MORGANTOWN - Sometimes it's best just to let Billy Stewart go.
It doesn't take much, of course, to get West Virginia's first-year head football coach cranked up. Anything involving Mountaineer football will suffice. Shoot, ask the guy something as innocuous as, say, how his backup left guard is doing or what he thinks about the furnishings in his new office and you've likely elicited a monologue that will include references to fine young men, his own humble beginnings, his family and at least one reference to the Old Gold and Blue.
Not that there's anything wrong with that.
Oddly enough, though, in the nine months since Stewart began coaching West Virginia through last season's Fiesta Bowl and then was named the school's permanent head coach, he has remained largely silent on one subject.
Rich Rodriguez.
This week that changed. Not a lot. Not overtly. Just a little bit.
Here's the deal: Throughout all of the legal and verbal wrangling that went on between West Virginia and the new coach at Michigan, the new coach at West Virginia said almost nothing publicly. It wasn't that he didn't have an opinion, he just didn't want to get involved. The high road comes to mind.
For the most part, Rodriguez took the high road as far as references to Stewart were concerned, too. Occasionally, though, out of what had to have been growing frustration over the whole ordeal - not that it was anyone's fault but his own, mind you, although that's a different story - Rodriguez would lash out. It wasn't headline stuff, but it was there nonetheless.
He said in a television interview that Stewart all but went to Rita Rodriguez on his hands and knees begging for a job at Michigan.
He made the comment more than once that the way it was being portrayed in West Virginia it seemed like he and his staff couldn't coach a lick and it was a wonder WVU had won any games at all while he was coaching here.
It was the second of those accusations - the first he just dismissed - that really grated on Stewart because the inference was that Stewart was the guy saying that Rodriguez and the old staff were lousy coaches. Stewart never said any such thing.
What he did say, however, was what we now come to expect from Stewart almost daily. He talked in glowing terms about everything related to West Virginia football, including the new coaching staff he had hired and the changes that staff was implementing.
Rodriguez took that as a slam on the old coaching staff and the way they did things.
Granted, it's easy to draw the conclusion that when most people talk about something new being better, then the idea is that what preceded it was somehow deficient. But anyone who has known Stewart for more than five minutes knows he's not most people. Rodriguez knows that, too, yet he continued to complain that people in West Virginia - Stewart being at the top of the list - were portraying him as incompetent.
And so this week, Stewart addressed the issue without actually addressing the issue. Enough is enough.
For instance, it has been said more than once that the staff Stewart and WVU managed to hire might be the best in the school's history.
"People say it's the finest staff ever [at West Virginia]. And when you say that it makes people mad, like I'm talking [negatively] about the last staff. That's not it,'' Stewart said. "Remember, I was on that last staff. I wasn't too bad a football coach, even being as dumb as I am now.
"That's good. That's not a slam at the past. That's just talking about the present. It's very hard for us sometimes to talk about the present because it seems like we're talking about the past. People try to read into things. I feel sorry for people who do that. I don't do that. I don't like that. The people that try to read things into [what is being said] about the present, they're the ones that have the problem, not Bill Stewart.''
Now Stewart was going and this is where you just don't step in his way.
For instance, Billy, what kind of a stamp do you hope to leave on the program? Well, certainly anything he says is going to reflect negatively on anything that came before him if you choose to look at it that way, but here goes anyway.
"If we can be good, solid gentlemen in this community, particularly in the classroom; if we can be good in [Morgantown] and be written up for all kinds of things that we see throughout the country; if we can be good young men of faith - I don't care if it's Catholic, Muslim, Latter-day Saint, Baptist, it doesn't matter - if we can just be good role models for the youth of America on this football team, then we're doing something right,'' Stewart said. "What I'm all about is at the end of the day, when they say what did Bill Stewart and this staff do, they recruited young men with character, they didn't go recruit a bunch of characters. They recruited young men of character that, when they put on the Old Gold and Blue, they were ready to strap it on anytime, anywhere and play the best football they could play.''
