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07 October 2010
Earlier this week it was reported in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that for the first time since the fifth week of the 2005 season West Virginia, Pitt, and Penn State were all absent from the Associated Press Top 25.
Having placed the names of those three schools in the same sentence again got the hamster on his wheel that is my brain.
With WVU and Pitt members of the Big East Conference and both often mentioned as possible league champions in football, it is not a rare occurrence for the two to be grouped together.
It is the addition of Penn State to the equation that was out of place.
With the hamster now doing its best Carl Lewis impersonation I hit the internet to delve deeper.
Joe Paterno took over the Penn State Nittany Lion program from Rip Engle in 1966 and promptly posted a 5-5 record in his first year, matching his predecessor’s mark from 1965.
Paterno’s record in his second year, 1967, was 8-2-1, with game 11 being the tie in the Gator Bowl with Florida State. No, Bobby Bowden was not yet the coach of the Seminoles. Bowden was not even the head coach of the Mountaineers yet.
The mighty Joe Pa posted a 13-7-1 record in his first two seasons as head coach at Penn State, with his only bowl appearance a tie.
Certainly not a terrible record for a new head coach, definitely not the precursor an individual would expect from the coach with the most wins in the Football Bowl Subdivision.
Paterno went undefeated in years three and four, posting an 11-0 record both seasons. Neither season saw a national title for the Penn State squad. Penn State ended both seasons ranked number two in the Associated Press Poll.
The aforementioned Bowden happens to be number two on the list of most wins by a head coach in the FBS.
Bowden’s first head coaching job in what is now the FBS was at WVU, where he posted a 15-7 record in his first two seasons. WVU received no bowl invitations in Bowden’s first two seasons.
Bowden moved to Florida State after the 1975 season where he promptly posted a 15-8 record in his first two seasons as head mentor. Bowden was 1-0 in bowl games his first two years at FSU.
Bill Stewart has posted back to back 9-4 records in his first two seasons at WVU, for an overall mark of 18-8. Stewart is 1-1 in bowl games in his first two seasons. If you add the Fiesta Bowl, win over Oklahoma when Stewart was named the interim head coach he is 2-1 in bowl games.
Bill Stewart in his first two seasons at the helm in Morgantown has bested the comparable records of the top two coaches in the history of the FBS.
Still, Mountaineer Nation is reluctant to accept Stewart as their head football coach. The term “unreasonable expectations” simply does not seem to do justice to the predicament.
With the nosedive that Big East football teams have taken to date this season, WVU is the prohibitive favorite to take the league crown and its associated BCS bowl invitation.
The Mountaineer football team returns to the field this Saturday to play the University of Nevada Las Vegas at Milan Puskar Stadium. WVU is a four-touchdown favorite as of the posting of this article.
Whether WVU actually wins the game by four touchdowns is another story. Stewart needs ‘Style Points” to quiet the unrest. Unfortunately, there are the proverbial bigger fish to fry.
Five days later WVU opens Big East Conference play against the University of South Florida at Milan Puskar Stadium.
Saturday’s game against UNLV may end up closer than Mountaineer fans would like, Stewart may be forced to substitute often to keep his players fresh for the USF game.
Stewart holds a 15-1 record at home, as head coach; the lone loss was in 2008 to the University of Cincinnati in overtime. That mark bodes well for the next two games on the Mountaineer’s slate.
In his weekly radio show from the Waterfront Hotel, Stewart discussed implementing a “Mountaineer Walk” before home games.
Instead, Stewart might want to consider copying FDR’s “Fireside Chats” with Mountaineer fans. Certainly, there are some extra couches in Morgantown.
As for the hamster and his wheel, their work is done for the day.
