By MSNsprotsNET.com October 27, 2009

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia University football coach Bill Stewart quotes from Tuesday’s new conference.

Opening statements
I am very pleased with the victory last week and how our guys responded in the second half. Our defense has 11-straight games with turnovers, and I hope that can continue. It was a good team effort, and I am proud of how our guys played.

This week, we have a very formidable opponent in USF. They are a dangerous opponent. The Bulls are a good football team, and they are coming off a couple tough losses.

USF is a good football team and an excellent program that is very well coached. They have a lot of athleticism, and I am worried about their athletic ability on the offensive side of the ball with B.J. Daniels and Dontavia Bogan. The running backs are good and tough and the line guys are tall and can play. Their defense is very sound. They have two of the best bookends in the league in (Jason) Pierre-Paul and (George) Selvie. They are very impressive young men and guys that can play the game the way you are supposed to. The linebackers run well, and there is tremendous athleticism in the secondary.

This is going to be a tough game for WVU. We had a hard-fought game here last season, the “White Out,” in the snow and cold. I thought it would affect USF but it didn’t. We barely escaped with a 13-7 victory. Patrick White played very well, as did our defense.

They (USF) have handled us pretty well in the last two of the last three outings. We have not done well against them offensively. We went down two years ago and put the ball over of the place. If we go down there and do that again, the same thing will happen.

I hope we can take our A-game because we are going to need it. I anticipate a big crowd, and I anticipate a very hearty welcome from the USF fans. It is going to take a heck of an effort to go in there. They have lost two games to two of the best teams in the league.

We are practicing and preparing well for this game. It is a short week, but when the coin is flipped we are going to play Mountaineer football.

On Injuries
Reed Williams ran well yesterday, and Bradley Starks is doing much better. Reed (shoulder) is a game time decision. Sometimes he gets nicked up and sometimes he doesn’t, it just depends on how he hits it and when he hits it. He is good to go but for how long, I don’t know. We need both Reed Williams and Bradley Starks in the lineup on Friday night.

On USF quarterback B.J. Daniels
He is going to give us multiple-problems. B.J. Daniels is a Division I basketball player just like our No. 16 (Jarrett Brown). I think those guys are probably some of the best athletes in the world. If you can play Division I basketball then you are special. He is going to give us fits, as he has given everyone else they have played. I just hope he doesn’t get into a grove.

On Pierre-Paul
He is making plays. Look at his stats. When you have a guy like George Selvie, who is a star, they always double-team him and that has helped Pierre-Paul. He is pretty special and a great player. They are two stellar, top-notch All-American candidates that are playing very well.

On Pitt vs. USF
They (Pitt) ran the ball. Pitt does a nice job with running the ball and play-action pass. We are a combination of Pitt and Cincinnati, who have both beat them. I don’t know if we are as good of a combination, but we will see in a few weeks. Hopefully it will be good enough to contain these two guys (Pierre-Paul and Selvie).

On Jarrett Brown
Connecticut has really good athletes. Remember the Auburn and East Carolina games, Jarrett got loose and at Colorado in the first play of the game the blitz. He just makes you miss, and I hope and pray he can do that down there. If he does, he is a big man that can track and cover a lot of ground.

On play calling
We are going to give them the full gamut, and do what we do. We have to run at them, you cannot play on your heels. That is what people do that have success, the come after them. We need to be aggressive and go out there and play Mountaineer football.

On being named to the Bryant Award Watch list
They have the wrong Stewart. He must be another coaching out West somewhere. I will tell you what that is. That is a real tribute to our staff. I think we have the best sideline adjustment people in the game. When we have problems, we stop ourselves.

Our staff has never quit believing, but most importantly, our players rally around each other, and they believe in our coaches. That is the bottom line. That watch list is nothing but a testament to the best staff that I have ever been around and to the greatest group of young men.

On having a short week
We had a long day yesterday. Longer than I like, but you have to do what you have to do to get ready. We tried to keep it short for our players. If anything, we will scale back for our players and do more for our coaches. Hopefully, we don’t overfill the plate, because I don’t know what USF is going to do. I don’t know if they are going to do what they didn’t to Cincinnati or what they did to Pitt, or maybe even a combination of both. You don’t know till you get out there and start swinging. As coach (Don) Nehlen used to say, this is a 90 slug fight. It is BIG EAST football and it’s going to be like this every week.

On Pat Lazear
I think he has done a really good job and has had a really good career. What he is doing for me on the punt team is excellent. He is playing really sharp and has made that part of his game better. He is having a good year.

On Selvish Capers
His potential is phenomenal. He has tremendous coach in Dave Johnson. You jump in the ring with Dave Johnson, he may be in the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, but I have seen guys in that organization knock you out also. Selvish is getting coached right and getting prepared correctly. He is getting better each and every week. It goes back to his coaching and the fact that he bought in. He wanted to be a tight end. He was always a biscuit away from 300 pounds and now we let him get to 300 pounds. Now, he looks like one of those body builders.

On weeknight games
Thursday and Friday night football, to me, is exactly what Monday night is to America. You are the game on Thursday night and on Friday night we are the game. You know how many young people get to lie around and watch WVU and USF this Friday night. It is colossal for our program. I would not want to do it every week, but it has been very advantageous.

On coach Stewart’s first trip to USF as head coach and recruiting
It helps us in recruiting, because we are going to be the only game as I indicated, but we are going down there to do the best that we can and hopefully we will have a great showing and it will be a positive influence to the recruits.

On Noel Devine
He can see. It is about vision. I said the same thing to the NFL about Steve Slaton. I told them to trust me. When you put these guys out seven or eight yards and give him the ball, first of all their visions are identical. Noel is probably quicker, where Steve is faster getting around the edge, but when you give these guys the ball, they just run around them.

On Owen Schmitt
Owen came by my office on Friday, and we had the best visit. He said to me that if he could play 10 more years of football here at West Virginia, he would do it. He said “coach, it is not about the money, it is about this way of life.” I tell our team that.

On USF
They will get into a bowl. They have got beat by the two best teams in the league Cincinnati and Pitt, both ranked teams. South Florida is not out of the hunt and our players better know that before they get on the plane.