Football: Head Coach Bill Stewart Quotes
December 16, 2008 04:21 PM | General
December 16, 2008
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - West Virginia football Head Coach Bill Stewart's quotes from Tuesday afternoon's press conference.
We are having some good practices and they have been giving good effort. I’m happy about that. I think we need to pay attention to detail even more because anytime you have a break in the action, you go home and then reconvene in a bowl, I guess that’s standard. Our men have been working hard and I’m very proud of that
This Carolina football team is going to be a real tough opponent. I don’t know which quarterback is going to play; T.J. Yates, the big pocket guy that is so very accurate or Cameron Sexton, the smaller guy who is very athletic, likes to run and likes to get out on the perimeter. We recruited Cameron Sexton up here.
Their receivers are outstanding, led by No. 88, Hakeem Nicks. (Greg) Little was the starting back but when Brandon Tate, No. 87, went out, they moved Little out. Their backs are very good. Bobby Rome is a good fullback and the big fullback is No. 32, Ryan Houston. Their offense line is very good and their tight-ends are good.
Defensively, they have a tremendous end and veteran in E.J. Wilson. Marvin Austin was the No. 1 defensive tackler in America two years ago and we recruited him out of D.C. Their linebacker and leading tackler is Quan Sturdivant and No. 54, Bruce Carter, is probably the best special teams player we’ll play against all year with four blocks, two for touchdowns.
Their two safeties are excellent and their secondary is good so they have a good football team. Their special teams are sound and solid.
On comparing UNC to a BIG EAST team
They are a combination. They have the receivers, the speed and special teams of Cincinnati. I think their offensive linemen are a bunch of big tough guys. They are big, strong, strapping guys like Pitt. Their quarterbacks in the pocket, throwing the ball reminds me of Mike Teel when he was hot, like he was at the end of the year. Their running backs are a lot like the two we have on this team. They did lose a tremendous player in No. 87, Brandon Tate.
Defensively, up front they remind me of Auburn. They are big, strong, get after you, uphill, sick ‘em guys. In our league, Cincinnati’s defense, those ten seniors they had, are a lot like UNC. They are a lot like Pitt and their safeties are sure tacklers like USF tacklers in the past. They are sure tacklers. I am very impressed with No. 31, Trimane Goddard and No. 27 Deunta Williams. I don’t take that away from their corners, because in the BIG EAST and just from what we have in our league, our corners are pretty special. I think the two corners at Cincinnati are pretty special. I don’t know if there are any better. These guys are a good football team. That’s what we’re looking at. Their backers, wow, No. 54 Bruce Carter is 6-3, 230lbs. That guy blocks punts like you’ve never seen. Mark Paschal is 230lbs and a big linebacker. Their leading tackler is 6-2, 235lbs. They are all big guys like Mortty (Ivy). It’s going to be a physical football team we play.
On UNC Head Coach Butch Davis’ coaching scheme
A lot of the pro, and I see with offensive coordinator John Shoop, it’s NFL stuff. The way the NFL plays, and why our team is looked at so much by the NFL, is the way we play our safeties. John Shoop has a lot of experience in this and you see it every Sunday in the NFL, and I wonder how we’re going to stop that thing. We may have to call up the Steelers and see what they think because there is just some things they do that are going to give us fits. We can’t go out there and change and act like it’s a different flavor of the month, we’re not going to put in a new defense and a new offense. We’re going to have our hands full with what Butch Davis does and what his coordinators do. They have tremendous coordinators; those guys are good and their staff is very good. They’ve got it rolling.
Making redshirts eligible for Bowl Games
I’m for five years. I really am for five years. When you come to school for five years, if you get out early and go to the pros after three; you know, I’ve talked to Coach Don Nehlen about this and all the old coaches had to juggle players, play this guy and not play that guy. You take a guy like Josh Jenkins that got hurt in the fifth game, he was on track and was going well, and all of a sudden it’s his fifth game he gets hurt in. He’s been struggling and fighting hard to get back. I want to see the guys get five years and tell them to play on special teams and give them some kind of concession to a fifth year. The good ones are going to go out early if they want to and those who want to stay four will. You have to juggle stuff and they say if they want to play in the Bowl, you tell those guys who have played all year to sit down? I don’t know if I like that but I would like to see five-year eligibility. When you don’t live right and you can’t get over here at 6:30 in the morning for a lift, when you don’t attend all of your classes and when you don’t do the things I demand in this program as the head football coach, they are never going to play in this program.
On the schedule
Our next two weeks: we’re going to practice Thursday morning and then I’m going to get on a plane and go recruiting. Three or four of us will tear out of here and we have three coaches on the road right now, and then we’ll recruit through Saturday. We’ll come back and try to see our families on Sunday, get on a plane on Monday and fly to Charlotte, have a welcome committee on Monday evening, Tuesday we will go to the Speedway, practice and Wednesday we practice, Thursday we practice, Friday we’ll have a walk through and Saturday we’ll play. It will be like a normal week.
On players being Bowl eligible
I will know that before we leave on Thursday. They are compiling grades right now and once we get the grades in, we check the guys off. Last year we didn’t want to lose any. We lost a fifth-year quarterback who had one three-hour class that he couldn’t pass and didn’t make the Bowl. I hope we don’t lose any.
