Football: Head Coach Bill Stewart Quotes
November 18, 2008 04:07 PM | General
November 18, 2008
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - West Virginia football Head Coach Bill Stewart's quotes from Tuesday afternoon's press conference.
We had a nice lift this morning and I was told by our strength and conditioning staff that things were well done this morning so that’s good to hear. We had a tremendous practice on Sunday and I was pleased with the work that we got done. Today we can anticipate another good practice until about six tonight. It’s been a long time coming and we need to play and everyone feels the same way; the players are getting antsy and I’m getting antsy. Two weeks at this time of the year is a long time.
On Louisville
We feel like we are going up against a tough opponent, no matter what people think. This team is 5-5 and I have much respect for Coach (Steve) Kragthorpe and his entire staff. He is a great coach and has a great group of players. I saw the game against Cincinnati on Friday night and I didn’t cheer for anyone. I can honestly tell you that. I just watched football. In the fourth quarter, I was beside myself and real jumpy so I had to get up. I don’t know how people are fans. God bless our fans and God bless our wives because having to watch us go through that when we play must be excruciating.
We have control of this Saturday and we have to finish strong. We have a tough opponent and I respect them very much. We haven’t done well in the past going down there and I hope we can break that trend. They have a tremendous quarterback and I’m a big Brock Bolen fan. He reminds me so much of Owen Schmitt. Add running backs Victor Anderson and Bilal Powell - wow, what a threesome they bring to you! Those are three tough runners who are good. I’m also a Hunter Cantwell fan.
They have a good defense and a very tough defense. Their defense is much like Cincinnati’s and Pitt’s from what I’ve seen on film – rough, tough, get after it rock and sock them guys. They play hard and I’m certainly impressed with their return guy, No. 27, Doug Beaumont. He is absolutely lightning back there. I watched them against Kansas State and they did not take one step backwards.
Keys to the game
We have to keep Hunter Cantwell out of rhythm. If he gets into rhythm, he reminds me of Mike Teel at Rutgers. Cantwell and Beaumont - when they get into an absolute rhythm, a pattern of pitching and throwing that ball, they are really special. I think he’s a lot like Mike Teel in the way that when he’s hot, he’s very hot and the receivers catch balls. I hope we can keep him off rhythm in first down. We want to slow him down on first down so that makes it that more difficult on second and third down. We have to stop the passing game - they love to throw the ball first and ten and get into a rhythm and we have to keep them out of that rhythm.
I always thought Louisville had a great defense; they would bend but never break. I see them more aggressive this year, blitzing more, getting the other team off balance more. Ron English (UofL Defensive Coordinator) has brought blitzing to the table and they are a sick ‘em, get after it defense.
On the last Game at Louisville
That was one of the most widely viewed games in ESPN history in 2006. In 2005, WVU was 1, 2 and 4 of the most watched games and one and two were West Virginia-Louisville. That sets a stage for our program. We had the triple-overtime game here and then went down there next and had that shootout. We came up on the bad end, but I remember it was a tough game.
Watching Louisville and Cincinnati
That was a great game to watch. I thought that they represented the BIG EAST very well in the way they hit and the way they competed. I think they represented the conference very well and when we’re on TV, I only hope that we can show our school and University as well. I hope we can show the true West Virginia team that we have every time we get a chance, particularly nationally.
On self-scouting
We self-scout every week. We do it every single week and you find tendencies and we see things that we don’t like and we learn from it. We self-scout very diligently, let me assure you. We probably self-scout more than our opponent, particularly in an off week.
On the bye week
Sometimes you hate to get out of rhythm and sometimes it’s good to get out of rhythm and rest – it worked well prior to Auburn and I can only hope that it will work well prior to Saturday’s game. I can’t tell you that it will, but I can hope that it will.
On the team’s health
We’re very good health wise and I feel good about it. I told the team that if they weren’t hurting now, then they weren’t playing very good football and you haven’t been hitting very much. We’re dinged up and they’re dinged up - I’m sure the whole league is. It’s a tough time, but this is the time when the good ones separate. Down the stretch is when the good ones step up and we’ve been pretty good in the past and I can only hope and pray that we’ll continue doing that.
On Jarrett Brown
He’s ready to go. He’s healthy and I’m just as happy as I could be. That boy played his heart out against Syracuse and he was hurting bad. I will be forever grateful to Jarrett Brown because that win against Syracuse was a big win. It was a conference win and we were really hurt. But now he’s back, ready to go and you will see him in the backfield. I’m not going to tell you where but you’ll see him in the backfield. I’ll let those guys west of us figure it out.
Mike Dent
Mike is week-to-week. He’s smiling at practice just running around there. He’s a great kid and we just want to make sure his neck is ok. We want to make sure he’s ok because he is a fine young man. He will be evaluated every week. He’s got a big smile on his face and he and Reed Williams are like player-coaches. I’m so proud of him and I sure hope he can finish the season for us.
On Pat White
If we run him we'll run him, we are trying to get him through 12 games - that’s my goal. Pat White doesn’t worry about records and he’ll be just fine. If we want to run him, we’ll run him, if we want to throw him, we’ll throw him. Our goal is to get him through 12 games because he’s not doing any good on the sidelines.
On Eric Jobe
He played pretty darn good for his first time out. He’s just not a Mike Dent, but Mike Dent wasn’t a Danny Mozes until his second year. Dent is not good, he’s great. He has a chance to play at the next level and at first we thought we couldn’t replace Danny Mozes. They graduate and that’s how you replace them.
