Football: Coach Stewart and Player Quotes 8.26.08
August 26, 2008 07:49 PM | General
August 26, 2008
MORGANTOWN, W.Va.- West Virginia University Head Coach Bill Stewart and player quotes from Tuesday, Aug. 26:
Head Coach Bill Stewart
On Saturday’s game against Villanova:
I greatly respect our opponent, Villanova University, their coach Andy Talley who is entering his 24th year. In the previous 23 years, he’s accomplished a lot with class. He is a tremendous coach and he’s is a good friend of mine from back when I was at William and Mary and VMI. He’s done a super job. Coach Talley has a veteran staff and they have 17 starters and 33 lettermen back from a 7-4 football team. This team is supposed to make a run at their conference and I’m hoping they do. I wish them nothing but the best, but I’m also hoping they don’t do that until September. That way, we won’t have to worry, but I know that won’t be the case. They will come in here and give us their best shot. I worry, as all coaches worry for all football games, but I am worried about the Mountaineers and what we do, no matter who our opponent will be. We respect all and fear none; we don’t fear anybody and we certainly respect all. That being said, the Villanova Wildcats will bring a very good bunch in here so we need to play our game to the best of our ability and go from there.
Our chief concern is first and foremost that we never underestimate an opponent. They are a challenge. My biggest concern about our football team is how we are going to handle ourselves. How will we perform? Are we going to have off sides, mental breakdowns, are we going to stay together? I told the team that we have 12 opportunities to play this season, guaranteed. If you want to get to a 13th game, then you have to take care of game one. I’m more worried about us early in the season that we can play with passion and error free. The first game is big and I don’t understand why some people don’t think that. You have to take care of No. 1 before you get to game No. 2. I haven’t preached to them but I did tell them about what an upset is. An upset is when preparation meets opportunity. When someone prepares, and the opportunity is right, they’ll take it and it’s that simple.
Schematically, they are very much like us. Today is going to be a tough practice with full pads and we’ll go over Villanova for over two and a half hours. Last Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday was pretty intense around here and it was a tough time to be a football player. We have gone against what we think they are going to do, and of course there will be a wrinkle here and there that you have to be prepared for, but their offense and defense are very similar to ours. That’s been kind of a blessing because we’ll see what we’ve seen last spring and all of camp.
On injuries:
We’re getting injury free and I hope we continue that. I hate to see youngsters get hurt and it’s happened all over the country. I might have beat them up too much; we ran them and they ran the steps-there wasn’t very much humor last week in Mountaineer land. Last night we had a nice practice and we will hit again tomorrow with full pads. It will be a two and a half hour practice of Mountaineer football and then we’ll back off during the week. Right now we’re healthy and I hope and pray we stay that way.
How this game differs from his first game with the Fiesta Bowl:
We had a short period of time in January and we had a long way to go. Here, we have been at camp with no classes and then we had classes with school beginning last Monday, it’s been a little bit different with our approach. We’ve had more time to settle in and build what we want the future of our program to be. I am all about winning every football game. We, as a staff and the players, want to win every football game but what we’re doing here, starting in camp, is laying a foundation for a football program. That’s the biggest difference. This is about making an impression. The lasting impression is always the first impression so this needs to be a big first impression by the Mountaineers for the 2008 season.
On Villanova’s offense:
Their whole offensive line and their receivers are back. They have some young talent like we have at receivers. Their quarterbacks can play, they can pass, pitch and catch very well and they play great a scheme. They know what to do with the ball, where to go with the ball.
On Reed Williams:
He’s very much able to play. I saw him hitting last week in practice and I know he wants to play very badly. He’s doing very well and all of the trainers and doctors are really impressed with Reed and how rapidly he has come back. He is right on schedule. He’s been hit and he’s hit hard. He’s done everything and he’s been laughing. He’s the Reed of old. The doctors feel good and he feels good. He has come a long way in a fast period of time and that has been good for him, especially mentally. I’m planning on starting him unless something would happen between now and Saturday.
Reed is a self-motivator and he has grown up crossing his T’s and dotting his I’s. He’s accountable and he’s been that way his whole life. He is so meticulous and there is always a plan. He’s a person you’d like to have in your life and he’s a great role model. He’s particular and that’s why he was so diligent with his workouts and if anyone deserves to play, he deserves to play.
On WVU Offense:
I told Pat, that when you hitch up, you throw the ball and you throw to the person who is open. If you hitch up a second time and they aren’t wide open, run. I’m a good football coach. We had t-backs. Owen Schmitt helped open some eyes to what you can do with that type of body and position coming out of the backfield. We stepped up with him and he made some big plays. Now with Will Johnson, Ryan Clark and Tyler Urban, all of those young guys, they are going to be good and household names.
