Honeymoon was short for West Virginia's Stewart
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Coach Bill Stewart started with a 1-2 record his first season at West Virginia.
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MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- Criticism cuts deep.
So deep for a major college football coach it can make it tough to find a dinner companion.
Just ask West Virginia coach Bill Stewart, who recalls a week in September 2008 when he -- three games after being installed as the full-time coach of the Mountaineers -- was seen as a social outcast for losing a few football games.
"I was 1-2 here at one time when I first started this gig out, and only two people would be seen eating with me in public," Stewart said. "One was [prominent Mountaineers booster] Mr. Mike Puskar, the other was the athletic director, Eddie Pastilong. I couldn't get anyone else to be seen with me in public but those two men. I've never forgotten that."
Game: West Virginia (4-1, 0-0 Big East Conference) vs. South Florida (3-2, 0-1), 7:30 p.m. today, Mountaineer Field, Morgantown, W.Va. West Virginia is favored by 10 1/2 points.
TV, radio, Internet: ESPN; WBGG-AM (970); MSNSportsNet.com.
West Virginia: The Mountaineers' defense is seventh in points per game (13.6), ninth in rushing yards per game (86.8) and eighth in total defense (254.6 yards per game). ... Geno Smith leads Big East quarterbacks with a 66.4 completion percentage. ... Freshman Jeremy Johnson, the No. 3 quarterback, has left the team permanently for personal reasons.
South Florida: Uses two running backs, sophomore Demetris Murray (63.3 yards per game) and senior Moise Plancher (57.8 ypg). ... Next-to-last in Big East in total offense (337.2 yards per game).
Of note: West Virginia is 17-2 in home night games since 2000.
Since a loss to Colorado in Stewart's third game made his record 1-2, he has a 23-9 record, including a 4-1 mark this season, as the Mountaineers head into their Big East Conference opener at home tonight against South Florida (3-2).
But Stewart learned in 2008 that honeymoons do not last, even when you replace a coach the fan base largely viewed as a traitor (Rich Rodriguez) and even when, as interim coach, you lead the team to, arguably, its biggest bowl victory, 48-28 against Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl.
Which raises some questions: Is there a definitive time frame for the honeymoon to end? And when and how much criticism is fair to a coach in the early stages of his career at a given school?
When Stewart looks across the field tonight, he can see a bit of what he went through in South Florida coach Skip Holtz, who is in his first season with the Bulls and formerly was coach at Connecticut and East Carolina, where he was successful. A home loss last week against Syracuse has the Bulls' fans grumbling a little.
First Published October 14, 2010 12:00 am
