SOME COACHES treat midweek football games much like a trip to the oral surgeon. Sure it's a pain, and it really knocks you out of your routine, but the bottom line is that you've got to do it.
SOME COACHES treat midweek football games much like a trip to the oral surgeon. Sure it's a pain, and it really knocks you out of your routine, but the bottom line is that you've got to do it.
Bill Stewart, however, isn't like a lot of other coaches.
West Virginia's first-year coach looks at his upcoming schedule, which includes two Thursday games and one Friday game - two of those on the road - and doesn't get too down in the mouth about it.
"You'd like to have every game to be on Saturday so you can be in your routine,'' Stewart said, "but look what Thursday nights have done for this football program. We've been blessed.''
Stewart thinks there's no substitute for the national attention a team receives by playing a Thursday night game on one of the ESPN channels. The Mountaineers have two such games this season - a Sept. 18 date at Colorado and an Oct. 23 home contest against Auburn. They also play at Pitt on Nov. 28, the Friday of Thanksgiving weekend.
"My God, we've had the most widely watched Thursday night game in the history of ESPN [a 44-34 loss at Louisville in 2006 that drew a 5.3 rating]. I think we're something like 1-2-4 in the Thursday night history of ESPN [ratings]. And this year, we get to play our rival on Thanksgiving Friday [on ABC].
"That's tremendous. You can't beat that kind of national exposure. That's what makes your program better. I hate it in one regard but we love it in another regard, and that's for the national exposure that Thursday night games bring to us.''
Three weekday games are one part of the challenge that awaits WVU in Stewart's first full season at the helm. He, of course, directed the Mountaineers to their stirring 48-28 victory over Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl after Rich Rodriguez left for Michigan.
West Virginia meets six teams that played in bowl games last season (four of them bowl winners) as well as its annual running the gantlet against the other seven Big East schools.
"I think first and foremost, it's as challenging a schedule as any in the country,'' Stewart said. "It's a very demanding schedule, which is good. That's something we look forward to. I think we'll barely have our T's crossed and our I's dotted every game, and I mean that sincerely.''
Stewart apparently can't even bring himself to look at the schedule all at once. During preseason, he and his coaching staff will concentrate on the first three games - the Aug. 30 opener with Villanova at home, then trips to East Carolina (Sept. 6) and Colorado.
"Everyone says it's a yawner for the season opener,'' Stewart said, "but I know this: Villanova beat Rutgers [in 2002] and they gave Maryland a heck of a game [last year].''
SOME COACHES treat midweek football games much like a trip to the oral surgeon. Sure it's a pain, and it really knocks you out of your routine, but the bottom line is that you've got to do it.
Bill Stewart, however, isn't like a lot of other coaches.
West Virginia's first-year coach looks at his upcoming schedule, which includes two Thursday games and one Friday game - two of those on the road - and doesn't get too down in the mouth about it.
"You'd like to have every game to be on Saturday so you can be in your routine,'' Stewart said, "but look what Thursday nights have done for this football program. We've been blessed.''
Stewart thinks there's no substitute for the national attention a team receives by playing a Thursday night game on one of the ESPN channels. The Mountaineers have two such games this season - a Sept. 18 date at Colorado and an Oct. 23 home contest against Auburn. They also play at Pitt on Nov. 28, the Friday of Thanksgiving weekend.
"My God, we've had the most widely watched Thursday night game in the history of ESPN [a 44-34 loss at Louisville in 2006 that drew a 5.3 rating]. I think we're something like 1-2-4 in the Thursday night history of ESPN [ratings]. And this year, we get to play our rival on Thanksgiving Friday [on ABC].
"That's tremendous. You can't beat that kind of national exposure. That's what makes your program better. I hate it in one regard but we love it in another regard, and that's for the national exposure that Thursday night games bring to us.''
Three weekday games are one part of the challenge that awaits WVU in Stewart's first full season at the helm. He, of course, directed the Mountaineers to their stirring 48-28 victory over Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl after Rich Rodriguez left for Michigan.
West Virginia meets six teams that played in bowl games last season (four of them bowl winners) as well as its annual running the gantlet against the other seven Big East schools.
"I think first and foremost, it's as challenging a schedule as any in the country,'' Stewart said. "It's a very demanding schedule, which is good. That's something we look forward to. I think we'll barely have our T's crossed and our I's dotted every game, and I mean that sincerely.''
Stewart apparently can't even bring himself to look at the schedule all at once. During preseason, he and his coaching staff will concentrate on the first three games - the Aug. 30 opener with Villanova at home, then trips to East Carolina (Sept. 6) and Colorado.
"Everyone says it's a yawner for the season opener,'' Stewart said, "but I know this: Villanova beat Rutgers [in 2002] and they gave Maryland a heck of a game [last year].''
Villanova trailed Maryland just 10-7 at halftime last season before losing 31-14.
"I'm sure everyone in Maryland was saying the same things [about Villanova] last year, but they had to hang on to win. I'm sure people there remember that. Andy Talley [Villanova's coach] has been there 24 years, and he's a good friend of mine. I knew him when I was at VMI and William & Mary, and he's a tremendous football coach.
"Going to East Carolina is a big, big chore, then certainly going to Colorado out there is a big challenge. A great challenge. Challenges are what college football is about today. You can't play them all at home. Certainly, if you're going to be a good team - a top-10 team - you have to win in any arena. Those two stops will be very, very difficult. But you have to play on a field that's 100 yards long and about 53 yards wide, and that's how we'll approach it with this football team.''
Stewart paused for a moment and tried to think ahead.
"Then who do we play after that?'' he asked.
He was told that the next three games are at home against Marshall, Rutgers and Syracuse.
"That's how focused I am on the first three,'' Stewart said with a chuckle. "That's how we do our summer breakdown stuff.''
The highlights of the Big East schedule appear to be a Nov. 1 trip to Connecticut and a Dec. 6 home date against South Florida to end the regular season. The Bulls have beaten the Mountaineers the last two years. Rutgers and Cincinnati also won their bowl games last season.
"It's going to get rough in the Big East,'' Stewart said. "Good Lord, what the Big East has done in major bowl games [4-1 in BCS bowls all-time].
"It's a heck of a schedule, I think. A real challenge. I worry about all 12 of them.''
Reach staff writer Rick Ryan at 348-5175 or rickr...@wvgazette.com.
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