From Bill Stewart’s postgame press conference Saturday:

“Maybe our football team now — as I said at halftime — will worry more about doing all the little things right and reading a few less press clippings and taking care of business when you have a chance to.”

Did the media conspire against WVU?

My bad. I did, after all, write about Doug Hogue last Thursday. Eu Smith then threw two passes to Hogue, who had a pretty nice day.

The Mountaineers did not and that was a surprise. They were widely considered the new favorites in the Big East — I don’t think that’s any stretch — and the question entering Saturday’s game was how they’d handle the success.

Perfectly appropriate question, by the way, not because it was true as much as it was a new condition for a team that was not recently used to that role.

The response was pretty shocking and, quite clearly, WVU was not prepared to wear the crown. It was a sudden change to critical thinking.

Well, offensively, at least. Not to put offense against defense or even enable the notion a wedge can be inserted in the locker room, but obviously Jeff Casteel and crew did not read their clippings. As expected.

Then again, maybe Keith Tandy sneaked a peek somewhere at some point. Last week’s Big East defensive player of the week was thought to have turned a corner. He gave up another long touchdown pass — and made 10 tackles for a second straight week. (Put an asterisk on this one. Most of the 10 USF tackles were on passes to Tandy’s receiver. Not so against Syracuse. Tandy played the run and inserted himself into action elsewhere. Even if all of Syracuse’s completions were to Tandy’s receivers, the most tackles Tandy could have had was five. Five!)

Easily the most surprising aspect of the loss was the play of Eu Smith, who in the season’s first six games and 177 passes threw two interceptions. He threw three in his first 19 attempts Saturday.

Cue Stewart:

“We had a case today where a young man that’s a big feature in our offense had a rough day at the ranch. He played, speaking of our quarterbach, he had a real tough outing. When that happens, he needs help. He you cannot have an offsides here, you can’t have a hold there, you can’t have a dropped ball here. When this young man, whom people were writing ballads about, is not clikcing, Never throw a slant over the middle. He’ll learn that. In seven college starts, that’s the first time it happened. Bootleg on the goal line, you can’t throw across your body. He’ll learn that.”

Maybe someone can hum a few notes from the Ballad of Geno Smith, but I think I get the point. There were details of his game being explored and revealed as well as thoughtful and careful approval of Smith’s conduct relative to his position. I don’t consider those ballads, but evaluations of a sophomore’s progression at the team’s critical spot.

And then there was grandiose thinking from people humming the ballad.

Maybe authors were a problem, but so, too, were members of an audience that trusted Smith so much. Rather than help when Smith had an out-of-character day, they instead thought he’d put it together and then went about committing those penalties and dropping those passes and doing other things to contribute to defeat.

Fact is the Mountaineers were victimized not by what was being written, but of believing all their work was done and that reputation mattered more than preparations. It was a flagrant violation of Stewart’s constant reminder to respect all and fear none. Of all the errors WVU made Saturday, that was the greatest.

The Orange hadn’t beaten WVU since 2001 and last week lost at home, 45-14, against Pitt. That seemed to wash away the meaning of a 13-9 win a week earlier at South Florida and Stewart suggested his players were guilty of taking the occasion lightly.

“Like, ‘It can’t happen to us. It can only happen to South Florida. It can’t happen to us. We’re West Virginia,'” Stewart said. “Well, bingo.”

Stewart said WVU was beaten “between the ears, from the shoulders up” and knew it immediately afterward.

“I know they were not nearly as impressed with Syracuse before the game as they were after the game,” he said.