Football: Head Coach Bill Stewart Press Conference
September 15, 2008 04:29 PM | General
September 15, 2008
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - West Virginia University football Head Coach Bill Stewart quotes from Monday afternoon's press conference.
Opening Statement
I would like to start off by talking about the Colorado Buffaloes and, what I think, is a very exciting football team. Word came from out West that we were fast; well they’re exciting. They make plays and they’re fun to watch if you don’t play them, if you know what I mean. We are really going to have to be disciplined and have our T’s crossed and our I’s dotted because they present a lot of problems for us.
Offensively, I have always been a big fan and admirer of Coach Hawkins and his son, Cody, the quarterback, is just an extension of his father and his staff on the field. He knows where to go and when to go with the ball and he knows what the offense is all about. The young man does a great job keeping in the framework of his dad’s offense. That’s nice to see but you hate to be going against them. They have old guys mixed in with the young guys so that will be challenging for our defense. They have the old guys up front and the young guys up front.
Defensively, what worries me is even though they have such an exciting offense, defensively they are a lot like the bunch we played last week in East Carolina. They have three seniors up front with a senior linebacker with two junior linebackers and they have three seniors in the secondary with one All-American candidate, No. 29, Cha'pelle Brown. They have a veteran defense who hasn’t allowed a 100 yard rusher since 2004. I didn’t know that and that gets me excited and I hope it gets our guys excited.
I’m very impressed with their return game, and they have one of the nation’s best, if not the best kick returner right now. Our special teams really have to strain and work to keep him intact and I’m very much aware of that. I showed the team the film this week and they know he (CU wide receiver Josh Smith) can run. He’s fast and he can go. They have a good punter, place kicker and the snapper is good, so we will have our hands full with the return game.
I always tell the team the truth, always, and Colorado was down 21 points to Oklahoma last year and came back and beat them so that tells you that these guys will fight you for four quarters. That’s pretty impressive.
Their game against the Colorado State Rams was a good win for them, 38-17. Their next game against Eastern Washington was closer, but they played very well and they won, 31-24. They have scored zero points in the first quarter, 28 points in the second, 14 in the third and 27 in the fourth, so that tells me that they are good finishers. That will worry a lot of the stat people. I’m not that big of a stat person but that stat catches my interest. How do you finish prior to the half and how do you finish the game? Colorado, looking at these scores, has scored 55 of their 69 points of the closing quarters, second half, of their games. That’s a pretty good stat and that tells you about the toughness of their team.
On the practices since the ECU loss
The Mountaineers have been working very hard since their loss at East Carolina. We came back and had a nice lifting and film session the day after the game, and hopefully it was a good mental and good ‘get-out-the-soreness’ day. We really concentrated on the blocking and tackling fundamentals of the game, and Wednesday and Friday we had more of a lighter practice with kicking and I ran them hard.
We’re still early in the season. We’re up to game three. We’ve worked hard and we had a tremendous practice yesterday. Tonight we’re going to go, and I’ll keep them a little later to get them used to the night play, and then we’ll go a little earlier tomorrow, depart here tomorrow afternoon for Pittsburgh and fly out.
On getting an early lead against CU
I think it would be nice to get a jump anytime, but like I said, they are a second quarter scoring football team. It would be nice to jump on them, but I would like to jump on them and stay on them if I could. I just hope we start with a bang. I want to play solid and sound.
It’s going to be a good game and a fun game to watch. That’s why you have these national showcase games, because it’s going to be neat to watch the BIG EAST and the Big 12.
On the Mountaineer defense
The No. 1 thing we have to do is focus on the first down. The six, seven, eight yard downs have to stop. That is first and foremost. I want to see us attack. It would be easy for me to say we lost our swagger but our guys feed off each other-they like each other and they’re tight. When they see Pat McAfee boom one in, they feed off that. We didn’t have that against ECU. I think if we, defensively, can stop them for a reasonable amount on the first down, then it makes your third down becomes more crucial. I want our defense to be in the flow of the game. I want them to play downhill and attack and not worry about making a big play. We just have to stop them on the first down and we’ll be ok.
