wow

what a freaking great win

Great win for WfVU after that Pitt stinker...looks like they have a new coach as well.

Congrats to the 'Neers (or is it 'Eers?)!

I like any team that beats OU.

What does this saying mean? I thought I misheard the announcer... Anyway, I'm all about congrats, too. Tres impressed with WVU, and that's not just Big East Conference Pride (...though I AM quite pleased a Big East team performed so well in a BCS Bowl Game).

Congrats to Coach Stewart and WVU. I was happy to see them play well, even as a Pitt fan! I hope Michigan loses every game it plays under Rodriguez.

West Virginia is known for being the couch burning capital of college football. Students have been known celebrate victories by setting fires in the streets using couches as the base of the fire.

________________________________________________________________________________
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Play with your soul as well as your body.
www.jockdreams.com

As a Big East fan, Congrats to the 'Eers!!!!!!!!

Congrats to West Virginia on the upset. I'm afraid a lot of people tuned out though because that was a snoozefest of a game unless you have a particular interest in those two teams. After such a great season, the bowls (and the BCS bowls in particular) have been one-sided affairs, mostly from one team imploding. Oklahoma looked very un-Oklahoma like last night.

Yes. Congrats to WVU and kudos for retaining the interim coach as your new permanent coach.

OU is always overrated when it comes to BCS bowls.

I love pulling for the underdog!

--BB

Eers

not Neers

it's NEVER Neers

I could've sworn that I heard WVU cheerleaders saying "Let's go 'Neers" in other games.

Oh well, something new I learned today.

Looks like they snagged a good one


http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=3180348

At practice in 1996, Stewart used a racial slur aimed at a black player, who was, according to the then-VMI head coach, "hot dogging and show boating."

Stewart called him over for a private conversation, one-on-one in a low voice. Stewart said he told the player: "Don't let your actions give people reason to call you a n-----."

Here is another fine example of why I don't post on this board. You have casual football fans posting without being objective.


Log onto ESPN and read Pat Forde ( do you even now who he is?) story on this situation. The player he directed the remarks at stated in a richmond paper the day after his game he would LOVE for his son to play for Stewart and he believed Stewart was the anti thesis of a racist and his point was right on, but chose poor wording.



Also, head coaches throughout the nation are endorsing Stewart- Boby Ross, Tommislon ( Steeler's coach), and many others. Stewart has many allies in the coaching profession. He's all class. Also, would Pat White, Slaton, and and many outstanding and well thought of African Amercan WVU players have such close and loving relationships with Stewart if indeed he was a racist? All those players endorsed him to be the head coach of WVU right after the Fiesta Bowl triumph on national television.


Here is a letter from a VMI player who played under Coach Stewart:



The following was posted by Geoff Goff at wemustignitethiscouch.com
he later posted it was okay to copy this and post anywhere, so here it is:


I must premise this by saying I'm a passive VT fan as I am from VA and this will be my first and last post on this site. My name is Geoff Goff and I was a kicker at VMI from 1991-1995.

Coach Stewart is an excellent hire! He came to VMI over XMAS break during my Jr. year. The first meeting we had with him was right after we came back from Xmas break. 4 guys were a few minutes late to the meeting and he told them to clean out their lockers and hit the road. He immediately gained our respect and over the next year and a half, I never saw him take any attitude from anyone. He didn't care if you were an all american or a scrub, he treated everyone the same.

The first day of Spring Practice was very interesting. We went full pads and our whole team gathered around and we did the infamous "Oklahoma" drill. He didn't care if you were a kicker (which I was) or the QB. You were going to hit or be hit that day. He wanted to see who he had on his team and most importantly, see peoples character.

As I mentioned earlier, I was a kicker (and played some defensive back during spring ball as we were short a few men that spring due to graduation....so I'm not a total whimp ) One day, I was on the "kickers" practice field which was 150 yards from where Coach Stewart was conducting a drill. I had my helmet off kicking a few balls and I could hear someone yelling my name. I couldn't really tell where it was coming from, but my name kept getting louder and louder. I finally realized where it was coming from and why it was getting louder. Coach Stewart was sprinting at me yelling my name and telling me to put my helmet on as "this wasn't the Chicago #@$#@ Bears". Luckily I got my helmet on before he got to me, but he made it clear that I was going to run, hit, tackle, etc. like everyone else.

