The Register-Herald, Beckley, West Virginia

Sports

September 6, 2008

A loss at ECU worse than Pitt?

By Dave Morrison

GREENVILLE, N.C. — OK, it was bound to happen and I will tell you why.

Guess what county Greenville, N.C., is in?

If you said Pitt, you are correct.

And maybe that East Carolina fan wearing a Pitt hat Saturday evening as he was leaving Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium after ECU embarrassed West Virginia 24-3 on national television knew it, too.

People are getting a lot of mileage out of that 13-9 debacle last December in Morgantown.

But as bad as that was — not to mention costly, as in missed national championship opportunity — this one was worse.

Because this team did not come close to resembling the West Virginia team we’ve seen over the last three years.

And no, I am not blaming coach Bill Stewart.

In fact, I’m giving him credit for remaining himself. We’ve seen him after victory, and now here is Stew in defeat.

“I’m not going to rip them (the players),” he said. “I’m not going to call them dirty, filthy, vulgar names. If people want me to do that, they better put me someplace else.”

Hmmmm, wonder what he meant by that?

The coaches did take the blame for this mess, as they should.

“We didn’t tackle well at all,” defensive coordinator Jeff Casteel said in one of the year’s great understatements. “This game is about tackling, blocking, executing. We didn’t do that.”

Indeed, the best hits of the day came off the field.

In fact, it was a West Virginia cheerleader who took out an East Carolina defender with a jarring hit that left the defender dazed and confused.

That, and the cops who were body slamming randomly selected ECU students who charged the field after the game. Some of those body slams were WWE-worthy.

The WVU offense at times was cartoon-worthy.

“We just didn’t execute,” offensive coordinator Jeff Mullen said. “And that starts with me. As a ball coach you have to get the players to execute.”

Poor Patrick White probably lost his shot at the Heisman Trophy, finishing just 11-of-18 for 72 yards and rushing for 97 more. He was sacked three times.

There was one moment in the game where Jock Sanders or Noel Devine went one way and White went the other.

White refused to assign blame.

“It’s just mental mistakes,” he said. “It wasn’t a new play. We just had one guy go the wrong way. One mistake can kill a whole play.”

And there were several on that level for WVU, which, for most of the game, more resembled the Keystone Kops than an elite football program.

There’s another Pennsylvania reference.

Taking emotions out of the equation, football fans have to be happy to see a school outside the BCS power six conferences playing the way ECU has been. Now the question for the Pirates is sustaining it through the season.

For WVU, it’s back to the basics.

And for the love of BCS bowls, suit up that cheerleader.

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