Football: Head Coach Bill Stewart Press Conference
October 07, 2008 04:23 PM | General
October 7, 2008
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - West Virginia University football Head Coach Bill Stewart quotes from Tuesday afternoon's press conference.
On the partnership between the FBI and WVU to distribute children ID kits
This is our seventh year at West Virginia University to partner up with the Federal Bureau of Investigation for the distribution of the children’s ID kits. By the end of this Saturday’s game against Syracuse, over 90,000 children ID kits will have been distributed to the parents of their offspring here at the WVU football games in seven years. I’m very proud of that. By the end of this season, the 2008 season, over one million child ID kits will have been distributed through the FBI’s partnership with the American Football Coaches Association. That’s a wonderful thing. We’re very proud here at West Virginia University, the state’s Flagship University, that we can be a part of this.
On the Rutgers win
Our football game against Rutgers was good for us in the end but it was also scary for us in the end. We did what we thought we had to do to win the football game and I was very proud of the way our guys played, particularly the defense down the stretch at the end of the game.
I want to compliment the Rutgers football players. I think quarterback Mike Teel played a tremendous game and I think that Kenny Britt is as fine of a receiver as there is in this country. He showed up by catching 12-plus passes for a whole lot of yards. He’s tough and I really want to compliment the defense for hanging in there. They did some things we weren’t ready for. They played more of a ‘bend but don’t break’ approach and we had to get used to that so we were scrambling there early. I was very proud of the way Pat (White) and Jarrett Brown played and I was very pleased with how the staff played, if that is what you call it. Rutgers threw us a curve ball. I was more pleased with our special teams than I was the week before. Our punting game continues to keep getting better with Patrick McAfee.
That game is behind us and it was a tough one. We got banged up a little bit but they got banged up a little bit too because every few series, it seemed like a guy had to be helped off the field and I hate that. I hate to see guys get hurt. It’s just a game.
On this week’s game
This week, we have a wonderful opportunity to play another football game against Syracuse and it’s homecoming. I told the lads Sunday night and I’ll tell them every night this week, I ask them what game it is. They answer, ‘game two.’ So they are getting it. It’s really game six but more importantly it’s game two in the BIG EAST so they are starting to get it. That tickled me and I’m excited about that. Now I know we are starting to get in the right mind frame and I was really pleased about that.
On Syracuse
Our opponent is like what we faced last week and what we were like a couple of weeks ago – needing a win. We want to be able to continue our streak and stop them from starting a streak. That is our goal.
Offensively, I think they have one heck of a quarterback in Cameron Dantley. Curtis Brinkley was a tailback that we recruited here. He is a good running back. Also Tony Fiammetta, I recruited him and he is a good player. So I know some of these guys and I think they have one of the finest centers there is in the league. He played really well last year and beat Chris Neild last year pretty good and he beat up old Keilen Dykes. They are defensively sound and solid. The team has some skill and I just hope they don’t put it all together on Saturday. It will be an interesting challenge for our football team and we just need to keep our mind set - it’s game two. Hopefully we’ll be up for the challenge.
(Cameron) Dantley is like having Pat (White), Jarrett (Brown), or Bradley Starks in there. He has his own identity and he is a good athlete. He can pitch and catch the ball and he can throw the ball.
Syracuse has a great football tradition and a storied program. Every friend I’ve had in the business that has coached at Syracuse has loved it there and I have nothing but respect for their program. Have they lost their swagger? I don’t know. I know that every year they play us, they play us really tough. I think those kids play their hearts out but I can’t worry about them. I just worry about our guys and our mind set. It’s game two and that is what makes me excited.
On the team’s injuries
Pat (White) was at practice on Sunday and he will practice today. He will be in a green jersey today and he will throw the ball. His thumb is fine and he can pitch and catch. We just don’t want him to get hit in the head. He got dinged and again, I repeat, he did not have a concussion. If we played today, we wouldn’t want him to get hit in the head but he’s going to practice tonight and he will be ready to play Saturday. I just don’t want to get him hit in the head for precautionary reasons and that is why he will be in a green jersey. He’ll be ok.