On recruiting
Doc Holliday, David Lockwood and Lonnie Galloway are on the road and are being where they need to be. Chris Beatty and Jeff Mullen can take the wide-outs, David couldn’t leave with the line because I wanted him to stay here. Jeff and David have taken the tight ends and fullbacks as well. On defense, Jeff Casteel, Bill Kirelawich and Steve Dunlap have stayed and are taking care of the secondaries so we’re fine there.
On Brandon Hogan
Brandon Hogan will play cornerback all the way. He is going to be our guy on the kick returns and punt returns next year. I don’t want to tire the little guy out because he is playing a lot of plays. I hope he stays four years. He might be so good next year that they may make it advantageous for him not to. He has a chance to be really really good. Will he do it, work and get better? We’ll see, but he has a chance.
On the earlier Bowl Game
It’s been fast. I’m not going to say anything because a lot of the BIG EAST coaches have already complained about playing that first Saturday in December. I’m not going to say anything because I don’t want the front office mad at me. I’ll let them talk. But it’s tough, we lose a week of recruiting. Right now we have three guys out and we should have seven guys out this week. I’m going to get out Thursday and Friday, and then it’s a dead week. It’s been tough but that’s ok.
On learning from Bowl mistakes.
Non grinding. We’ve ground them before. When we hit that whistle to start the game, I could have lay down and gone to sleep. We had no legs, and we were just beat and we learned from that. The two preceding Bowls after that we learned that. After the first two or three, you see that what you’re doing isn’t working. So we changed and that being said, we have a lot of fun here. You know what we did today? We had a gentleman come in today from the United States Navy, a tough guy, who is the director of our Fellowship of Christian Athletes. There wasn’t one scripture or biblical word spoken. What Sean talked about, with 16 years in the Navy, he talked about the iceberg, the 10-90 rule. 10% above the water is the part that people see but the 90% below, they don’t see. He talked about character and leadership and when the lights are off and no one is looking. The Titanic wasn’t supposed to sink was it? But it sunk. It wasn’t one big gash. It was six little slits that happen to hit all six chambers. So what we’re going to do, we’re going to have some fun and we talked about fun, leadership and character. After that 20 minute presentation, I showed them Tiger Woods. Tiger’s mother was outstanding and Tiger’s love for his father was even more outstanding. Then after that I told them that Tuesday we were going to Speedway. Only two of our chickens have signed up to ride in a sports car. I said, ‘give me those controls!’. I can’t wait to shift-I want to drive! The coaches are going to ride. Lonnie Galloway and I are going to ride. I can’t wait to put a helmet on. We’re also going to have family. We’re going to have a big family Christmas and we’re going to have a ‘gong’ show. The seniors stood up today in the meeting and begged me that after Patrick McAfee’s performance at the banquet, can we please have one more shot at Patrick McAfee? I said, ‘you got it!’. Quinton Andrews then asked, ‘can we start with the coaches?’. I told him to start with his favorite and he said, ‘I got you’. I said, ‘good, give it to me!’. We’re going to have fun. It’s going to be a lot of family stuff.
Tonight the captains and I are going to go over to the Alumni Center and we’re going to get on the Children’s Hospital telethon from 7:00-8:00 p.m.. I’m very proud of that. Every night this week, the team has been out working with different projects. We’ve been in Fairmont and the surrounding cities and I’ll tell you what, we have the greatest young men ever. I love these guys. They are out taking youngsters to Wal-Mart, they did that last night and they’ve been down to Fairmont with the youngsters who didn’t have any parents, no money, no gifts and they acted like Santa’s elves and handed out presents. How about that? Tonight we’ll be with the Wish Project and it’s a great cause. Now why do we do that? We’re blessed. I had a son over at the hospital on the sixth floor with a bad broken arm. I tell you what, I sat on that floor when they fixed him, I stayed in that chair all night and I prayed to God and thanked Him because I knew how lucky I was. I looked to the left down the hall and I looked to the right down the hall and there weren’t people as fortunate as the Stewart family. Will my kid’s arm get better? If he works hard and the good Lord is willing, it will happen. If not, maybe his career might not be as good. I know one thing, if that is the only thing he has to go through, then he is going to have a long and happy life. That’s why we do what we do.
Senior class
They have bought into everything we’ve tried to do. They are good role models. They don’t do that for publicity, we didn’t even tell the press. I wanted to tell you because I wanted to brag on those guys a little bit. They will go out as the winningest senior class ever. It speaks volumes. It says if you work hard, do right then good things happen.
On the team not having classes
It’s been great. They’ve slept in, we’ve had breakfasts and they’ve been bonding. This is their time to bond has a football family. I think it’s been really good and I’m proud of what they’ve done. It’s almost like spring practice because you can just take some time. When we get down to Charlotte though, it will be like a normal game week. This has been really good for us. We’ve slowed things down, we’ve taught well and the young men have responded so great.
Senior Bowl
Pat White is going, Patrick McAfee is going and Ellis Lankster is going. For those three it is absolutely awesome. All that does is put accolades on the West Virginia program. Do you know how many young people watch that game? It’s really great that we have three young men who will represent the Old Gold and Blue down there. They are going to have fun and I hope they turn No. 5 loose and let No. 40 kick and punt and do it all, and I hope they let No. 2 bring some back and cover people. The three we’re sending are going to do a great job and I’m proud of them.