He went on to talk about the Fiesta Bowl and how, with casinos and nightclubs and temptation at every turn, the 125 players who made the trip had a grand total of one missed curfew and no real discipline incidents. Take that as a reference to past indiscretions if you like, but that's not the way it was intended.
"That's the stamp I'm putting on this program,'' Stewart said. "That's not to say that the coach before me or the coach before him or the coach before him did not do it. No. I'm talking about what I'm doing, what we're doing. If we can continue to work in those kinds of parameters, then people should be very happy about what's going on [at WVU]. ... That's the stamp I'd like to leave on the program. And when you come out on the field and you see that flying WV, you'd better be ready to put your mouthpiece in because you're going to get hit flush right in the jaw. That's what I'd like to have [remembered] about this program.''
MORGANTOWN - Sometimes it's best just to let Billy Stewart go.
It doesn't take much, of course, to get West Virginia's first-year head football coach cranked up. Anything involving Mountaineer football will suffice. Shoot, ask the guy something as innocuous as, say, how his backup left guard is doing or what he thinks about the furnishings in his new office and you've likely elicited a monologue that will include references to fine young men, his own humble beginnings, his family and at least one reference to the Old Gold and Blue.
Thursday, Aug. 28, 2008 - "If we can just be good role models for the youth of America on this football team, then we're doing something right," said West Virginia University football coach Bill Stewart.
Not that there's anything wrong with that.
Oddly enough, though, in the nine months since Stewart began coaching West Virginia through last season's Fiesta Bowl and then was named the school's permanent head coach, he has remained largely silent on one subject.
Rich Rodriguez.
This week that changed. Not a lot. Not overtly. Just a little bit.
Here's the deal: Throughout all of the legal and verbal wrangling that went on between West Virginia and the new coach at Michigan, the new coach at West Virginia said almost nothing publicly. It wasn't that he didn't have an opinion, he just didn't want to get involved. The high road comes to mind.
For the most part, Rodriguez took the high road as far as references to Stewart were concerned, too. Occasionally, though, out of what had to have been growing frustration over the whole ordeal - not that it was anyone's fault but his own, mind you, although that's a different story - Rodriguez would lash out. It wasn't headline stuff, but it was there nonetheless.
He said in a television interview that Stewart all but went to Rita Rodriguez on his hands and knees begging for a job at Michigan.
He made the comment more than once that the way it was being portrayed in West Virginia it seemed like he and his staff couldn't coach a lick and it was a wonder WVU had won any games at all while he was coaching here.
It was the second of those accusations - the first he just dismissed - that really grated on Stewart because the inference was that Stewart was the guy saying that Rodriguez and the old staff were lousy coaches. Stewart never said any such thing.
What he did say, however, was what we now come to expect from Stewart almost daily. He talked in glowing terms about everything related to West Virginia football, including the new coaching staff he had hired and the changes that staff was implementing.
Rodriguez took that as a slam on the old coaching staff and the way they did things.
Granted, it's easy to draw the conclusion that when most people talk about something new being better, then the idea is that what preceded it was somehow deficient. But anyone who has known Stewart for more than five minutes knows he's not most people. Rodriguez knows that, too, yet he continued to complain that people in West Virginia - Stewart being at the top of the list - were portraying him as incompetent.
And so this week, Stewart addressed the issue without actually addressing the issue. Enough is enough.
For instance, it has been said more than once that the staff Stewart and WVU managed to hire might be the best in the school's history.
"People say it's the finest staff ever [at West Virginia]. And when you say that it makes people mad, like I'm talking [negatively] about the last staff. That's not it,'' Stewart said. "Remember, I was on that last staff. I wasn't too bad a football coach, even being as dumb as I am now.
"That's good. That's not a slam at the past. That's just talking about the present. It's very hard for us sometimes to talk about the present because it seems like we're talking about the past. People try to read into things. I feel sorry for people who do that. I don't do that. I don't like that. The people that try to read things into [what is being said] about the present, they're the ones that have the problem, not Bill Stewart.''