I remember watching our team scrimmage during practice and I loved how he didn't accept excuses after mistakes. If it was raining and someone fumbled, then you fumbled and you just cost your team a chance to win. He didn't care if it was wet. If I missed a kick, then I missed the kick. If you made a mistake and got up and said: My mistake (my bad, my fault, etc.). He would say: "Everyone in the stadium knows its your fault. I don't want to hear that!"

The first day of fall practice was also interesting. We reported to camp and our first day was testing. He wanted to see who was in shape and who took it easy over the summer. My group had to run 1.5 miles in under 9 minutes. We had a very good sr. db who didn't make the run and he kicked him off the team. He kicked everyone off the team who didn't make their times. He let them back on a few days later if they agreed to a lot of penalty running (and he nearly killed them).

Throughout the year, we lost all of our games, except the last one....which I will get to in a minute. He never made excuses or let us make excuses. He wouldn't allow us to show our buts or take cheap shots when we were getting beat by 30. I've seen him jerk a guy out of the game with 1 minute to go in the game when we were down by 30 and light him up for getting a personal foul or even on the verge of a foul. After every game we would sing the school song facing our "crowd". It's tough to sing after getting pounded by Marshall, but you better sing or he would view that as disrespect toward your school and your teammates and he would light you up.

Our team had gotten beat all year, We were much younger and smaller than all of our opponents, but he made us continued to believe. In our final game of the year, we travelled to Appalachian State and beat them in double or triple overtime to knock them out of the playoffs. Is all they had to do was beat us and they would have been Southern Conference Champs. What a great day!

It's really not fair for anyone to critic his record as VMI's head coach. We have some fundamental problems with our football program, which we are trying to correct. When Coach Stewart was there, we had 0 5th year guys and no red shirt program. It's very hard to compete without any 5th year guys, but VMI doesn't have a graduate program and doesn't give 5th year guys any special priveledges. They still live in barracks and have a full academic schedule along with full miltary schedule, including getting up every morning for formation.

This is Coach Stewarts dream job and he was very "gitty" after getting the job and beating OK, but I can assure you he will get in Steve Slayton and Pat Whites faces and challenge them to be better ball players. Every player on the WVU team will maximize their effort and potential.

I haven't spoken with Coach Stewart in many years, but he is one of those guys that impacts your entire life. I would choose him over anyone to be my coach!

LOL--getting a lecture on objectivity from a WfVU poster. Classic.


I think it's a poor hire more for his resume than for the 1996 incident. It seems like a rash decision by an administration looking for someone pliable, cheap ($800K/year), and aw-shucks-happy-to-be-here after the Rodriguez debacle.

Do you really think Stewart will keep WVU in the elite of college football? I guess time will tell.

he's been on staff at WVU for seven years and has lots of experience

pliable? doubtful

cheap-in this day and age of football coaches getting multimillion dollar contracts, I'd say this guy is a bargain rather than cheap

he is happy to be where he is-is that so hard to believe?

are we all that cynical that we can't believe this man is being honest?

Sounds like you are a Hater, golfer.

That's ok. WVU will remain elite next year and for many years to come. That's non issue.


You are a casual observer whose probably rather ignorant on the hiring of Stewart ( see above) and his past resume.

He's a great recruiter who is responsible for getting many of the tremendously gifted athletes to Morgantown over the past 7 years.


WVU fans couldn't be more estatic. Coach Stew could have gotten a lot more money. He would rather his assistant coaches be paid rather handsomely than take a 2.0 million dollar salary similarly to RichFraud did.


If you think WVU is hurting for money, it's almost as comical as some of your posts in this thread.


