Welcome to what I am told is West Virginia’s favorite running sports blog feature. That title was presented to me last week and I was honored by the notoriety, but a little curious about what it’s worth.

“I think it’s the only one,” I said.
“Certainly,” the person countered. “It’s in a class of it own.”
“Works for me …”

Two housekeeping issues. First, a quick word about Tajh Boyd. I’m told there’s nothing to worry about and this’ll be long forgotten by signing day in February. To that, the report kind of bothered the Boyd’s and Tajh. Phoebus is preparing for its biggest game of the season and Boyd was trying to get back into the game after missing the past two with a knee. This report was an unwelcome distraction and it would seem once the parties actually involved got together, they agreed there wasn’t much to really discuss. Notice how no one around here is writing about this? You might say no news is good news.

Secondly, tomorrow’s game can’t be close. It might be inexcuseable not to bury a bad Syracuse team. People keep bringing up the Pitt game … at Syracuse. Pitt dominated the entire second half in spite of a slow first half. Syracuse returned its first kickoff for a touchdown and then drove 55 yards for a touchdown for a 14-3 lead. The Panthers had the ball almost 40 minutes. It wasn’t that close. As for WVU, keep an eye on short-yardage plays (again). WVU has been working on these things a lot lately and the latest alterations apparently involve personnel on the line of scrimmage and a fullback not named Will Johnson.

What’s that? I’m forgetting someone? Oh, the quarterback. Hey, he’ll be “ready” to play. 

Onto the Feedback. As always, comments appear as posted. In other words, sometimes you need to slow down and realize what you’re doing.

Mack said:

“Maybe this is the silver lining for Rutgers. The dominant program in the Big East for the past decade has this guy running the team for the next four years.”

Does anyone find it strange that every single opponent we face comes away with similar comments? That our fans are making similar comments. Does anyone in the world think that Bill Stewart is the right man for the job? Is “being nice” worth $1 million per year? Is that enough money to make Mr. Casazza put a smile on his face every morning?

The mere thought of it put a smile on my face. There’s an interesting point, though. Being a nice person is working against Stewart as a coach? It’s almost assumed now that he’s too kind — extrenally — to win in the long run and I just don’t see how that works. The man can breath fire, by the way. I’ve seen it. Honest.

thacker said:

Perhaps it is a little too early to draw any substantive comparisons between Stewart and Coker, or any coach for that matter. As far as arguments against Coker that he was too friendly with ball players or too much of a ‘father figure’, that argument never impressed me much. There are some successful coaches who are similar in that regards, e.g. Carroll at USC and Tressel at OSU.

Exactly. Don’t get me wrong here. People are free to form their own opinions and draw their own comparisons, and there are indeed parallels between Coker and Stewart, much the same way there are reasons to believe Stewart is a nice guy who doesn’t instill fear of consequences in his players — and, again, I’m not sure that’s entirely true. But we’re talking about five games here. Don’t you think he’s evaluating and addressing himself? The irony of this is that people expect the recruiting class to fall apart, but those kids seem to like Stewart, his personality and the environment he’s built at WVU — even Tajh Boyd. Let’s dig into that discussion, shall we?

glibglub said:

Wish I could take exception, but he’s not the only one who has concerns about the offense.

It should be noted the report — with no quotes or attribution — said Boyd was considering Tennessee, Boston College and maybe Oregon. Oregon makes sense. Pac 10, campus, offense, even the uniforms are attractive. B.C. and Tennessee were Boyd’s other two favorites before committing to WVU. I’m not buying B.C. and have you seen Tennessee’s offense?

overtheSEC said:

I think I’m the only regular contributor to the comments from Knoxville but let me say that Tennessee is no better off from an offensive perspective than WVU. I imagine the only pull would be that the the Vols new offensive coordinator was the head coach at Richmond prior to coming to Knoxville this year so there’s a competing VA connection with Beatty.
You think Coach Stew and Coach Mullen are getting second guessed? The Vols scored 6 points against Florida and managed only 225 total yard and 13 points last week against Northern Illinois. Phil Fulmer is all but being hanged in effigy and Dave Clawson (the new coordinator) is being blasted for (wait for it) PASSING the ball, instead of sticking with the run.

Plucked that one from the “It could always be worse” file. Breath easy, everyone. Now, if Boyd buddy Logan Heastie waffles, find a brown paper bag, then breath easy.

Shannon said:

I wonder if there are others like Boyd that are making second guesses.

The answer is yes. It’s natural. I’m quite sure the coaches were prepared for this. That’s why you maintain constant contact with the kids. Seasons have up and downs and coaches have to exploit and deflate them with kids who are and are not interested.

Mack said:

If I saw Noel Devine and Pat White’s stats decline so rapidly, even with a senior-laden offensive line, then I’d look around too.  

Indeed, and if things improve …

Karl said:

Question: Can what we run even be considered a spread offense anymore? Seems like the players are a lot more bunched up, and we’re using way less of the field than we used to.

Second question: Is Noel Devine our version of Kimbo Slice? A South Floridian Internet legend whose skills are negated when facing a higher level of competition?

Last thing: I’ve got a weird feeling we get upset by Syracuse this weekend. Just got back from a business trip there this afternoon. Watching the news, those players seem pretty upbeat and excited about this game. I’m fearing it’s one of those games we’ll be looking past while it means the world to them.  

Who’s the Seth Petruzelli?

glibglub said:

I really was fit to be tied over that fourth down call. Empty backfield? Shotgun?! And I’m not ready to rest on the defense for the remainder of the season. I think too much of their success is due to opposing QBs missing open receivers. I’m also getting more than a little antsy waiting for an offensive spark. If we could hang, say, 31 on Syracuse before Auburn comes to town, I’d sleep better. Or are those high-scoring days gone for good?

