MORGANTOWN —
The honeymoon is over for Bill Stewart at West Virginia as he opens his third camp as the Mountaineers’ head football coach.
He has had two successful seasons but as he welcomes what figures to be a new-look team today it carries some tarnish with it, an NCAA investigation having uncovered violations that carried over from the Rich Rodriguez era into his.
What didn’t carry over in the transition was the streak of three 10-or-more victory seasons that Rodriguez had put together, Stewart’s first two teams winning a respectable nine games but not ever matching the euphoria of that first victory over Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl that got him the job.
A strong and vocal segment of fans and powerful alumni were upset then and failing to win the Big East title and losing a bowl to an unranked Florida State team last year has done nothing to quiet them.
Add to that the fact that both the school president and athletic director who hired him are gone and you see this becomes a pivotal season for Stewart, one lined with booby traps and a difficult schedule.
There is, to be sure, pressure to win.
“That doesn’t bother me,” Stewart said at the recent Big East meetings. “First, I have to prove myself to myself.”
Stewart understands the situation. He just won’t let it dictate the way he lives his life or coaches his team.
“I not going to go out and coach with a noose around my neck. I sleep good every night,” he said. “A lot of people would like to win nine every year.”
Last season, 22 of 120 FBS teams won 10 or more games.
However, there is a big difference between winning nine and 10.
“Ten is a big jump,” Stewart admitted. “Count how many we’ve had in school history (seven). Usually, when you do it, you had special players.”
Rodriguez certainly built a team of special players before slinking out the back door to Michigan, but he left Stewart a bit of a rebuilding job and that takes time.
“Had I had Patrick three or four years I would have done that,” Stewart said, referring to a special player named Patrick White, who Stewart had for only his senior season and who failed to reach 10 victories that season. “We don’t have a magic wand. We have to go out and work. We have to convince our young men that it takes work in order to win 10 or 11 games here. We will. I’m not worried about that.”
In Stewart’s mind, the Cincinnati game, lost 24-21 last year, turned on a bad call by an official, cost him his 10-victory season.
“That should have been ours,” he said. “I tried to be positive, not a crybaby.”
But the truth is that his team should have beaten Florida State, which had inferior personnel but superior motivation with coach Bobby Bowden in his farewell game. Had they done that, he would have had 10 victories anyway.
Stewart believes there’s more than wins and losses in judging a coach.
“If all I teach these guys is to block and tackle, then I have failed miserably as a man,” he said. “Are wins and losses important? You're darn right they are because that’s what drives the engine. You have to win football games at West Virginia. We are the cash cow. I don’t say that to be arrogant. If we do that, we’re good.”
Stewart has a team capable of winning a lot of games. A defense built around the unique skills of safety Robert Sands, linebacker J.T. Thomas, cornerback Brandon Hogan and noseguard Chris Neild could be one of the nation’s top.
Add that to an offense which has one of the nation’s most exciting running backs in Noel Devine, who rushed for 1,465 yards last year, and receiver Jock Sanders and you have a group that should score a lot of points.
The offense will hinge, however, on how well Mullen brings along young quarterback Geno Smith, a sophomore who figures to start over true freshmen Jeremy Johnson and Barry Brunetti.
With revamped special teams, WVU is expecting to get Stewart that first 10-victory season, which would certainly take the noose away from his neck.
E-mail Bob Hertzel at bhertzel@hotmail.com.
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