On playing a I-AA team:
I think everyone in America has a right to play. I can’t get border states to play us. If you take a class program like Villanova, that can get the chance to play a I-A team, you welcome the opportunity. As a I-A coach myself, I always loved the opportunity to play a I-A school. There are great football teams playing I-AA teams out there who just can’t get good teams to play them. I’ve asked some Virginia schools to play us and we will down the road. It all goes back to the schedule.
On the depth chart:
I don’t know if Jock (Sanders) and Noel (Devine) will return the first kickoff. They will return some kickoffs, but we just have to see what happens. We’ll see who comes out on top and who gets to play what. Right now we’re going to interchange the safeties, we may flip corners and in the offensive line, there might be some juggling. We have great guys and we need to get some of the younger players into the offensive line. We’ll play four or five receivers and go from there. When you’re solid as we are, we need to play people. We need to give the younger guys experience. I’m hoping that Robert Sands will play. Tyler Urban may play. Ryan Clarke, Josh Jenkins and there will be five or six freshmen that will get the chance to play.
On his version of a successful game:
No injuries and a nice win. If I think we are blocking, tackling, hitting, and hustling, I’ll be pleased regardless of the score. I want to see a good football game. They’re going to be in some stressful situations and I want to see how they respond. I want to come out of that game, as in every game, as injury-free as we can. Did we strain and play Mountaineer football? If we do that, I’ll be happy.
On Pat Liebig:
He is fine, he’s just an old man. He’s had a good camp and he hasn’t played in a year and a half. He’s going to hit some bumps but he’s back, going full speed and he’s ready to go. He’s doing well and he’ll play. We’re depending on him for leadership.
On what he wants his imprint to be on the program:
First of all we needed a great staff and we have that. From what I hear from people, this may be the greatest staff ever and that’s not a slam at the past, that’s just talking about the present. If we can be good, solid gentlemen, particularly in the classroom, if we can be good citizens in this town and if we can be good gentlemen of faith, and I don’t care what faith, if we can just be good role models for the youth of America, then we’re doing something right. At the end of the day I want them to say that Bill Stewart recruited men with character, not a bunch of characters. When they put on the Old Gold and Blue, anytime, anywhere, they play the best football they can play. For instance 125 young men with eight days and seven nights in the desert getting ready for the Fiesta Bowl, we had gambling casinos over here, glitter over here and we just had one curfew violation. That’s the stamp I’m putting on this program. People should be very happy with what is going on in Morgantown, West Virginia. When you come out on the field with the flying WV, you better put your mouth piece in because you’re going to get hit.
Player Quotes
Mortty Ivy
On his last home opener as a senior:
Last opening game. I’m excited and I’m ready. I’m going to go out there and give it my all. We’re all ready to play against someone other than our own team so it’s going to be fun and a good experience. I can’t wait, I’m already excited. We’re going to have a full stadium and it’s going to be hot and loud.
On the status of the defense:
We are where we want to be, we just have to execute. You never know, playing the home opener or any game because you don’t know what they’re going to do. We’ve watched film from last year and hope that they are basically doing the same thing, but you never know. We have to execute and do our job.
On Villanova’s offense:
They are very similar and they do just a couple things differently but nothing that we don’t see everyday. We can’t overlook any team, just look what happened last year with Michigan when they played Appalachian State. You have to go out there and give it your all. You never know what they could do because we are going off of what they did last year. They could have a whole new game plan so we have to execute and do our job.
On Reed Williams being able to play:
Reed is cleared to play so we are very happy for him and we’re excited. He has taken a lot of reps and now he’s cleared so we’ll see what happens.
Mike Dent
On Villanova:
They are a hard-nosed team and they come off the ball pretty hard. What really stood out was that their linebackers can move around pretty well. They run the same things we run, it’s a little different, but it’s similar and that helps us out.
On Blocking:
It’s tougher to block an off-front because you have a guy directly over you. Even-fronts are a lot easier for a center and I think the guards like it a lot better too.
On Saturday’s game:
I’m healthy and 100% ready to go for Saturday. Senior year is here finally and I’m excited. We still have a couple days of preparation for Villanova and we’ll use those days wisely.
Noel Devine
On Saturday’s game:
We’ve been preparing for this game and now it’s finally game week. When the game comes, we’re going to be ready.
On the differences in the team:
I see differences in the offense and the defense. We have Jock (Sanders) at slot, Pat (White) at quarterback, a wide receiver in Bradley (Starks) and we’re throwing the ball in the air a lot. It’s going to be hard to stop our offense.
On Head Coach Bill Stewart:
Coach Stewart has been the same. He’s always making jokes and he brings us up every time we’re down. He is a lot quieter than the last coach and that’s a positive. It’s an easy adjustment especially because we had him in the Bowl game. Since he’s been here, he has always been the same.
On how many carries he will make:
That’s the coaches’ decision, but I think around the high 20s, but it depends. I’m looking forward to proving myself. I didn’t really do that last year and now I think I’m ready.
