Not long into Saturday’s postgame press conference, Coach Bill Stewart veered off path and started explaining his decision to squib the kickoff late in the first half. I was scribbling notes and circled it because it seemed strange. Not the explanation, but the appearance of it. I think I called it an “unprompted defense of his strategy” in my story. Clearly, he saw what effect the squib had on the game and knew it was going to come up.

I’ll be honest: I don’t like squib kicks or sky kicks or corner kicks, but that’s just me. Stewart had a plan for the moment and was guilty only of being on his toes. He trusted Pat McAfee would make a better squib kick and the player who fielded it wouldn’t do so cleanly. To that, he did not trust his coverage team and didn’t want to give up a long return like he witnessed twice against Marshall — in fact, he referenced Darius Reynaud’s game-changing kickoff return touchdown late in the first half against Maryland in 2006. He believed his defense could handle 57 seconds and 60 or so yards. I think that’s reasonable logic. Don’t forget that Rutgers had shown no life to that point, so I don’t think he really expected a five-play, 56-yard touchdown drive.

That, though, is the chance you take — and he was adamant he’d do the same thing again in the future.

As for the fourth-down call, again, I think a punt is a great play and don’t like giving an opponent a short field and a chance to tie the game — and I had a feeling Rutgers would have gone for a two-point conversion — but, again, that’s just me. Doesn’t matter. The defense was doing pretty well and ultimately proved capable of stopping Rutgers in any situation.

As for the actual call, I don’t have a problem with that and Stewart had a pretty good explanation for going against a QB sneak.

“We got stuffed at Colorado. I didn’t like that.”

Fair enough — and remember, people are complaining Stewart doesn’ learn from his errors. Yes, Jarrett Brown is bigger than Pat White and maybe he could have easily leaned forward to pickup a first down, but I can’t recall JB ever running a QB sneak at WVU and this team just isn’t very good at short-yardage blocking. In fact, one of the two guys who blew an assignment on the big play at Colorado did so again on the big play against Rutgers. Ideally, JB gets the shotgun snap, a head start toward the line and a moment to find a spot to exploit. Next time, I think it’s the same call, but maybe the play goes another way or there is different personnel in place.

Greater concern should go to the last three or four short-yardage plays. Rutgers was pretty successful in selling out to stop JB. I’m telling you — and so is Tyler Urban – play-action works wonders.