Now Stewart was going and this is where you just don't step in his way.
For instance, Billy, what kind of a stamp do you hope to leave on the program? Well, certainly anything he says is going to reflect negatively on anything that came before him if you choose to look at it that way, but here goes anyway.
"If we can be good, solid gentlemen in this community, particularly in the classroom; if we can be good in [Morgantown] and be written up for all kinds of things that we see throughout the country; if we can be good young men of faith - I don't care if it's Catholic, Muslim, Latter-day Saint, Baptist, it doesn't matter - if we can just be good role models for the youth of America on this football team, then we're doing something right,'' Stewart said. "What I'm all about is at the end of the day, when they say what did Bill Stewart and this staff do, they recruited young men with character, they didn't go recruit a bunch of characters. They recruited young men of character that, when they put on the Old Gold and Blue, they were ready to strap it on anytime, anywhere and play the best football they could play.''
He went on to talk about the Fiesta Bowl and how, with casinos and nightclubs and temptation at every turn, the 125 players who made the trip had a grand total of one missed curfew and no real discipline incidents. Take that as a reference to past indiscretions if you like, but that's not the way it was intended.
"That's the stamp I'm putting on this program,'' Stewart said. "That's not to say that the coach before me or the coach before him or the coach before him did not do it. No. I'm talking about what I'm doing, what we're doing. If we can continue to work in those kinds of parameters, then people should be very happy about what's going on [at WVU]. ... That's the stamp I'd like to leave on the program. And when you come out on the field and you see that flying WV, you'd better be ready to put your mouthpiece in because you're going to get hit flush right in the jaw. That's what I'd like to have [remembered] about this program.''
demopolis, WVU has a tough one ahead, however...Strength of schedule is what could propel them to the top in the BCS
Posted By: Chilihead(3:39pm 08-29-2008)
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Will "Stew" Become "Stew" if WVU has a bad season? Expectations are sky high & the schedule is perhaps the toughest since the Don Nehlan era..It takes more than coaching to win games..a favorable schedule does not hurt matters
Posted By: demopolis(3:31pm 08-29-2008)
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NY'Eer, I do hope that WVU gets to a bowl game this season. I watch WVUFB with excitement! That is why Im happy certain members of the WVU staff are at the UofM. Those who left the UofM couldn't handle what the players at WVU go through. They have speed, agility, and composure that is limited in the BigTen.
My dream game? WVU vs UofM in the national Championship game. I have very good friends in WV. Some I served with. Good men who mean what they say. I respect them.
However there are big challenges this year and I will be watching. You wish ill against the UofM and make false statements about how Rod is being treated in Michigan. We wont run him down. I still wished WVU would have taken a better coach. Stew has the team that Rod built like it or not. Better hope Holiday keeps the recruits coming. WVU has a TOP QB in their sites. I think he will be better that White. Will you say that the QB made Stew like you think White made Rod or the other way around?
Posted By: Chilihead(3:24pm 08-29-2008)
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Don't be so sure wvu88, next year will be tough, after all, PW graduates and the O-Line will undergo drastic changes, but don't overlook the fact that Stewart was able to pull in the highest rated recruiting class ever for WVU (WVU's first Top 25 rated recruiting class). After another 11-1 year, next years class will be even better (Thanks to Doc Holiday and unheralded Chris Beatty)
We'll have our ups and downs, sure, but expect this program to be successful for years to come.
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My dream game? WVU vs UofM in the national Championship game. I have very good friends in WV. Some I served with. Good men who mean what they say. I respect them.
However there are big challenges this year and I will be watching. You wish ill against the UofM and make false statements about how Rod is being treated in Michigan. We wont run him down. I still wished WVU would have taken a better coach. Stew has the team that Rod built like it or not. Better hope Holiday keeps the recruits coming. WVU has a TOP QB in their sites. I think he will be better that White. Will you say that the QB made Stew like you think White made Rod or the other way around?
We'll have our ups and downs, sure, but expect this program to be successful for years to come.