Tough and Tougher
October 08, 2009 02:24 PM | General
(2:24 pm)
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| Bill Stewart |
Which is harder - taking over a football program that has been blown up or one that is expected to win right away? West Virginia’s Bill Stewart and Syracuse’s Doug Marrone are coming from different ends of the spectrum.
Stewart got the West Virginia job after leading the Mountaineers to a Fiesta Bowl victory over Oklahoma in 2008. The WVU program was well stocked with big-name offensive players.
Marrone took over a Syracuse program last winter that was coming off four consecutive losing seasons and a 10-37 record since 2005. You have to go all the way back to the end of the Frank Maloney-Dick MacPherson period in the early 1980s to find a comparable stretch at Syracuse.
In just five games, Marrone is already one victory shy of equaling what the Orange did last year. The general feeling in Syracuse, N.Y., is that Marrone is charting out a successful path for Syracuse football.
For his part, Marrone believes it is easier for a coach to take over a program that has been blown up like the one he took over from Greg Robinson.
“From a players’ perspective they’ll sit there and say ‘well we’ve done this and this wasn’t successful. Just tell us what we need to do to win,’” Marrone said earlier this week. “So I think you have a better chance of players buying into what you want to do.
“And they have to have some type of success,” he added.
Stewart has done both. He coached three years at VMI where the Keydets have been perennial bottom feeders in the Southern Conference. That was a tough situation.
It was a different kind of tough for Stewart when he took over a Mountaineer program that spent three consecutive years in the top 10. When he lost two of his first three games to begin the 2008 season, Stewart endured biting criticism. Since then West Virginia has gone 11-3, sending some of Stewart’s critics underground - for now.
Asked Tuesday which he thought was tougher, Stewart flashed a wide, took a deep breath, and put both arms in the air.
“Flip the coin. It’s 50-50,” he said. “I’ve done both and let me tell you, it’s a lot easier when you have bullets in your holster like I had. But it’s probably a lot more fun and less stress when you’re not supposed to do very well and you’re doing well.”
And that is exactly what is happening up at Syracuse with first-year coach Doug Marrone.
Weekly Word
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| Bob Huggins |
This is year three for Huggins at WVU. In year three at Cincinnati, Huggins had the Bearcats in the Final Four.
Interesting.
That's right, West Virginia. You can go see for yourself:
http://msn.foxsports.com/cbk/story/10180230/Big-East-preview:-Conference-comes-back-to-pack
Spiker spent five seasons on Steve Donahue’s staff at Cornell, helping the Big Red to a 50-20 record and two Ivy League titles. Spiker also spent time working on John Beilein’s staff at WVU as a student assistant.
Spiker’s wife, Jennifer, was a 10-year assistant coach for the Mountaineer women’s soccer program.
Congratulations, Zach and the entire Spiker family!
Orr was the MAC coach of the year in 2009.
Seeing that the Pittsburgh Pirates had yet another losing season this year, you can now cross Jim Tracy off the list of reasons why the Pirates can't win at least one more game than they lose each year.
That is the same arrangement the Gator Bowl had with the ACC, so basically the tradeoff for the Big East is a different city and a different date without having to share a spot with a team from the Big 12 Conference.
To me, that looks like an improvement for the Big East Conference, even if the game is not being played on Jan. 1.
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| Bobby Bowden |
FSU trustees chair Jim Smith said earlier this week that it was time for Bowden to step aside after this season.
Bowden once said the shakiest ground he ever stood on as a coach was down in Blacksburg, Va., to end the ‘74 season when he thought his job might have been in jeopardy if he lost to the Hokies.
WVU president James Harlow and athletic director Leland Byrd both came out with statements of support for Bowden before the game against the Hokies.
When he went to Florida State Bowden transformed the once-downtrodden Seminoles into one of the most respectable football programs in the country.
FSU is 2-3 this year and 0-2 in ACC play. Florida State takes on No. 22 Georgia Tech this weekend.
West Virginia was 36th in Sagarin’s all-time rankings.
However, in his listing of the top 40 programs for each decade Sagarin committed at least one turnover on his 1950s list. He has Kentucky as the No. 1 program of the decade, followed by Illinois, Kansas State, Kansas and Indiana. Nowhere to be found is West Virginia, which is an oversight for sure.
West Virginia finished ranked five times in the 1950s, had two consensus All-American players in Rod Hundley and Jerry West, and was the NCAA runner-up in 1959. When Fred Schaus handed the WVU program over to George King in the summer of 1960, the Mountaineers ranked in 37 straight polls dating back to 1956.
That has never happened before or since at WVU.
Have a great week!