On what he has told the players
I told them to play like they were little; I just want them to go out there and have fun. You can’t be reckless but you have to let your people play.
If you have a field goal kicker, let him kick. I told Pat just to hang with me and to get into the flow of the game. We’ll see how he is kicking out there, see how the air is and see how we’re doing. We might kick it from the 35 or 36-yard line. Inside the 30-yard line we will not punt it, we’ll go for it every time.
I’ve called plays in high school, college and the professional football league. I know what pressure is when it comes to calling plays. I would sometimes get tight but you can’t do that. If you start coaching the ‘I have to,’ then that’s not good. You have to call the game, let your players play, and tell them to get in the good ole fashion football game, and not to worry about the pressure. Our opponents are going to win some and we’re going to win some, we just hope we win more. Don’t look at the scoreboard until the fourth quarter. I was really proud when we laid the ball down when we were down 17-3 last week because we knew we were still in the game. I looked up in the fourth quarter with 6:05 left and we’re down 17-3, and I said, ‘no problem’- I still thought we could win, not tie, win. You just can’t play tight. I want them to play aggressive, don’t play careless or rough, but just go play and have fun. You have to go out there and play the game. Don’t scrutinize the game, play the game.
Personnel- wise
Wes Lyons was hurt in camp. He’s ready to play this week and he’ll play. I told him that when he showed me he could go two hard weeks that we’d get him in there and play. Wes Lyons is going to play this week and he’s going to help us. Alric Arnett, Bradley Starks, Tito (Gonzales)-we have guys that can play out there. Remember, we’re going to have guys that drop balls. I just think that we need to play a few more people. We’re going to play a couple more guys, not saying the ones who played, played badly, but we’re going to play a couple more guys. We’re going to have fresh feet. In the backfield we’ll have to see what happens and what set goes the best. We’ll have to see what’s clicking but I know this, No. 5, No. 7 and No. 9 have to touch the ball, as does No. 6 and No. 82. We’re going to spread the ball around a little bit. Now defensively, we need to attack the ball and get them off schedule. We’ll play a lot of people.
On Reed Williams
He’s going to go and he is going to play. Reed, myself and the medical staff talked yesterday and Reed Williams is going to let it go. Yesterday after practice, we stayed here and watched the film and wow, we couldn’t block him. He’s ready to go. That puts Mortty Ivy back on the outside with Reed in the middle and it brings in a guy that is a pretty good football player. It brings another level of excitement to the defense and a presence. He’s just one guy but he’s one special guy. Like I’ve said, I left it up to him, I left it up to our medical staff, and he feels like he can go. He’s taking some bangs and he’s ready to go.
On mentality
We got beat Saturday and we’ve got to let that go. The players have to let that go and the coaches have to let that go. We have to set our sights on what is there for us. What’s there for us is 10 games. This is game three. After this one, we have nine more and if we do well in game three, four, five and so on, we’ll be granted a 13th game. If we don’t do well, then we won’t. This is game three and it brings excitement and a spark with it.
On Zach Hulce’s shoulder
He’s out and it’s as frustrating as can be. We met this morning and my head hit the table. Some come faster than others but some don’t. He wants to play, he’s a good guy, but he’s just nicked up. I’m not going to let him run the ball when he’s nicked up. You can’t run the ball, you can’t pass protect or put your hands up to catch if you’re nicked and he’s struggling.
On the target number of touches for Noel Devine and Jock Sanders
Noel needs the ball 18-22 times. I’ve coached some great tailbacks and I have a decent pedigree of tailbacks and the ones I’ve always been around know that they have to have the ball 18-22 times. That’s what we need to do with Noel. When they fumble, and they will make mistakes, we as coaches have to trust and go back to them.
On the senior class
It has been a tremendous week of confidence and leadership all from the heart. I just can’t tell you enough about this senior class that we have because they are such a special group. We have great young men and they have stepped up and led, and I’m really pleased with them. I’m very proud, the University should be proud and most importantly the people of West Virginia should be proud of these seniors because they’ve been knocked in the teeth the last 10 days. People are telling them how much they stink and how we’re not this or that, and those guys have hung in really well and I’m proud of them.
