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WVU has problems, but who doesn't?
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bitcruncher Offline
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WVU has problems, but who doesn't?
This article is a slightly more verbose way of stating what I've been saying all along. Hope y'all enjoy... 04-cheers
The Charleston Gazette Wrote:WVU has problems, but who doesn't?
By Dave Hickman
Staff writer
September 9, 2008


MORGANTOWN - It would be easy to write off West Virginia's football team after the way the Mountaineers played the first two games of the season.

The thought here, though, is that it would also be a grave mistake.

Problems? You bet your Jake the Snake foam rubber finger there are problems. And they aren't just little ones, either. The offense is stuck in first gear, the defense is getting pushed around and it might just be fair to ask if this new coaching staff is up to the task.

Did we miss anything?

But look around and tell me that West Virginia is unique in its struggles. Do you think Ohio State, which breezed in an opener against a Division I-AA team and then won by the skin of its teeth over noted powerhouse Ohio University at home, might not be 1-1 right now had that second game been at East Carolina?

Shoot, look at arguably two of West Virginia's most difficult future foes. Auburn struggled at home with Southern Miss and Colorado with Eastern Washington last week. Think either of those teams might have tripped at Dowdy-Ficklen?

"I'm not in a panic mode. We played a football team that was better than us on that day,'' Bill Stewart said. "End of story. They were better than us. They played better than us. That's how it was. I'm not overly alarmed. The sky's not falling. We've just got to play better.''

Granted, Stewart is probably the last one to go to for an even-handed analysis of West Virginia's performance to date.

The guy could look at a 10-car pileup and see the scrap metal possibilities.

But he's right about one thing. This is still a team with almost unlimited potential. But it's also a team with a whole lot of improving to do in order to even approach that potential.

"It sounds really simple and it isn't. But we have to stay on the field offensively and make drives,'' Stewart said. "And defensively we have to get them off course and get off the field.''

Of course, the same thing can be said for any team in the country. But most of them don't have West Virginia's proven talent on offense and only a handful have the Mountaineers' raw talent on defense.

But in both cases, success or failure is going to rest squarely on the shoulders of Stewart and the staff he put together last winter. And that's a point that he can't argue, not after spending the spring and summer raving about virtually every facet of his football team.

You can't tout Pat White and the offensive line as the best in the country, Noel Devine and Jock Sanders as explosive and the wide receiver corps as the best group in years and then place the blame on them when the offense sputters.

Nor can you rave about the talent of the linebacking corps, the depth of the defensive line and the potential of the safeties and cornerbacks and then shake your head when the defense can't get off the field.

Even the best coaching staff in the country can't make the proverbial chicken salad out of, well, you know. But these guys aren't working with chicken waste, so it all comes back on them.

And to his credit, no one knows that better than Stewart.

Perhaps no play from Saturday's 24-3 loss at East Carolina illustrates that better than one of the first ones. East Carolina faced a third-and-9 at the WVU 42 on the opening drive. A stop means a punt.

But a young cornerback playing in the nickel package let an inside receiver, Jamar Bryant, get a step on him. Quarterback Patrick Pinkney lofted the ball just before he was slammed by linebacker Mortty Ivy and the pass was good for 35 yards. The Pirates scored two plays later.

The play was enlightening because the young cornerback was Brandon Hogan, who has been playing the position for about a month. No one doubts Hogan's talent, but he is in a way representative of almost everyone on a defense that has just three starters back from last season. Sure, no one else around him is quite that raw, but they all suffer from some degree of the same malady - inexperience.

Hogan's transgression on that play was momentarily looking into the backfield as Bryant approached him while he was in man coverage. It took all of a half second for it to happen, but Hogan looked in, Bryant cut out and away and Pinkney saw it.

And suddenly every other thought and move made by the 11 guys on defense didn't matter because of what happened in that split second.

It was Hogan's fault, but in a way it wasn't. A guy who has played maybe 20 snaps at cornerback in his life is going to make a few split-second errors in judgment. Ivy, the best player on the field much of the time, probably made a few of those himself, but on that play everything converged to make it a disaster.

"It's unbelievable. I can't believe that in a certain coverage you would do that,'' Stewart said. "But they're kids. That's why you have to reteach them, retrain them, give them game experience. And you've got to hang with them and make them better football players.''

And that's the job of Stewart and his staff.

It's easy to point fingers - ridiculously easy, given all that has transpired within the West Virginia program in the past nine months. The Mountaineers lose a game and anyone who ever claimed that the Stewart hire was a mistake suddenly feels like they have ammunition.

