Published: August 26, 2008 11:30 pm         

Stewart’s top concern is WVU, not opponent

MORGANTOWN — West Virginia coach Bill Stewart said Tuesday his chief concern going into Saturday’s season opener is how his team performs — not Villanova’s visiting Wildcats.

“We need to play a game, and we’re very much injury-free,” he said at the first of his weekly news conferences. “I never underestimate an opponent. This is a heck of a challenge.”

While he knows this is what formerly was known as an NCAA Division I-AA team, he’s certainly not taking the Colonial Athletic Association team lightly. He remembers that Appalachian State upset Michigan a year ago.

Stewart also recalls that Villanova battled Maryland on fairly even terms for a half last year, and that in 2002 it actually defeated Rutgers.

“My biggest concern is how we’re going to handle getting out there and playing (before a sellout crowd of some 60,000 fans),” he said. “I want the team to be loose, play error-free and with a passion.”

Stewart believes his players will be focused because they’re eager to go against someone other than themselves. He has reminded them that in order to start a winning streak, they must take care of No. 1 first and then turn their sights on No. 2, etc.

He emphasized that a lasting impression starts with the first impression, and he’s hopeful that it will be great in his debut as the school’s head coach.

“As I say, I worry about the Mountaineers and how they perform,” he said.

He noted there are similarities between the schools, which have met six tines in football previously. WVU won the first five before being bowing 41-36 in 1977, the last time they met.

Both coaching staffs have game tapes of each other’s teams from last year. So Stewart said WVU will do whatever it has been doing best in the past, and he expects the Wildcats to do pretty much the same.

“This is all about making an impression,” he said. “West Virginia needs to make a big first impression. We’re missing some veterans who were with us last year.

“If you stop the run, you’ve got a chance. Our linebacking corps is great. You run them down and knock them down.”

Stewart pointed out that most Division I-A teams now play I-AA opponents early in the season rather than have to travel far to play another I-A team.

“We’ve asked Virginia schools to play us,” he said.

But old rivalries with Virginia Tech and Virginia are dormant, despite efforts to revive those series. Both are now members of the Atlantic Coast Conference.

Saturday’s kickoff is set for 3:30 p.m. at Mountaineer Field/Milan Puskar Stadium. The game will be televised by ESPN Regional.

Channels carrying the action in West Virginia include WCHS (Charleston), WOAY (Oak Hill-Beckley), WVFX (Clarksburg), WTOV (Wheeling) and WTAP (Parkersburg). MASN in Baltimore and WJLA in Washington, D.C., also will have the telecast.