Published: September 29, 2008 10:40 pm         

WVU Football Notebook

MORGANTOWN — It was a quote only a football coach could give.

West Virginia had just snapped a two-game losing streak in impressive fashion, riding their best defensive effort of the year and scoring more points than Weeks 2 and 3 combined.

Not good enought for head coach Bill Stewart, who could find the dark cloud amongst the silver lining: his Mountaineers gave up more than 200 yards to Marshall kick returner Darius Marshall.

"There's no building tall enough in Morgantown to keep me from jumping off the top of because of that kickoff team," said Stewart, also WVU‘s special teams coordinator. "We're going to get down to brass tacks and I'm going to find some guys who will run down that field and smack someone in the mouth."

The Thundering Herd totaled 239 kick-return yards, riding the tide to two drives beginning inside WVU’s 30-yard line. If not for a missed field goal and a botched snap on another try for 3, the Herd could have put a different look on the game.

To put the onslaught into perspective, WVU had given up just 218 yards combined in its first three games, with a return average of 24.2 yards.

“We’re going to have a meeting with me alone … ,” Stewart said. “Every coach that’s not on special teams will leave, and every player who’s not on it will leave. … I’ll lose sleep tonight, that’s how bad we were.”

• • •

Stewart managed to get past his disdain for special teams plays long enough to analyze the opening of the Big East schedule, beginning with Saturday’s home tilt against Rutgers (1-3).

The Scarlet Knights are coming off their first victory of the season, a 38-0 pasting of Morgan State that snapped a three-game losing streak.

West Virginia (2-2), meanwhile, just hopes to learn and build from its unexpected two game losing streak.

“I’m glad we had those and it put us in some pressure,” Stewart said Sunday on his teleconference. “Now we are going to get down into our routine and play our schedule.

“That’s what it’s all about and the goal in our program is and always will be the Big East championship — that’s what we strive for and that’s what we live for.”

WVU’s first-year head coach said his team must overlook Rutgers’ early struggles and be prepared for a tough battle Saturday.

“Rutgers has a tremendous quarterback (in senior signal-caller Mike Teel) and they’re trying to get the running game cranked up,” Stewart said. “They will come in here chomping at the bit. They’re back on track and hitting on all cylinders.”

• • •

On the scheduling front, the Big East Conference helped fill in one of the several question marks regarding West Vir-ginia’s remaining schedule — the Oct. 11 Syracuse-WVU game at Mountaineer Field will have a noon kickoff. ESPNU will carry the game.

The ‘Eers still have TBA on game times with five of its six remaining opponents.

     

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