Posts Tagged ‘Bill Stewart’
WVU coaches, players share the blame
As my post-game analysis, I respectfully submit my column in today’s DA, written after wrapping up this blog and after that disaster of a football game. Apparently nothing can go right lately, so that link cuts off the last few paragraphs of the column, so I’ll present it here so the thing actually makes sense.
While everyone will look to one person or one reason to point a clear finger at for these early struggles, it just isn’t that simple.
Part of the problem is the new coaching staff.
Part of it is the loss of last year’s key players.
And another part falls on this year’s players and an inability to execute the fundamentals at critical times.
As former coach Rich Rodriguez often reminded us, the children’s movie “The Lion King” teaches us that what’s in the past no longer matters.
That’s one lesson this year’s team would be well-served to learn if it hopes to find its stride quickly enough to even be competitive in a weak Big East Conference.
Tags: Auburn, Big East, Bill Stewart, Colorado, Marshall, Rich Rodriguez, Syracuse, WVU
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Sep 19th, 2008
LIVE BLOG: WVU-Colorado
11:56 p.m. – Aric Goodman boots the game-winning field goal to complete a stunner. This one has to be even more difficult to swallow than the East Carolina loss. 17-14, Buffaloes, in overtime.
It will be interesting to hear what the team has to say again this week in post-game.
Tags: Aric Goodman, Bill Stewart, Bradley Starks, Buffalo Bills, Cody Crawford, Cody Hawkins, Colorado, Dorrell Jalloh, East Carolina, Eastern Washington, J.T. Thomas, Jeff Mullen, Jock Sanders, Josh Smith, Kevin Everett, Mark Rodgers, Noel Devine, Pat McAfee, Pat White, Patrick Devenny, Reed Williams, Rodney Stewart, Tito Gonzales, Villanova, WVU
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Sep 18th, 2008
My reaction to East Carolina (six days later)
I’ve held off on analyzing the West Virginia loss to East Carolina for almost a week — first because I was in that phase of not wanting to talk about the game at all, and later, because I knew I had a Friday column coming up in the DA and I figured that would be a good place to share my thoughts. Let’s just say my perspective on the game runs counter to the more positive approach of some of my colleagues.
I promise, though, that this will be my last reference to the ECU debacle. Henceforth, we’re going to look forward to the rest of the season.
I would have to say Bill Stewart and his players wish they were playing Colorado tomorrow instead of having to wait through another five days of hearing questions or comments on last week’s game. Alas, that is not the case — and truly, the team knows the extra preparation time to focus on making West Virginia better is pivotal.
Tags: Bill Stewart, Colorado, East Carolina, The DA, WVU
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Sep 12th, 2008
Post-Game Comments: WVU-Villanova
Our first venture into live blogging here at 20/20 was not without incident (a call to the company that made my laptop is forthcoming tomorrow to find out why it won’t even start now) but all in all, we’d like to think it was a success. Thanks to those who followed it and an even bigger thanks to those who commented and asked questions.
While I’m not going to transcribe quotes from my recorder yet (I’m going to take what I feel is a much-deserved break after this post), I am happy to share my views on WVU’s 48-21 victory over the Wildcats.
We’ll start with the good and move on to the not-so-good, at least from the Mountaineers’ perspective.
The Good:
- Pat White: 25-of-33, 208 yards passing, 5 TDs, 1 INT; 9 carries, 63 yards
Do you think this guy might have answered some of those who doubted his ability to pass?
Career-highs in passing attempts and passes completed. A stadium record for passing touchdowns in a game. Breaking the program record for total yardage in a career. Incredibly efficient and accurate. Made the opponent pay for stacking the box defensively.
As I said in the live blog, any enthusiasm must be tempered — after all, this was just one game against an overmatched opponent from a lower division. But if we are to glean anything from this performance, it is that the modified Mountaineer offense (specifically, White and his receivers) is ready, able and willing to throw and throw often. Opposing defensive coordinators should take notice.
Tags: Alric Arnett, Antwon Young, Bill Stewart, Darius Reynaud, East Carolina, J.T. Thomas, Jeff Mullen, Jock Sanders, John Holmes, live blog, Mortty Ivy, Noel Devine, Pat Lazear, Pat McAfee, Pat White, Villanova, Will Johnson, WVU
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Aug 30th, 2008
Keys to the Game: WVU-Villanova
“Keys to the Game” typically are used to describe what needs to happen for each team to win. While the outcome of this game shouldn’t be in doubt, West Virginia will have a few secondary goals beyond winning the game. Villanova will be looking to make the game as competitive as possible for as long as possible.
West Virginia:
Put the game out of reach early.
This is of particular importance to the Mountaineers in this game on multiple fronts. Of course, they want to squash any hope Villanova has of actually trying to win the game. But more importantly, the team needs a solid early performance on both sides of the ball just for confidence’s sake.
The team has struggled on offense this fall, and the young players on defense have been hearing about their inexperience for the better part of a month now. Jumping out on the Wildcats with a few early scores and quick defensive stops would do wonders for a team that will need to carve out its own identity under the new coaching staff.
From a schematic standpoint, this will be important for different reasons. If WVU pulls away early, they can put in the backups and let them get some valuable experience in a game. Furthermore, offensive coordinator Jeff Mullen could go to a very “vanilla” playbook to avoid showing East Carolina any more of the modified offense than they have to.
Tags: Bill Stewart, East Carolina, Jarrett Brown, Jeff Mullen, Mark Rodgers, Noel Devine, Pat White, Rich Rodriguez, Terence Kerns, Villanova, WVU, Zach Hulce
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Aug 30th, 2008
West Virginia happy to have Stewart
This article from Rivals.com has to be, without a doubt, the most insightful article I’ve read on the coaching change in the eight months since Rich Rodriguez left Morgantown.
As someone who has interviewed several of the players quoted in this story, I have no clue how the writer (Jason King of Yahoo! Sports) got some of these players to be so unbelievably open. You expect Pat McAfee to be real and honest, but Pat White is normally a brick wall in interviews. Yet Mr. King somehow got this nugget out him:
A few weeks before Coach Rodriguez left, Coach Stewart and one of the former assistants (who ended up leaving for Michigan) got into (it) at practice.
He and the other coach were really going at it. The main thing I remember is that all of the players gathered around Coach Stew. We had his back and not the other coach.
That said a lot about what this team thinks of him.
Wow.
Tags: Bill Stewart, Jason King, Pat McAfee, Pat White, Rich Rodriguez, WVU
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Aug 29th, 2008
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