Football: Coach Stewart Teleconference
October 25, 2009 03:47 PM | General
October 25, 2009
I want to again emulate what I said after yesterday’s game. I can’t say enough about Randy Edsall’s staff and their preparation, and the game those players brought into Mountaineer Field. It was just awesome. I was very pleased that our young men rallied and fired volley for volley.
That was one heck of a college football game. Someone mentioned to me this morning that it reminded him of the old back and forth WVU-Boston College games. I don’t know about that, but I’m sure it was.
Number two, I want to congratulate our team for its resiliency and perseverance. They just hung in there. We don’t have a lot of complicated mottos, but we talk about rallying around each other and believing in the coaches. The Mountaineers did that yesterday. We just found another way to win, whether it be on the ground or in the air, we found a way to win. We very much stayed in-tune in the game.
Number three, we’ve been down at the half in the last two games. I want to compliment the staff on both sides of the ball for what has transpired. (Yesterday) was tough – we were off-balanced. They (Connecticut) threw things at us that we hadn’t seen. They did some things that were unorthodox for us, and we didn’t anticipate it, but the way our offensive staff responded at halftime was absolutely outstanding. Our players were very attentive. You have a 20-minute halftime, and only about 14 minutes to talk about the game plan, which didn’t resemble what you are seeing on the field and what you prepared for all week. We pitched it aside, and regrouped and put another plan together. That’s tough to do.
Our offensive staff is absolute champs at that, and I can’t thank them enough for their effort. Our defense came up with the stops when they had to and kept us in that game. They also came up with the big plays.
It was a heck of a football game, and I’m glad we came out on top. I’m very proud of our football team.
I’m so proud of the people of West Virginia – those people that were at the game and the tribute that they showed to the UConn Huskies and Jasper Howard was awesome. I’ve never seen anything like it. It was all from the heart. It’s a proud day to wear the Old Gold and Blue when you see things like that. What a tribute.
Our fans kept us in the game at the end, and I can only thank them so much for hanging with us and believing in us as much as we believed in each other.
(on team’s progress thus far)
Our record is not a surprise to me. I knew we had a chance to be a good football team, if we stayed injury free. All I can ask is that we get better each week, and we’ve done that.
This was the first time we had been outgained offensively, but that’s because UConn did a fantastic job.
I’m proud of this football team – we are 6-1 for a reason. We’re good when we play good. Our players believe that we can only stop ourselves. When we quit doing that, we’re a pretty good football team.
(on strengths becoming weaknesses, and the other way around)
We all knew last year that we didn’t have a big power back and that we had to get better on third downs. We have gotten better, and everyone knows that. We were 8-of-16 this week. In the red zone we were 88 percent; we’re No. 1 in the conference. This week, we were 2-of-3 in the red zone.
We have made great strides in the areas that help you win football games. Turnovers have been a factor. We fumbled some punts in game two and threw some interceptions in game three. We’ve stopped that by taking care of the football.
Defensively, you are going to thrive on that and realize that you need to get those (turnovers), too. We’ve coached them, and tonight we will do a turnover circuit again. It’s been a growing, getting better type of season.
It’s just strengths and weaknesses. When we weren’t good on short yardage and goal-line situations, we got better. When we aren’t good at something, we work on it. Things have gotten better. With that being said, that tells me that our staff is doing a great job and our players have bought in. Our players have worked very hard. Under (coach) Mike Joseph we are strong and healthy. We just get better each and every week.
If we can keep the injury bug away from us, we have a chance to finish strong.
(on injuries)
I saw where Bradley (Starks) got injured when he did a nice crack-back block on a guy, and he hit him hard. He just jammed his back. He is going to be fine. He’ll be gone Monday, but should be back by Tuesday.
Reed (Williams) is going to be a player again this week. He isn’t going to be 100 percent, but he’s going to play. He’s frustrated – he’s a senior and just wants to play. That’s why he redshirted last year; he couldn’t protect himself. He got so frustrated after the game. This morning, he was like a breath of fresh air.