I’m OK with the shotgun — really, it’s about the same as a snap-and-handoff in the I-formation, except quicker. Then again, the defense knows who’s going to get the ball with a shotgun snap … especially in an empty backfield, which seemed odd to me because even if WVU was trying to spread the defense, Rutgers didn’t think Brown was going to throw. Defensively, I’m going to stick with what I said after the Colorado game: It’s going to get better and better. Of course, it’s seen one good offense thus far and ECU had its way. As for scoring, prepare thyself for a ball control offense. If WVU is going to put up points aplenty, it’s going to need to create turnovers and/or make special teams plays, neither of which has happened in abundance this season. Mullen and Stewart treat every play like third-and-4 and try to build drives with five-yard gains rather than strike quick with a big play. That said, they’ll take swings for the fences but, to continue the baseball analogy, it’ll have to be a hitter’s count.

StraightOuttaNorthCentral said:

let’s say that they had kicked away instead of squibbing and had it returned back to WVU territory like last week. how many people would have been saying today “why didn’t he squibb it”?

also hard to fault the 4th & 1 call when that was the only time i recall that formation getting less than 1 yard. sure, maybe they went to the well once too often, but i doubt there would have been much complaint if it had worked.

Agreed. The kickoff thing is perfectly acceptable. The more I think of it, the return man was a running back and he got a great hop. Oh well. As for the fourth-down play, people are missing one rather important fact. If you can’t gain inches, you’re not very good. Best case scenario: WVU finds itself in a similar, though far more critical situation later in the season — and you know that’s going to happen — and has experience to fall back on when the time comes.  

Mack said:

Isn’t a squib kick, in a way, “playing not to lose”?  

In a way? How about “in essence”?

Rob W. said:

When I listen to many of his comments it appears pretty obvious that he’s getting thin-skinned toward the criticism. And that’s a really bad sign this early.

Going for it on fourth down was unforgiveable. That isn’t hindsight talking. I was screaming for a punt. Like I said, the very best play in the playbook is only going to work nine out of ten times and that one had already been ran eleven! There is a time and a place to go for it on fourth down and that wasn’t it. You kick the ball and force them to go 80 yards in less than two minutes just to tie.

But don’t give me this baloney about never going to not play not to win or whatever he said. He put his team at the greatest possible risk to lose the football game with that decision.

Believe it or not, I can actually live with the decision to squib kick.

Finally, let me just say that there is a reason why no coach or administrator in America has ever seen a reason to make him a coordinator or a coach of higher responsibility. 

A few games in and it appears he’s aware of what’s being said of him and his program. I think, in a way, he has to fight that fight. A lot of the perceptions out there are not reality and he needs to straighten a few things out every so often. He’s really upset about people saying he’s whining about being without Slaton, Schmitt and Reynaud. He believes he’s just explaining a problem. It’s things like that he wants to address. Then again, he needs to let some stuff go or just assume the “I’m the coach” role. You-know-who was pretty good about that. Stew was asked about why he didn’t go for a QB sneak on the fourth-down play and he said, quite simply, “We got stuffed at Colorado. I didn’t like that.” Fair enough.

oklahoma mountaineer said:

We were darn lucky to win this game. The coach Santa reference is great, but it is the national perspective of our team. Stew is not causing this to go away by first not going for it against Colorado where that loss is looking worse with each passing week and then going for it when the game is in the bag against a team that we clearly had better talent on both sides of the ball.

PRod may have had a number of problems, but being seen as a less than capable coacch was not one of them…..

I’ll beg to differ with you on that last point. 

Mack said:

You know why all of the plays are bad calls? Because at the end of the day, the players haven’t been executing. Rodriguez is a good coach because his players almost always did execute. That is what makes a coach good and makes his decisions look good. A good coach has his players ready to play and knows what plays/situations they excel in.

Again, if you can’t get inches, you’re not good. It’s stunning how a great offensive line and a great running game was basically abandoned for this Jarrett Brown Experiment. Now, to be fair, the Product’s success in execution was when he had an established offense with veteran players. Everyone and everything was proven. This is just different right now.

oklahoma mountaineer said:

The offenses we are going to be facing in the next few weeks are pretty limited….
Syracuse, Auburn (of the 3-2 win fame), Cincinnati, and Connecticut all win with defense and special teams.

Our offense, if they can get it together, should allow us to put together a strong run at the Big East title.

The questions are USF and Pitt…..Can the defense hold up against strong running attacks or a mobile quarterback who CAN throw.

TBD.  

You know what’s stupid? WVU could be 8-2. By the way, watching Pitt-USF, I was shocked to see how fast Pitt was.  

Shannon said:

I’m sure Robinson knows his time is numbered, so I wonder how much energy he is placing into his coaching effort. If you know you’re going to get fired, how excited are you to create a game plan, energize the players, or work on specific aspects during practice. You’re most likely more worried about selling your home, finding a new job, securing some financial stability/future for your family. I would say Robinson’s focus is mixed right now. So will Syracuse’s players play for their embattled coach … doubtful at best.

Good points, but I think this guy’s a warrior, a coach through and through. Plus, I’m not sure where he gets his next paycheck.

thacker said:

There will be no road kill served, I know that,” said Shadle […]

Ya’ll tell Shadle not to fret none. I’s got the gang a comin over to here on Saturday to watch him in that there game. Gots us some of that fancy Japanese shushi stuff from the bait store, some socks a soakin in the shine for some of that original sokee. Afterwards, we’s gonna grill up some roadkill pizza, hang the sheet between the palms and watch us that there new Ernie Davis movie. Might even wear us sum sheets two.

Enjoy the weekend!