By Bob Hertzel
MORGANTOWN — Final examinations of an academic nature are over for the West Virginia University football team, but there remains one final exam that will decide whether or not the 2009 football season receives a passing grade.
That, of course, would be the New Year’s Day Gator Bowl encounter with Florida State for which the team began cramming on Sunday as it reconvened following the finals break.
If you, or if any of Coach Bill Stewart’s players, believe this to be one of those snap finals because the Seminoles bring but a 6-6 record into the affair, the coach offers a word of caution.
“We’re the underdogs,” Stewart declared at his Monday press gathering.
This is not the ranting of a mad football coach, even though his team is 9-3, and is but five points from an 11-1 record, having dropped a three-point decision at No. 5 Cincinnati and a two-point decision on the Plains at Auburn.
The oddsmakers have established his Mountaineers as but 3-point favorites, which one might read to be an even game at best, considering the extenuating circumstances under which this game will be played.
That, of course, would be Coach Bobby Bowden’s final game, his swan song at age 80, with 388 victories, the second most in all of college football history.
“I was down there for the media day,” Stewart said, referring to the host city of the Gator Bowl, which is Jacksonville, a city that just happens to be located in Florida, just across Interstate 10 from Tallahassee, which is home to Bowden and Florida State. “You cannot believe the buzz.”
Indeed, in these difficult economic times, the game sold out in a couple of hours. Seats were even added to accommodate the crowd.
And they aren’t coming to see West Virginia this time around.
“I know we’ll be up against it,” Stewart said. “There’s going to be 70,000 crimson and gold and white fans in there against 15,000 in blue and gold.”
And how does Stewart feel about that?
“I’ll take those odds,” he said.
Winning in hostile territory has been a problem for the Mountaineers, however. All three of their losses came away from home, one of them in Florida, where they played poorly against a South Florida team that would eventually self-destruct.
And the circumstances here put the Mountaineers in a familiar, but difficult situation.
The emotion surrounding Bowden’s departure and the optimism that accompanies Clarksburg’s own Jimbo Fisher taking over as head coach has the Seminole nation on the warpath, so to speak.
“You are talking about one of the greatest coaches in history going out,” Stewart said.
He remembered another situation quite similar. In fact, he is reminded of it every day for he wears only one ring and that is the Music City Bowl ring from 2000, which was Hall of Fame Coach Don Nehlen’s farewell game.
Nehlen had lost eight straight bowl games over 16 years, but there was nothing that was going to keep the Mountaineers from winning one for the old coach, even if they had to beat a Mississippi team that had both Eli Manning and Deuce McAllister, both of whom became professional stars.
“I know I gave a little extra that day and that our players gave a little extra. I can only imagine what Bowden, his coaches and those players will do,” Stewart said.
Stewart’s ties with Bowden go back to 1970 when Bowden allowed him to walk on at WVU as a skinny tight end.
“I never dreamed that this day would come about,” Stewart said.
While it’s a dream come true for Stewart, he understands the emotional outpouring for Bowden.
“Because of Coach Bowden, 70,000 in the stadium and millions at home will be pulling for him,” Stewart said.
He then added with a knowing smile, “I probably have family at home who will be cheering for him.”
Because of all this, and what’s going on in his program, with seniors playing their final game, how emotional a time this is going to be for everyone.
“It’ll be tough,” Stewart said. “On Wednesday morning, before we break for Christmas, we carry the seniors off the field. That’s a tradition we do.”
E-mail Bob Hertzel at bhertzel@hotmail.com.