He hits so hard, his shoulders start to hurt. Pain is pain, and that is a tough thing for Reed. But, if anyone can get through it, Reed Williams can get through it. He got whacked in the leg and the guy rolled up on him a bit. He just throws his body in there.
(on play of Ryan Clarke)
(I’m happy) with him. He took a head shot (yesterday) after that flat pass. The guy launched on him. I questioned the official. He had his hands in front of him. It’s unbelievable – I don’t know what to do. We’ve sent some film in. We point it out. We tell officials. I don’t know what to do. Then, Chris Neild barely brushes a young man, and it’s a kick-off from the 45. I’m just a little frustrated with that, but maybe it will work itself out.
He is a bull of a man now. He fluctuates between 243 and 246 and run a sub 4.6. That’s a big, strong man for such a young lad. He’s a redshirt freshman – he’s just a kid. He has three more years of football.
(on Noel Devine’s game-winning touchdown)
It was a seam play. The outside zone is a seam. As your offensive line goes right or left, the defenses have to adjust and get their gap responsibility. As that line moves, those gaps move. You have to move your feet, you can’t stumble and you can’t get picked-off. There are so many intangibles.
He (Devine) hit that “D gap” between the tight end and the flanker. Run support has to come out of the boundaries. He (UConn’s free safety) took an angle, which looked good on film. If you take an angle on No. 7, you better have an extra two- or three-yard cushion.
Our guys in practice don’t take that angle anymore. They go up about three yards because they know that Noel is so fast, and when he hits that burst, he is just a jet. That’s the difference in that zone seam play. You get up there and let that run support get you. Usually it’s a tackle and maybe a few yards. You usually get tackled or pushed out of bounds, because we can’t tackle them all.
We left Noel the free safety to beat, and he beat him. He just put the jets on and just burst right by him. It was an unbelievable run.
He (Devine) committed himself to listening to Coach Beatty this summer. With zone football, patience to the hole, speed through the hole. The zone isn’t like running out of the I-formation or belly football. The zone is a stretch play – it’s a sideways play. You have to be patient. You have run keys, and you have read them. If that one run key gets hooked, you keep it on the outside like Noel did. Or you can cut back and run it straight-up in there. That is what he is doing so much better.
He made a conscious effort beginning last spring, and continuing all summer, to watching film and getting better.
(on coaches’ anticipations when Noel gets the ball)
That last run was to try to get another first down, to get out of bounds and stop the clock. We had just got a big third down from Jarrett Brown. If he didn’t get that, do you punt the ball on your side of the 50-yard line, or do you go for it? I would have had to go for it.
That play was to get another first down, because we knew they would be in prevent (defense). In a perfect world, I would have like to have seen him (Devine) score with three seconds left, but I would take that score from Noel during any point in the ball game.
(on the 2008 game against USF)
All you can do when they load up the box is throw the deep ball and try to beat one-on-one coverage. You have to do more than that, and our guys bought into that plan.
Our players, because of the success South Florida has had the last two years and how they were shutting us down with their great defense, we told our players to just believe in us (the coaching staff). The plan will work if you stay in the framework of the offense. Defensively, we have always had low-scoring games with them.
I think our football team really bought into our game plan. They think it’s fun. We hit Tyler Urban on that play-action pass. We did things our players had never done. Then, going into the bowl game, things were taken off.
This (yesterday’s game) was the first game when we were outrushed and outgained, and the reason was because everything UConn threw at us. That was a tough first half. We hadn’t seen stuff like that, and it’s hard to (adjust) on the sidelines.
Thank God our players believed in us. We have a great offensive staff. We regrouped at halftime, and we had some big plays out of our defense. We got one heck of a win.
(on USF’s defense)
Jim Leavitt is a great defensive coach. It’s still his stuff, and he has a lot of input and flavor in that defense.
We are going to have to move the ball and move the pocket. We can’t let people get us in the cross-hairs. We will have to throw it deep, throw those over routes and move the ball around. You have to use motion and movement – I want to confuse South Florida. I don’t want to sit there and let them get us in their sights. We have to move the pocket and use that stuff to our advantage without giving ourselves up.
