Published: March 14, 2008 11:57 pm         

New coach Stewart likes first day of football drills

MORGANTOWN — Despite a steady rain, West Virginia University’s football team began spring practice Friday with a session Bill Stewart, the new head coach, called impressive.

“I’ll tell you what, that was a fun first day,” he commented afterward. “It was fast. It was moving. We got a tremendous amount of work done. And it was very neat for a football team to applaud their coaches for having scripted such an impressive first practice.

“I know it was in shorts and I know it was a little brisk out there. But did you see them moving? They were flying around. When the players complimented the coaches like that, it made me feel special. I thought that was pretty good.”

As advertised, the Mountaineers threw the ball more than they usually do. It was about 60 percent pass and 40 percent run just to make an emphasis on the passing game.

“We worked a lot on deep balls, crossing routes and underneath floods,” Stewart noted, “and it was very impressive.”

He thought veteran quarterback Patrick White did a good job reading the defense and throwing the ball. He also thought the receivers ran good routes, though many are young. Holdover starter Tito Gonzalez made a nice catch for what would have been a touchdown but fell down.

“There were some great side routes run that I’d not seen,” Stewart said. “I was very pleased with the offensive line in carrying out assignments, but the snapping wasn’t very good (with starter Mike Dent out this spring).”

He thought sophomore running back Noel Devine was “as quick as lightning” and some defenders were falling down trying to catch him. Another soph, Jock Sanders, also ran well with the ball.

“Defensively, (linebacker) Mortty Ivy caught my attention,” Stewart continued. “And Zac Cooper was like a bullet coming off the edge. I thought our secondary ran well, too, with Quentin Andrews doing some good things.

“So I was very pleased. This is going to be a great spring for these guys. It was really a good day.”

While it’s been a tough five-week period, Stewart said the transition of his new staff — the most experienced and most expensive WVU has ever had — went very well. The coaches had dinner at the Touchdown Terrace at separate times with the seniors, juniors, sophomores and redshirt freshmen to spur bonding.

Stewart said some players have worked out at 5 a.m. for in-house reasons.

He explained, “There were issues to be addressed. So we had guys out here working early. Some were class things and some off-field things that we had to deal with.”

The head coach said his wife didn’t like him having to get up at 4:15 and head to the stadium complex, “but you have to do what you have to do.”

A second practice session is scheduled for this morning.