But that's a simplistic argument made by simplistic minds.

Again, what West Virginia has gone through is not that unusual. And coaching has to be included in the discussion. You can't change a proven offense the way the Mountaineers have done and not expect to be faulted if it doesn't click. You can't be in the seventh year of an unusual 3-3-5 defensive scheme and not be prepared on graduation day. You have to have players familiar with the system and ready to step in.

But you also can't paint West Virginia's troubles with such a broad brush this early.

"I could sit here and tell you how many guys are in the pros, how many starters didn't play last year, guys that are gone off the defense. That's up to the stat guys,'' Stewart said. "I'm telling you we need to play harder. And that's our job, not only as coaches, but that's our players' responsibility to go out and play and know that you have to do more than just show up because you're West Virginia."

"I told the team, 'We have a nice Sugar Bowl ring, a nice Gator Bowl ring and a nice Fiesta Bowl ring. What's our ring going to be?' This is a different team. The 2008 team is different and we have to find our own identity. And that's what we're going to try to do.''

And as for those who have already written off not only this team, but Stewart's coaching career, as well?

"I'd tell them what I told our football team. Before you get to game 13, you'd better take care of your one, two, three, four, five and [the rest of the] football games,'' Stewart said. "I'm not going to change the objective of playing each week with the objective of winning and beating that opponent. If we've got fans worrying about what kind of motel rooms they're going to get in December or January, then they've got the wrong agenda . . . And if they jump off the bandwagon, well, they jump off. That's OK. I know this team has no quit in it. We're going to fight like heck, do the best we can and hope we go out there to Boulder, Colo. and come back with a win. That's as simple as I can make it.''

Reach Dave Hickman at 304-348-1734 or dphickman1@aol.com.
He looks more toward the defensive secondary as the problem, and he is right about this play, looking at it from his perspective. But it shouldn't have come to this. Pinkney had all day to throw on the play in question (those who watched will remember), and you can only cover a man so long. Even the best cover men get beaten eventually if you give the QB enough time.

What WVU really needs is a pass rush. If the Mountaineers could pressure a QB, he'd get out of his comfort zone tuit suite... 07-coffee3
(This post was last modified: 09-09-2008 07:46 AM by bitcruncher.)
09-09-2008 07:44 AM
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SF Husky Offline
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Post: #2
RE: WVU has problems, but who doesn't?
Fix your D and you will be fine. These are kids. They can develop over a course of a season. They can still improve. What surprised me was the offense against ECU. WVU not scoring a TD is almost unthinkable even against a good D.
09-09-2008 11:35 AM
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SuperFlyBCat Offline
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Post: #3
RE: WVU has problems, but who doesn't?
Hopefully OSU will take it on the chin by USC and I have a feeling that Purdue will get smoked by Oregon. That should take the heat off of the Big East for a week or 2.
09-09-2008 12:01 PM
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SF Husky Offline
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Post: #4
RE: WVU has problems, but who doesn't?
SuperFlyBCat Wrote:Hopefully OSU will take it on the chin by USC and I have a feeling that Purdue will get smoked by Oregon. That should take the heat off of the Big East for a week or 2.

OSU gonna get annihilated on national TV. B10 schools usually get their butt kicked when they travel west. Oregon is the real deal this year.

Fresno St gonna take Wisky to the cleaners too when those guys show up. I give Wisky props for having the guts to take on Fresno St in Fresno.
09-09-2008 01:38 PM
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Shannon Panther Offline
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Post: #5
RE: WVU has problems, but who doesn't?
WVU needs to fix their OL as well. Pitt and ECU have both eaten them alive in their last outings. That said, they will win out OOC. They probably lose 2 in conference.
(This post was last modified: 09-09-2008 02:37 PM by Shannon Panther.)
09-09-2008 02:36 PM
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bitcruncher Offline
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Post: #6
RE: WVU has problems, but who doesn't?
Shannon Panther Wrote:WVU needs to fix their OL as well. Pitt and ECU have both eaten them alive in their last outings. That said, they will win out OOC. They probably lose 2 in conference.
So you see WVU beating Auburn... and losing 2 conference games? Odd vision that. A team good enough to defeat Auburn wouldn't lose 2 BEast games...
09-09-2008 03:53 PM
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bitcruncher Offline
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Posts: 61,859
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Post: #7
RE: WVU has problems, but who doesn't?
DOH!!! :homer: WVU isn't USF... 05-stirthepot
09-09-2008 06:26 PM
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