WVU News

When Effort Is Not Enough

November 17,2009 07:05 PM

Geoff Coyle for wvillustrated.com

November 17, 2009

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Let’s go back a few weeks to the end of September, to a dingy post game press room in Auburn, Alabama. West Virginia head coach Bill Stewart faced the Morgantown media after a 41-30 defeat to the Tigers.

“It all starts with me, the staff, and the players and everyone else involved,” said Stewart on that night. “It was not fun to lose, but I am proud of our effort.”

Fast forward to the night before Halloween, about a month later and another 11-point loss for the Mountaineers, this time at the hands of the South Florida Bulls.

“That was a hard-fought game. I cannot fault our effort. I can sometimes fault our intelligence with some plays, but I surely cannot fault our effort.”

And just a few days ago, when referencing West Virginia’s third road loss of the season, Stewart said:

“We played a great effort football game, our guys gave effort. I’m very proud of their effort.”

Notice a trend?

Whether you think it was truly there or not in West Virginia’s three losses, the effort has not equaled victories. When looking back on this season, no one is going to look in the loss column and say, “Well, they obviously gave great effort in those games.” They’re losses, and that is all anyone will say about them once the season concludes.

What Stewart and his crew need to do now is ensure that their three losses don’t balloon to four or five or six in the three games remaining. The problem is, West Virginia’s schedule this season is heavy on the backside, and two of their toughest opponents await them in the coming weeks.

First up is Pittsburgh in the 102^nd edition of the Backyard Brawl. It will be the first time the Panthers have traveled back to Morgantown since making grown men cry on December 1, 2007.

It has been said for years now that when West Virginia and Pitt play, you can throw out the records and the rankings, because either team can win in any given year in a rivalry this heated.

Two years ago, Pitt head coach Dave Wannstedt looked like he was on his way out, with just four wins heading into the Backyard Brawl.

“Someone told me there’s an article,” Stewart recalled Monday afternoon. “About how he had asked for patience way back and the Pitt people gave him patience when he was 5-7 and 6-6 or something. Dave has done a good job.”

Wannstedt told that story earlier this year on the BIG EAST teleconference, and he recounted a series of emails in which he told the administration at Pittsburgh that he simply needed more time, and if given it, he could turn the program around. He said that conversation took place just days before his team’s 13-9 victory over the Mountaineers, and you can bet the win reinforced the athletic director’s decision to keep Wannstedt around.

While the Panthers are not closing in on a national title game, they are just two wins from an outright BIG EAST championship, and Stewart’s team has an opportunity to keep them from accomplishing that feat.

In order to keep his team focused, however, he says he will prepare his troops in much the same way he has been all season, and hope they can build on the bright spots they showed against the Bearcats.

“All I do is try to get them to out-block, out-tackle, out-hit them, out-hustle them, strain and play Mountaineer football. We played better on the road against the University of Cincinnati than we played at home against Louisville. Now, can our guys do it again? Well, we’ll see. It’s a big annual game and I’m excited about it.”

Game time, it was announced yesterday, is 7pm, to be televised on ESPN2. The night game should make for an exciting atmosphere at Mountaineer Field, but Stewart says his team will be ready to go regardless of the game, or even the location, of the game.

“You take your marching orders and go. I don’t care if it’s at noon, 1 [o’clock], 3 [o’clock], 7[o’clock], 10 [o’clock], I don’t care. It could be there place, our place, or a parking lot somewhere in between. It’s the Backyard Brawl, it’s round six in the BIG EAST, game number 11, and we have a chance to get better.”

Get better. Not just give effort, but get better and use the effort to come out on top. The Mountaineers have an opportunity to finish with just two conference losses, the same total they accumulated in the past three seasons.

It all starts with the Backyard Brawl, a game that can change the outlook of any season with a win.

Injury Update:

Stewart said Monday that both Noel Devine and Jarrett Brown were dinged up a bit in the Cincinnati game. Devine continued to be aggravated by the ankle injury he sustained against Louisville, but also had some trouble with his hamstring against the Bearcats. Stewart thinks the bye week will do his tailback some good.

As for Brown, Stewart shared a brief exchange that he had with his quarterback after he got hit in the head on what the coach felt was a missed helmet-to-helmet call late in the game.

“He [Brown] said, ‘Coach, my hip’s bothering me more than my head,’ so that’s when I got down and talked to him and said, ‘Are you doing OK, big fella?’ and he said, “Coach, I’m fine, I’m having a ball.’”

Stewart does not expect either player’s injuries to keep them from full participation in the practices leading up to the Pitt game.

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