Bill Stewart Must Go (dot) COM

Everything needs a conspiracy now.  9/11?  Conspiracy.  Underwear bomber?  Mystery man on airplane.  Economic meltdown?  Government conspiracy to take control of our lives.  Uggs?  No explanation.

So it’s no surprise that many in Mountaineer Nation have been saying the fix was in on the Gator Bowl long before yesterday’s loss.  I’ve heard several people over the past few weeks state, matter of factly, that there was no way WVU stood a chance and that college football would never allow Bobby Bowden to leave with a loss (see Don Nehlen, Music City Bowl, Nehlen’s prior bowl record).

It’s nearly impossible to say whether there was some collusion that allowed FSU a better chance that WVU to win the Gator Bowl.  One of the more tangible things to look at is the penalties.  Looking at penalties, Florida State was penalized more than twice as much as WVU.  FSU had 7 penalties for 69-yards while WVU was penalized 3 times for 29-yards.  Hard to see that as an official conspiracy.

There’s really nothing else that would point to some elaborate conspiracy that allowed Bobby Bowden his final triumph.  At the end of the day, WVU was outcoached by a man who is 117 years old and slept through the 3rd quarter.  And, really, that’s not surprising.  WVU has played with zero emotion and intensity all year.  And they had nothing to play for in the Gator Bowl.  While the team on the other side was playing for an embattled coach that is likely to never be on the sideline again.  Who had the inspiration?

If you want to cling to a conspiracy theory for why WVU lost the Gator Bowl, that’s cool.  But send the evidence.  I just saw a team that was whipped by a bad 6-6 Florida State.  Nothing more, nothing less.

From the ESPN.com article, Ann Bowden had this quote:

“Eat your heart out, Florida State,” Ann Bowden, the coach’s wife, said afterward. “Eat your heart out.”

I’m not exactly sure what that means.  Nevermind…I take that back.  She thinks because everyone was so nice to Bobby at the Gator Bowl, they’re going to regret him leaving.  Ann, dear lovely Ann, the only reason everyone was so nice to him was because they knew he was leaving.  It gives them one last chance to say goodbye.  And they were winning.  Do you think the FSU faithful would be yelling BOB-BY, BOB-BY if they were losing (as they should have been)?

Also, it became obvious that Bowden was just sticking around to beat Paterno.  In his postgame conference, he had this to say:

“How about them 22 wins I got at South Georgia College? How come that don’t count?” Bowden said, talking about where he was from 1956-58, before heading to Samford. “I know it doesn’t count NCAA, but will somebody mention, please, that I have 400 wins during my lifetime?”

Bobby, those wins don’t count.  And how about those 14 wins that should be stripped from your record because of the cheating scandal at Florida State?  Why are we still counting those?  I’m not sure if you saw the Outside the Lines report about FSU and the cheating scandal, but it was pretty blantant and, from what they were saying, probably continues.  And Bobby Bowden was fully aware of what was going on.

Yes, Bobby Bowden probably deserves better than being forced into retirement considering what he has done at Florida State.  But Bobby is also far from an angel.  Remember that Steve Spurrier labeled Florida State as “Free Sneakers University” for a reason.  And Bowden was in the middle of all of that.  He deserves the tribute and he deserves some accolades but don’t pretend Bobby Bowden was the most honorable and terrific coach ever.  He was great but far from perfect.  Now I’m going to go back to being pissed off at Bill Stewart for losing…thank you.

West Virginia took care of business like they should have all season and beat #8 Pittsburgh.  Bill Stewart went for it on 4th down a couple of times that many fans thought were questionable decisions but, in the end, he defeated the Wannstache and exacted some revenge for the 2007 debacle at Mountaineer Field.

While Pittsburgh will still play Cincinnati next week for the Big East title and the automatic BCS bid, it has to make Pittsburgh wonder whether they’ve truly turned the corner with their program.  The Wannstache made similar failures as to what Rich Rodriguez did 2 years ago by becoming too conservative on offense and shitting his pants down the stretch.  Instead of trying to exploit a WVU secondary that has shown issues, the Stache consistently attempted to run the ball directly at the WVU line.  It didn’t work.

Pittsburgh falls to 9-2 this season while WVU improves to 8-3 and hopes to finish another 9+ win season when they visit Rutgers next week.  It was a good game but, in the end, Pitt was simply left with shit.

The incomparable Jack Fleming would be proud

Music:  Bee Gee’s “I Started A Joke”

I started a play, which started Mountaineer fans crying,
but I didn’t see that the blame was on me, oh no.

I started to whine, which started Mountaineer fans cursing,
oh, if I’d only seen that the blame was on me.

I squinted my eyes, way past my bedtime,
and I yelled at the ref, making bad calls, but I didn’t say eff.

Til I finally woke, which started the whole team winning,
oh, if I’d only seen that the blame was on me.

I squinted my eyes, way past my bedtime,
and I yelled at the ref, making bad calls, but I didn’t say eff.

Til I finally woke, which started the whole team winning,
oh, if I’d only seen that the blame was on me.

It’s that time of year again. We are approximately 60 hours from the greatest rivalry in all of college sports (if you live in Northcentral West Virginia). It’s the rivalry that makes the rest of the nation get up and say “What? Who?” Yes, it’s time for the 102nd addition of the Backyard Brawl between your 3-time defeated West Virginia Mountaineers and the one-loss Pittsburgh Panthers. Bill Stewart vs. Dave Wannstedt. Sleepy Eyes vs. Wannstache. A man in his 70s vs. a 70s-looking porn star.

