Stewart Seeking Improvement
September 07, 2009 10:11 AM | General
September 7, 2009
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - Sunday is a day of rest for many, but it was a day of work for the Mountaineer football staff. Bill Stewart and his coaches spent the better part of the day perusing the game tape from Saturday's 33-20 victory over Liberty.
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| Noel Devine ran for 112 yards and a touchdown last Saturday against Liberty.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks |
And what they saw didn't impress them very much.
"I wasn't pleased with some of the things we did (Saturday)," Stewart said. "I thought we had too many mental breakdowns. For instance, on offense we had a couple of missed assignments. We were looking at some signals and that goofed our guys up.
"Defensively, it was puzzling to me why everyone in our stadium knew number 10 was going to get the ball but our players didn't," he said. "We have to correct some things."
Stewart said letting Mike Brown go free on crossing routes without getting jammed was frustrating to watch.
"That's junior high football," he said.
Not seeing a signal on offense was also bothersome.
"(Saying they didn't see a signal) is the easiest copout in the world," Stewart said. "When defensive guys complain that they are getting held, I'll say, 'Fine, then you're too slow. You can sit on the bench.' Offensively, if you can't get the call, then you can't see and you can come and sit with me. I'm very blunt with that stuff. I don't buy those excuses. Those led to some of those not-so-good plays. We didn't have many, but we had enough."
As Stewart mentioned, not all was bad. One area he cited as a pleasant surprise was the play of the offensive line with one redshirt freshman, three sophomores and just one senior starting up front on Saturday.
"We have 11 more opportunities for them to get better," he said, "but they played very hard. There was a holding, but that was all. They did a good job of picking up blitzes for the most part."
Stewart was also impressed with the way Ryan Clarke, Shawne Alston and Jordan Roberts performed on kickoff coverage.
"I put Ryan Clarke in there and I thought he did a nice job," Stewart said. "He went down there and really whacked some guys. We put Shawne Alston in there and he went down there and did a nice job. Then Jordan Roberts went down there and created havoc. We put him at the number four position (wedge buster) just to entertain him."
Stewart said Liberty's decision to two-gap West Virginia made it difficult for running back Noel Devine to read his running lanes on zone plays.
"That's why he kept cutting back," said Stewart. "On his touchdown, they were coming after us. As soon as I saw it, I knew it would be a touchdown if they stayed like that. And it was a touchdown. He just walked in - didn't get touched."
Stewart said he wished that he could have played more players on Saturday, but the Mountaineers could never get a comfortable margin to do so.
"We couldn't pull away," he said. "I wanted to play Geno (Smith). J.D. Woods should have played. So should have Logan (Heastie). We talked about that as a staff. Had we gotten another score, or stopped them, then there would have been a lot of guys playing.
"In the end, the defense had some young guys in there playing and that was good," Stewart added. "I just wish we could have done that on offense. That's so frustrating, and I blame myself and the offensive coaches, but the game was just too close."
According to Stewart, it will not take a lot to get his team ready for Saturday's game against East Carolina.
"We went down there and I believe that we thought all we had to do was go out there and just wear the Old Gold and Blue. We believed that if we had Patrick (White), old number five was going to go out there and win the game for us. It didn't work out that way.
"Our defense could not get off the field and J.T. Thomas said it best after the game, 'They whacked us.' They flat-out out toughed us.
"I don't have to tell our players anything this week - they remember what happened last year. That game woke us up. It was a terrible wakeup call, but ECU whipped us, physically and mentally - and convincingly."
Briefly:
"It was offensive pass interference but I don't complain about that - you just keep playing the game," he said. "It would have been tough, though, if that was a deciding touchdown against us. That would have been hard to swallow."
"He did not play (Saturday) - that was my call," Stewart said. "If Sidney continues to practice like he has, then he'll play this week. But up until last week, he hadn't practiced. You just can't practice Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and say you're ready to play. Maybe that's the way it is in some places, or the way it was here before, but I'm not going to do that.
"It's no big deal. It's over and it's done. I told him that we need him (this week), but we'll see how he practices."
"From the 35 to the 25-yard lines going in, I'm going to consider that four-down territory," he said. "I don't want to give them the ball on the 35-yard line. If we get down to the 25 and we don't get a touchdown or miss a field goal, we can live with that. That's a 75-yard drive."
