MORGANTOWN - For both his supporters and his detractors, Bill Stewart seemed more than willing to provide ammunition late Friday night. Oddly enough, he managed to do both with the same statement.
MORGANTOWN - For both his supporters and his detractors, Bill Stewart seemed more than willing to provide ammunition late Friday night. Oddly enough, he managed to do both with the same statement.
It was early in his postgame press conference after West Virginia's 19-16 win over No. 8 Pitt at Mountaineer Field. Tyler Bitancurt's 43-yard field goal on the game's final play was still fresh, but so too were so many mistakes by the Mountaineers and curious decisions by Stewart.
"We're not as talented, maybe, as a lot of people and we don't win very pretty. We'll try to work on that,'' Stewart said. "But what we do is we seem to stumble through and bounce into and roll around in and we find ways to win.''
So, to sum up:
For those who are squarely in Stewart's corner, the guy and his team just find ways to win, and who can argue with that?
But for the Stewart bashers, the Mountaineers seem to win in spite of their coach.
Regardless of one's viewpoint, though, one thing is indisputable: In beating the Panthers, West Virginia scored its most impressive victory of the season. The Mountaineers have also now beaten five of the last six Top 25 opponents they have faced.
Oh, and for the first time since 1993, WVU went unbeaten at home. The win over Pitt was the seventh home victory of the season.
"We're 8-3 and undefeated at home for the first time since 1993,'' Stewart said. "And our senior class has a signature win.''
What the win over Pitt does to influence West Virginia's bowl destination, though, is still unclear and may remain that way until after next weekend's final games of the regular season, which includes the Mountaineers' Saturday afternoon game at Rutgers. West Virginia (8-3, 4-2 Big East) faces the Scarlet Knights (8-3, 3-3) at noon at Rutgers Stadium.
Also that day, Pitt and Cincinnati play at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh for the Big East title and the league's automatic BCS bowl berth.
MORGANTOWN - For both his supporters and his detractors, Bill Stewart seemed more than willing to provide ammunition late Friday night. Oddly enough, he managed to do both with the same statement.
It was early in his postgame press conference after West Virginia's 19-16 win over No. 8 Pitt at Mountaineer Field. Tyler Bitancurt's 43-yard field goal on the game's final play was still fresh, but so too were so many mistakes by the Mountaineers and curious decisions by Stewart.
"We're not as talented, maybe, as a lot of people and we don't win very pretty. We'll try to work on that,'' Stewart said. "But what we do is we seem to stumble through and bounce into and roll around in and we find ways to win.''
So, to sum up:
For those who are squarely in Stewart's corner, the guy and his team just find ways to win, and who can argue with that?
But for the Stewart bashers, the Mountaineers seem to win in spite of their coach.
Regardless of one's viewpoint, though, one thing is indisputable: In beating the Panthers, West Virginia scored its most impressive victory of the season. The Mountaineers have also now beaten five of the last six Top 25 opponents they have faced.
Oh, and for the first time since 1993, WVU went unbeaten at home. The win over Pitt was the seventh home victory of the season.
"We're 8-3 and undefeated at home for the first time since 1993,'' Stewart said. "And our senior class has a signature win.''
What the win over Pitt does to influence West Virginia's bowl destination, though, is still unclear and may remain that way until after next weekend's final games of the regular season, which includes the Mountaineers' Saturday afternoon game at Rutgers. West Virginia (8-3, 4-2 Big East) faces the Scarlet Knights (8-3, 3-3) at noon at Rutgers Stadium.
Also that day, Pitt and Cincinnati play at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh for the Big East title and the league's automatic BCS bowl berth.
If the Gator Bowl is still in the mix by then - Notre Dame played Stanford late Saturday night with a chance to remain in contention with a win, or drop out with a loss - the Mountaineers would seem to have a solid shot at that invitation, especially if Cincinnati beats Pitt. If the Panthers win, though, the Gator could be tempted to opt for an 11-1 Cincinnati team that will still be ranked in or near the Top 10.
After the Gator Bowl, the Meineke Car Care Bowl in Charlotte, N.C., and the Papajohns.com Bowl in Birmingham, Ala., have the next picks of Big East teams.
The bottom line, though, is that Friday night's win over Pitt only served to boost West Virginia's standing with whatever bowls wind up with the Mountaineers on their board. If WVU beats Rutgers, it will be 9-3 with a late-season finish marred only by a three-point loss on the road to unbeaten Cincinnati.
As for Stewart, the criticisms of most of his first-half decisions regarding field goals vs. fourth-down plays were softened by the eventual outcome. While they seemed curious at the time, the second-year coach had what he felt were valid reasons for each:
On going for a touchdown on fourth-and-goal inside the 2-yard line in a scoreless game early in the second quarter, Stewart said he did it because he didn't think he could beat the No. 8 team in the country with field goals. There was no guarantee West Virginia would have many more chances to get into the end zone from that close.
Bypassing a second field goal one series later to go for a first down on fourth-and-9 at the Pitt 28 was hard to argue. There was a stiff and erratic wind at that end of the field and Pitt's Dan Hutchins had already missed from exactly the same spot.
When Stewart finally did send Bitancurt out for a field goal attempt at the end of the half, he did it with 8.8 seconds to play on third down, rather than allow the offense to try one throw into the end zone. The worst part of that scenario, though, was that WVU had the ball second-and-goal at the 1 after getting there and spiking the ball with 13.9 seconds to play and a timeout remaining. That was seriously compromised when left guard Josh Jenkins came out of his stance and was penalized 5 yards.
The problem, though, was not so much Jenkins as it was miscommunication. Brown was changing the play at the line of scrimmage and, Stewart said, he initially called the wrong play.
"He had to go down the line two or three times to change the play again and make sure everyone knew what we were doing,'' Stewart said. "That's when [Jenkins] jumped. But they were there an awfully long time.''
Reach Dave Hickman at 304-348-1734 or dphickm...@aol.com.
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I consider that all of the time. Present company excluded. RR's record wasn't exactly stellar his first season and it wasn't till 2005 that we became contenders. I am not saying Stewarts the coach of the year give him a chance to get his recruits. They have a great staff. I'm sure you could do a better job send your resume.