Let's see

4.0 Million from the Fiesta Bowl as Part of the Big East partnership with the Big East as it's champs
4.0 Million buyout from RichFraud
1.2 Million dollar less in paying a head coach


Add the numbers. Also, WVU just sold out all games this past season for the third year in a row. A 10-15k expansion is being drawn up to take Mountaineer field to 71-76,000.


Also, in all of 6 months, Huggins raised 20-25 million dollars for a new state of the art basketball practice facility that will rival in university in America.



WVU doesn't lack for money. The Hire wasn't "cheap". It was actually done in a West Virginia way that many on this board wouldn't understand. However, I have been impressed with the outpouring of coverage that's been showered at Coach Stew and the Mountaineers for showing America why West Virginia always bounces back up when faced with adversity.

With 10 starters back on offense and many defensive letterman back, WVU fans are excited about next year. With Richfraud out of town, we finally got our geniune honest WV field general leading the charge again. We're excited and looking forward to the future.


As voice of the Montaineers Tony Cardi says :

" It's a great night to be a MountainEER wher ever you may be"

LOL it appears Outsports has its own Baghdad Bob for WfVU.


http://www.fanblogs.com/west_virginia/007415.php

wvu_lifer said:
posted on January 3, 2008 12:31 PM — 75.109.107.108 — link — abuse?

I can tell you this. After going to breakfast this morning and overhearing the same conversation, the concencus in my home town is, "huh"?


The man is clearly loved by his players. Again, like I said, we'll see. Maybe the administration will end up looking like geniuses on this one. But it still seems like a rash, emotional decision.

As for the backhanded slur of 'casual observer'--unless you are inside the negotiating room or have a direct line to one of the decision-makers through booster activity, then you too are a 'casual observer.'

We can have differences of opinion on this board/thread without being less informed or because some of us are only "casual" posters. Some of us just see things differently. VERY differently. Doesn't mean anyone is "ignorant."

Don't hate- APPRECIATE

I just have to go back a few posts in this thread and say I LOVE that someone who is ranting against people he percieves as 'casual' football fans (implying he's informed) thinks the Steelers coach is named Tomisslon. That that someone is a WVU fan makes it even funnier.

Not when it comes to West Virginia BMan.

There are some highly knowledgeble posters on this board regarding college athletics. There are some who need training wheels and even that's not enough.

The latter usually takes precedence.

It shows you how much I watch or care about pro football. Pro football is about interesting as the Olympics is now.


Pro Football fans are Nascar fans- ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ


Here is a nice little video for all you Coach Stew haters


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkXU1WejSyI




As I said above,


Don't HATE, APPRECIATE.

Hate coach Stewart? That's the first time I saw that phrase 'round these parts.

The hire kinda seems similar to when Dean Smith stepped down and in came Bill Guthridge.

I sense things turning out the same way...Stewart will caretake at head coach, churn out some nice(maybe great) seasons....three, maybe four years before he retires and heads off into the sunset.

That's when things will get interesting...till then.

Bingo- Right on Target BR.

Coach Stew will be the GM and motivator. He's an excellent recruiter, too.

He's assembling a damn good staff.


The good thing is RichFraud thought he had WVU's defensive cordinators going with him to Michigan. They declined and received hefty pay increases. WVU's on the verge of landing some great offensive cordinators with a nice mix of recruiters. Florida's Doc Holliday resigned today and is expected to join the staff. Kentucky's DB coach resigned today, too. He's expected to take the same position. The OL and OC are the two positions that are still up in the air. WVU is looking to stay with the spread offense. Appy State's OC has been contacted and it would be a perfect fit based on WVU's personnel.


Bottom line, Coach Stew will delegate responsibilites to the staff. That's something WVU didn't do under RichFraud. You saw the difference between the Pitt game and some of the ones where he over micromanages versus a care free explosive WVU team in the Fiesta Bowl.

Stew is a tough and has a military style, yet is a player's coach. Don't mistake the nice smiling " oh gosh" coach as laxed. He's not. He just knows how to motivate without screaming and controling all things.