We’re waiting for Pat Liebig to clear up. Pat took a hit and he’s getting close to coming back but then he takes a step back. We’re hoping that he can play. He needs to play. He came back, did all the right things for all of the right reasons and it would be a story book finish for him if he could just play.
Josh Jenkins will not play this week. He should be ready for Auburn but we’ll see how he does. You never know with the young guys because Dave (Kerns) hasn’t worked with him before. He got rolled up on and he was doing a good job in there, too, darn it. It’s the back of his knee but he should be fine.
Sidney Glover and Quinton Andrews are OK but they’ve been practicing in green jerseys because they’ve had sore necks. I don’t want them going full speed because when we practice out here, it’s like a scrimmage. We do everything but throw each other to the ground and we practice everything live. When you are out there practicing and hitting, you want to protect the guys that are just a little bit nicked up, but overall we’re healthy.
On never overlooking an opponent
I let the seniors talk to the team. We can’t have all the odds makers and those guys tell everyone who should win. No one told Pitt that against USF when Pitt won and that’s why you play the game. Someone didn’t tell East Carolina that when we played them. We were supposed to win, right? So you better come to play. We want to be 2-0 in this league. I have no red letter games on the schedule. We have a so-called ‘marquee’ game against Aurburn but you know what the marquee game is for me? This Saturday, homecoming, against Syracuse; that is all I’m thinking about.
On getting penalized for chop blocking
It should be called. I have coached and played on both sides of the ball. If you hold a center, if you teach your center to hold, then he is susceptible to getting cut by the backside lineman; it looks like he is engaged. But when you get a center that holds and then they get cut – what do you tell them? I don’t like that stuff. You teach the center to snap the ball, dip and get your shoulder through. That is where the chop block occurs; anyone that comes from outside in and chops a guy, it is a flagrant foul and it should be called. We don’t teach that and I don’t want to see that. If they are chopping, it should be called and that’s what good officials do. I tell the team to play fast and if the defense comes off and complains that he’s being held, I tell him to go sit down because he’s too slow. I’ll put someone else in and that’s how I handle it.
On the 2008 team’s identity not mixing with last season’s identity
There is a fine line. How do you tell your team, and I don’t know, that they are good and they better not read the press clippings because they say that the team is so good, all they have to do is show up? Let’s talk about East Carolina. I said it then and I’ll say it now, they hit us right in the mouth. The press clippings were not right that day and that is the day the Mountaineers became a football team. I told them that in the locker room. You have to do more than put on the Old Gold and Blue. That game made our football team and then we went to Boulder and we played and we have been playing ever since. They are playing. Each team has their own identity and I don’t know if we have ours yet. I know we’re not No. 8 in the country but we’re sure working hard to get there. I think everyone plays every week and if you don’t, you get embarrassed.
I just know that the thing we do on Sundays is take care of our business. What did we do well? What didn’t we do well? What must we do better? What must we maintain? We have things to work on. We have practice today in full pads and we’re going to go out there and practice. They are going to run and we’re going to get after it today on fourth and six inches. That’s the only way I know how to do it. I don’t know any magic calls so we’ll have to get better on fourth and six inches.
Remember when I said during camp that the defense has to carry us? People looked at me like I had two heads. We have to make adjustments. Our defense should gel earlier than your offense. The offense gels later on in the season for the most part. It’s repetition. We haven’t lost many players on defense, thank God, and our defense continues to get better and better. We have new players and a new identity; we just haven’t scored a lot of points on offense. It still goes back to the team.
On competition for playing time
There is competition going on there for spots. We’re trying to play guys that are good enough to play. They might not be good enough to start but they are good enough to play. That is why I’m so excited about Jarrett Brown and the new package we have for him. It’s tremendous. We keep competing and we will keep everyone as healthy as we can.