Pittsburgh leads the series with an impressive 61 wins, 37 losses and 3 ties.  But, in recent years, it hasn’t been as one-sided as those numbers look.  West Virginia has won 15 of the last 26 and there were 2 ties.  So, in all reality, Pittsburgh hasn’t won 17 of the last 26 (how’s that for working the numbers??)  But the only 2 that really matter are the last two and they’ve both gone Pitt’s way.  Do I need to remind anyone of the 13-9 debacle in Morgantown two years ago or the 19-15 crapfest up in Shittsburgh Pittsburgh last season?  If I have to remind you, get lost.

Now West Virginia gets to play the role of spoiler.  Pittsburgh is having its best season since 1982 and is looking at a potential BCS bid from the Big East.  Really, I guess it doesn’t matter if West Virginia wins or not…either way they play Cincinnati for the Big East crown on December 5th.  Tell me why anyone cares about this game again?  Oh yeah, it’s Pitt.

• Series:  Pitt leads the series 61-37-3
• First meeting:  October 26, 1895.  (Bill Stewart was only 17)
• Largest Victory:  Pitt 53-0 (November 8, 1904)
• Longest Pitt Winning Streak:  15 (1929-1946)
• Longest WVU Winning Streak:  5 (1992-1996)
• Current Streak:  Pitt x 2

It should be an interesting one in Morgantown on Friday night as the nation tries to find something else to do since it is a Friday night.  But the people in Pittsburgh and West Virginia will be watching.  Well, the people in West Virginia will be watching because the people in Pittsburgh could give two shits about Pitt.  The 102nd Backyard Brawl:  It’s happening whether you like it or not.

Bill takes a nap; Wannstache looks for snatch

A little more about Stewart planting the question with Caridi to explain my position on the subject.  Personally, I have no problem with Bill Stewart wanting to address the kickoff situation.   I know I wondered what the hell was going on at the game and was happy to finally have an answer.  What I don’t understand is why Bill Stewart had to try to plant the question with Caridi and then pretend like he was being asked about it off-the-cuff.

Would it not have made more sense for Stewart to simply say, “Hey, I just thought of this and haven’t had a chance to address it yet…”  It’s his press conference and he can talk about anything he wants.  He obviously had prepared an answer for talking about the kickoffs and wanted to give it but he doesn’t need the question really to address the topic.  I don’t understand the brain function.  Did he want people to believe he was ad-libbing the response?

The other thing that bothers me is his explanation.  He knows there’s something wrong with the kickoff coverage.  Why try to perform an illegal procedure TWICE and give Cincinnati multiple opportunities to return?  Why challenge the officials to call the penalty on you?  Is he that smart or that dumb?  I’m just confused by the question, the answer and the game plan.  None of it makes sense.  Just like this entire season.  Why go for 4th and 8?  There has never been a coherent explanation other than he didn’t believe we could stop them.  Why would he go for two if we can’t stop them?  Because he wanted to put pressure on them?  I don’t buy it.  There’s something wrong on the WVU sideline and this is just further evidence. 

I’m not calling for a coaching change despite the name of this site.  I’m calling for a mentality change.  I want to hear a coherent gameplan and reasonable explanations for that gameplan.  So far, that has been lacking this season.

The folks at The Smoking Musket are all over this and Mike Casazza from the Daily Mail is beginning to tackle this issue as well: Bill Stewart is feeding questions to the press that covers his press conferences.

You don’t need to watch the whole video below — just fast forward to about the 16:45 mark and then at the 17:05 mark watch Bill Stewart turn to his right, where Tony Caridi is sitting, and say “Ask me about kickoffs.  Kickoff.”  Stewart proceeds to answer a question from another reporter and then Caridi asks him about the odd kickoff penalties.

There’s very little doubt about what he said.  It’s completely audible.  But why would he need to feed questions to the reporters?  Obviously he wanted to give the answer.  The Mountaineers were trying to get away with something because they know their kickoff coverage is horrible.  First, look how happy he is when Tony asks the question.  And then listen to his answer as he not only admits that he knew they were breaking the rules but also wanted the team to perform the same illegal procedure again hoping to get away with it because the officials wouldn’t call it twice. 

It’s very, very strange indeed.  Perhaps Stewart believes he can manipulate and control the media.  His behavior is becoming increasingly erratic as the pressure gets greater.  He has become increasingly hostile to criticm this season and this latest incident of feeding a question to Caridi is crossing the line.  Whether malicious or not, Stewart has managed to further alienate himself from the media not directly associated with MSN by feeding questions to Caridi.  And since the press in West Virginia is become increasingly critical of the second year coach, I think this story isn’t going away.  For Bill Stewart, the Pitt game can’t get here fast enough.

Devin Ebanks missed the Loyola (Md.) game for undisclosed reasons.  Head coach Bob Huggins was vague when asked about the issue. “He’s got some personal issues to work through,” Huggins said. “That’s all I’m going to say.”

The Lady Mountaineer missed the Cincinnati game and the Loyola game because she was “dealing with personal issues.”

The message boards are abuzz with speculation and rumors.  98% of which are completely fabricated and made up by people who have no idea what’s really going on.  The only rumor I haven’t seen yet is that the two of them have run off to Vegas together to create babies for Huggins’ to recruit.  Give it time, I’m sure it will make it.

The other things that boards are crazy with is speculation on who could take Stewart’s place.  All the usual suspects are back:  Terry Bowden, Tommy Bowden, Skip Holtz, Doc Holliday and, well, Rich Rodriguez.  A few new people – Tommy Tuberville and Butch Jones.  Always funny to watch the Mountaineer faithful speculate on who they want to coach in the future.  Bad news for them though, Bill Stewart will be at WVU for at least another year.  But that’s good for the site because I’m not sure what we’d do if he got fired.