By Mickey Furfari
MORGANTOWN — “We love our fans,” coach Bill Stewart said Sunday when asked what he tells West Virginia football players whenever some spectators boo the play-calling and/or poor play execution.
That was the situation during Saturday’s unimpressive 17-6 victory over struggling Syracuse (1-5, 0-2 Big East) at Mountaineer Field/Milan Puskar Stadium. Some spectators vented their feelings loudly.
Jeff Mullen, WVU’s first-year offensive coordinator, calls the plays from the coaches’ booth in the press box. Like Stewart, he understands and accepts the fans’ unhappiness when the offense sputters as it did ineffectively. Players said the booing didn’t bother them either.
“I just tell our guys that we’ve got the best fans in the country,” Stewart said at what was the shortest of his Sunday media teleconferences. Just two questions were asked after he had talked about his review of games tapes. “We’re not mad at them.
“The whole football team and the staff love the fans. They were just frustrated when they saw the end result of the ball being in the flat. If Jarrett (Brown) didn’t think the deep routes were open, he threw the ball down. He did what he thought was right.
“The fans are just passionate. They want us to do so well. If we were out there throwing bubble screens all day, I’d boo, too. But we weren’t.
“We had three level floods on. We had a triangle ready: Short, long and deep coming over the middle, but we missed some stuff.”
Stewart said they tried to throw the ball deep to Arlic Arnett and were setting it up.
“Well, that little No. 10 came in, a youngster, and he got beat earlier. But just when we threw the take off right on him, he passed up about 15 yards. The play already had been called, and I did not want an audible with Jarrett.”
West Virginia (4-2, 2-0 Big East) played without veteran quarterback Patrick White, on whom tests Friday showed he still had not fully recovered from the effects of a hard hit (concussion?) the previous Saturday.
“Jarrett Brown played very hard and did OK,” Stewart said. “He was in a tough situation, but did a good job. It is my job and coach Mullen’s job to get him back up (to where he will play better).”
Apparently Brown was not 100 percent when thrust into a starting role.
Stewart said, “We were very fortunate to come out with the win. I was pleased that we kept our poise and played hard.” He again praised Mullen for calling the play on which tailback Noel Devine raced 92 yards for a touchdown with about four minutes left.
That sealed the victory.
The head coach noted that nice blocks were thrown at the line of scrimmage by Ryan Stanchek, Mike Dent, Greg Isdaner and Jake Figner, with fullback/tight end Will Johnson throwing the block which enabled Devine to burst into open field.
Stewart said he was very frustrated about excessive penalties, but pleased with Pat McAfee’s 47-yard punting average and field goal as well as the WVU coverage on punts and kicks.
He thought the defensive unit did a tremendous job, for the most part, but he didn’t like letting Syracuse get out from its own two and also from the 10-yard line. He also is unhappy that the Orange controlled the ball for 15 more plays and 11 more minutes than the home team.
The Mountaineers were excused from practice Sunday night after viewing tapes of Saturday’s game and doing some running and lifting. They will be off today, then begin on Tuesday preparations for the Oct. 23 home game against Auburn.
