes for it. It’s not my call. I’ve learned to accept whatever he says. My role is to kick the ball through the uprights, not to choose when I do it.”
As it turns out, there was more to Stewart’s decision than just the way Bitancurt warmed up or his belief that he needed to score touchdowns to win the game. It went back to a sour taste he had in his mouth, to something that had been eating away at him for two years, ever since the now infamous 2007 13-9 loss to Pitt.
You might recall that kicker Pat McAfee, now punting for the Indianapolis Colts, missed two makeable first-half field goals of 20 and 32 yards.
That weighed heavily on Stewart’s decision.
“Big time,” he said. “I told the team, before we went onto the field [Friday], we were not playing it close to the vest. We are bringing out the holsters and pulling both pistols at one time. ... lightning would have had to hit me [to kick a field goal].
“I wanted our football team to say, ‘The old man is going for it; he’s going for the jugular.’ And, I wanted the Pitt defensive staff to know that they were playing a different opponent [than in 2007]. ... When we missed those field goals two years ago, it just deflated us.”
Perhaps that did ease some of the pressure, although failing to make the touchdown or the first down did little to increase confidence or put points on the scoreboard.
Funny, though, isn’t it how reality takes such strange twists. Stewart wanted to score touchdowns instead of field goals yet won the game with four field goals and one touchdown, the final field goal being a kicker’s dream.
“Sure, I dreamed about kicking a game-winning field goal,” Bitancurt admitted. “Every kicker does. But I’ve never dreamed of kicking a game-winning field goal against Pitt, though.”
That would be too much to hope for.
Or not.
E-mail Bob Hertzel at bhertzel@hotmail.com.
