Are You Ready for Some Football?
September 02, 2010 02:31 PM | General
Sepember 2, 2010
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| Bill Stewart |
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The 2010 season opener is finally here and Bill Stewart couldn’t be happier. The 25th-rated Mountaineers take on FCS foe Coastal Carolina Saturday at Milan Puskar Stadium in a game that will be televised locally on the Big East Network (John Sanders and Rene Nadeau).
After nearly a month of preparation trying to find the best 11 on each side of the ball, Stewart says it’s time to go out and face somebody in different colored jerseys.
“We need to play a football game,” Stewart said. “We have been practicing hard all preseason.”
Stewart begins his third season guiding a Mountaineer program that has grown accustomed to enjoying great success. Stewart’s 19-8 record through his first 27 games is second in school history to only Hall of Fame coach Clarence “Doc” Spears, whose 20-4-3 mark during a similar stretch of games came just after the horse and buggy era.
Stewart says season openers are always a special time of the year.
“I have had a headache for a month, not because I am sick, but because I am always thinking about what is next and what can I do,” he said. “That is every year. When I quit having that excitement and those butterflies then I don’t need to coach and they don’t need to play.”
Stewart is anxious to see how sophomore Geno Smith performs in his first collegiate start. The Miami native appeared in five games last season, including critical moments against Marshall and Florida State, and finished the year completing 32 of 49 passes for 309 yards and a touchdown. Stewart said he wants Smith to play responsibly.
“I am going to tell him to go get seven points and not three,” Stewart said. “Are we going to play reckless? No, we can’t do that. I want Geno to play, and I want Geno to lead and our team to follow him.”
Smith appears fully recovered from foot problems that limited him last spring, but he has not been hit in live situations since the bowl game last year. That is why the coaching staff has worked diligently getting freshmen Barry Brunetti and Jeremy Johnson ready in case something happens to Smith. Stewart said he is not against using both quarterbacks this year if he has to.
Brunetti and Johnson may not be the only freshmen to see the field on Saturday. There are 11 first-time players on this week’s depth chart, including true freshman safety Mike Dorsey, who had a fabulous fall camp and appears to be the next big playmaker in the secondary. Stewart said linebacker Doug Rigg and backup running back Trey Johnson could also be in the mix this weekend as well.
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| Noel Devine |
However, the game plan will still revolve around West Virginia’s experienced players on both sides of the ball, including three big-time playmakers on offense in Noel Devine, Jock Sanders and Tavon Austin.
Devine enters this season as college football’s top returning rusher with 3,381 yards, and he hopes a strong 2010 campaign can put him into contention for the Heisman Trophy in December.
“I’m ready to go out and prove what our team has to offer this year and define our status,” Devine said. “I think we’re going to be a special team this year.”
Teammate Jock Sanders believes it’s all a matter of how the team prepares each week, beginning with Saturday’s opener against the Chanticleers.
“We’re OK as long as we prepare right because the game is going to be won throughout the week, not on game day,” Sanders explained. “So if we prepare right it doesn’t matter who we’re lined up against because we’re going to get the job done. We just need to prepare how we should to win that specific game.”
Offensive coordinator Jeff Mullen echoes Sanders sentiments.
“We need to worry about what we’re doing,” Mullen said. “We need to manage the game – manage our good plays and manage our bad plays.”
Mullen has his most experienced offensive unit in three years at WVU with 16 players on the two-deep roster with at least 10 games worth of experience. The offensive line appears to be stronger with a left side that boasts a combined 27 career starts in left tackle Don Barclay and left guard Josh Jenkins. Expected to join center Joey Madsen in the starting lineup on Saturday are senior Eric Jobe at right guard and sophomore Jeff Braun at right tackle. Promising redshirt freshman Cole Bowers is West Virginia’s swing guy, capable of playing both the guard and the tackle positions.
“There are about eight or nine linemen that we feel comfortable with and hopefully we can bring some of the young guys along so we have nine or 10 guys,” Stewart said.
Redshirt freshman Stedman Bailey is listed No. 1 at X wide receiver ahead of junior Brad Starks, mainly because Starks has had a tough time staying on the field. But Bailey performed well during fall camp and has become one of West Virginia’s most dependable wide receivers.
“He has made catches and he has competed,” said Stewart. “It’s time for young guys like Stedman Bailey to step up and become a Mountaineer – that’s what so exciting about this time of year.”
On the defensive side of the ball, West Virginia has had some injury issues at linebacker, although Stewart indicated Tuesday that weakside backer J.T. Thomas should be ready to go on Saturday. Stewart is not so sure about senior middle linebacker Pat Lazear, though, who suffered a bone bruise to his leg earlier in camp that has kept him in the training room.
“Medically, J.T. Thomas needs to play this weekend to see how he reacts,” Stewart noted. “He is going to get in there and bang around and do what linebackers are supposed to do. Pat Lazear is still nursing that kick to the leg. We are waiting on that bone bruise to heal.”
If Lazear can’t go, a combination of Thomas, Anthony Leonard, Branko Busick or Najee Goode could be out there Saturday manning the three linebacker spots to begin the game.
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| Chris Neild |
Up front, West Virginia appears good to go with three all-conference contenders returning in Chris Neild, Scooter Berry and Julian Miller. There is quality behind them, too, in pass rushing specialists Bruce Irvin and Will Clarke, as well as veteran performers Larry Ford, Josh Taylor, J.B. Lageman and Jorge Wright.
In the secondary, all five returners have some game experience, including a pair of double-digit starters at corner in Brandon Hogan and Keith Tandy, but safeties coach Steve Dunlap is concerned about the lack of playing experience with his backups at bandit and spur safety.
West Virginia’s defense last year was susceptible at times to the big play, something Stewart wants rectified this fall. The coach also wants to see improvement in his team’s kickoff coverage that ranked near the bottom of the NCAA in 2009.
This Saturday marks the third consecutive year West Virginia has started the season with an FCS opponent. WVU’s two prior encounters with FCS foes were tougher-than-expected affairs against Villanova in 2008 and Liberty in 2009.
“We learned last season that you need to finish the deal and that I-AA football, where I coached, is not bad football,” said Stewart. “We have 85 scholarships and they have 63 - that is 22 less - but I don’t take any game for granted.”
Devine agrees.
“We need to take it one at a time and not take any of them lightly,” he said. “We just need to work on our game; we just need to keep getting better and compete.”
West Virginia is bringing an eight-game home winning streak into Saturday’s opener – the eighth longest winning streak in school history. The Mountaineers won a school-best 14 in a row at home from 1924-26.
Kickoff is set for 3:30 p.m. Markets carrying Saturday’s telecast include the Capital Region (WJAL and MASN), Denver (Altitude), Pittsburgh (WPCW), Kansas City (Metro-KC), New Orleans (Cox), Providence, R.I. (Cox-NE), Charleston-Huntington, W.Va. (WCHS), Myrtle Beach, S.C. (WWMB), Bluefield-Beckley-Oak Hill, W.Va. (WOAY), Wheeling, W.Va. (WTOV), Clarksburg, W.Va. (WVFX) and Parkersburg, W.Va. (WTAP).
The game will air nationally on ESPN3.com (formerly ESPN360.com) as well as ESPN Game Plan. SNY will join the game in progress following the Mets-Reds game, while BrightHouse (Fla.) will show the game on tape-delay basis Sunday afternoon at 2 p.m.
Tickets still remain and can be purchased by calling the Mountaineer Ticket Office toll-free at 1-800-WVU GAME or by logging on to WVUGAME.com.
