The work begins...

The Charleston Gazette Wrote:Stew, Mountaineers go to work
By Dave Hickman
Staff writer
August 2, 2008

MORGANTOWN - Bill Stewart doesn't exactly bristle at the suggestion, but it has been brought up so often over the past seven months that it does become somewhat tiresome.

So now, when it is inferred that he has inherited a pretty good situation as West Virginia's first-year football coach and that the groundwork for success has already been laid, Stewart is both humble and just a wee bit defensive.

"I'm very proud to have taken this program over,'' Stewart said earlier this week. "But remember, I've spent eight years here helping building this thing, too. I didn't just come in off the pickle boat. My name might be Willie, but I didn't just fall off the turnip truck."

"I had a little bit of a hand in this with recruiting, with coaching and being a part of this great staff we had here before.''

Stewart also had a little bit of a hand in West Virginia's most recent - and perhaps most significant ever - win, January's upset of Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl, during which he served as the team's interim head coach. But now the real test begins.

Stewart's first full season began in earnest Friday when the Mountaineers reported for the start of preseason camp. Practice begins today and will continue virtually uninterrupted for the next two weeks, or until classes begin on Aug. 18. The season kicks off Aug. 30 with a home game against Villanova.

As camp begins and the season approaches, there is no question West Virginia has the talent in place to continue a run of unprecedented success enjoyed under former coach Rich Rodriguez. It is a team that on Friday was ranked No. 8 in the annual preseason coaches' poll, has won 11 games and finished ranked in the Top 10 in each of the past three seasons, is one of only two teams in the country to have played in five straight January bowls and has the best four-year record in school history. Virtually the entire offense, including two-time Big East offensive player of the year Pat White at quarterback, returns.

But how will that talent mesh with a coaching staff that is 70 percent new? Of the 10 full-time coaches on the staff, only Stewart, defensive coordinator Jeff Casteel and defensive line coach Bill Kirelawich were at WVU last season.

For his part, Stewart isn't going to diminish the contributions of Rodriguez and the six members of his staff who left for Michigan.

"When you work seven years with a group of men, you get pretty tight. And I have nothing but admiration for them, particularly for the job they did in the bowl,'' Stewart said. "I'll forever be indebted to those men because they helped me live America's dream.''

Now, though, Stewart and his new staff are on their own. Steve Dunlap and David Lockwood have been added to Casteel and Kirelawich on the defensive staff, while on offense Jeff Mullen is the new coordinator and is joined by Doc Holliday, Dave Johnson, Chris Beatty and Lonnie Galloway. And with a predominantly new staff, naturally, will come some new ideas.

The way Stewart sees it, WVU's success in tweaking some schemes on offense and replacing all of the key departures on defense will dictate whether the good team he inherits will become a great team.

So what needs to be done between now and Aug. 30? Well, on offense, the challenge is to replace tailback Steve Slaton and at the same time take some of the running pressure off White. Sophomore tailback Noel Devine steps into Slaton's spot, and Mullen is using more motion and downfield passing to spread the field and keep defenses from ganging up on White.

"The biggest thing we have to do is try and spread the wealth and try to get the ball in somebody else's hands other than [White and Devine]. They just can't make every single play,'' Stewart said. "We're not trying to fix what's broken because nothing's broken. But [White] cannot carry the ball every single play. Nor can [Devine].''

Defensively, the biggest challenge is to replace virtually the entire secondary for the second year in a row.

"If our secondary can just step up to the plate and play half as good as those guys did last year then we'll have a chance to be OK,'' Stewart said.

To a certain degree, Stewart will focus much of his attention on the same thing Rodriguez did - the offense.

"I'm no genius. The administration knows that,'' Stewart said. "But our staff, our defensive guys, I don't even go down and look at those guys. They confuse me. We've got four geniuses down there. Those guys are the smart ones.''

He will, however, keep his hand in the offense and continue to coordinate the special teams.

Reach Dave Hickman at 348-1734 or dphickman1@aol.com.

"I'm very proud to have taken this program over,'' Stewart said earlier this week. "But remember, I've spent eight years here helping building this thing, too. I didn't just come in off the pickle boat. My name might be Willie, but I didn't just fall off the turnip truck."

Ever since the Fiesta Bowl, I've liked Coach Stew...

Me too. He puts me in mind of a country version of Yogi Berra.

The media enjoys him too, even as they ridicule him for the things they like...