Bill Stewart? Obvious post of the year

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orangecat

1,000+ Posts
This guy is so over his head it's almost a shame. Doesn't know to call timeout until 4 seconds left in the game.

To relate it back to us, it kind of reminds me of things that happened in the Akers era. It's like they don't even have a concept of what they want to do.

Best of luck to the guy, for his sake hope he is saving his salary. He may need that cushion pretty quick.
 
Holy ****. I had the -3 and I can't even say I am that upset because that coaching was SO AWFUL, I started thinking "how does an elite college football program hire this clown to run the show?" That helped me forget the wager.

He is BAAAAAAAD. He makes Fran look like a Hall of Fame caliber coach.

On another note, how bad is that WVU offense? I think they tried 3 pases downfield all night. And then, on the key 3rd and goal, they line up in the I and Devine is off the field.

On one final note, how the hell did the mighty Oklahoma Sooners lose to both these teams last year?????? Sorry, Sooner fans, after watching this crapfest, I am going to hold off on proclaiming you an unstoppable force this year.

If Bobby Stoops can get outcoached by this clown.......
 
that gimmick half back pass underthrown by 10 yards was so wide open it was unbelievable. i have no idea how they blow an opportunity like that. i'm not sure who's worse off from this coaching change - michigan or wvu.
 
Comparing him to Akers is like comparing Javorskie Lane to Earl Campbell. Puh-lease.

You think Stewart is headed to two undefeated regular seasons, including one in his first year? Puhhhhhhhh-leeeeeeaase.
 
Before I attempt to explain his reasoning I will go on record as saying it was a dumb move to waste that much time.

Now my attempted explanation:

After failing on third down to get the first down he may have let the time run down instead of calling a timeout and potentially being stopped on 4th down near the 50 with 20+ seconds for colorado to move into field goal territory with 2 timeouts. By waiting til 4 seconds to call the timeout he guaranteed 1 last shot at the endzone, and if it was stopped it would just be the end of regulation.

Just my attempt at putting myself in his shoes, but I still would've called the time out, ran a play I knew could pick up yards, possibly a stretch with Devine, called timeout and attempt to pass to get into field goal territory.
 
As for the comment about Aker's teams not being poorly coached: Somewhere in CBS/NBC/ABC vaults is the footage of the Texas kickoff team staring at a live ball on the turf in the Bluebonnet Bowl v. Air Force just as a Falcon who knows the difference between a punt and a kickoff pounced on it. I knew at that point that if Aker's teams didn't have an overwhelming physical advantage over their oppontents we would never, ever win an important game again. He was gone in, what, less than 12 months?
 
You can't deny his record and he was good against good teams. Denying Akers' performance over the years based on a single special teams play is absurd.

I remember going to Auburn in 1983 for the first or second game of the year. Auburn was a prospective national championship team. We kicked their ***. Based on that one game, Akers is one of the greatest coaches in history, but it is absurd to claim so.
 
Stewart didn't want to punt the ball and give CU a chance to do anything wild. He was clearly playing for one last shot at the endzone before OT.
 
Uh, oh, better slow down the Akers of Cotton Will Bury Switzer freight train . . . .

My impression of the Akers years was that he took over from Royal (who went 6-6 his last year) and did well from 77 to 83, playing for the MNC in each of those years. After that, things started to slip. I've heard (and have no proof to back it up) that he was a notoriously lazy recruiter, which is not good when you're going up against Sherrill and Switzer. Starting in '84 things started to crumble, the most visible proof was players who didn't know the some of the most basic football knowledge (the difference between a live and dead ball, for instance). You can win with guys like that (most of the time) if they are bigger, stronger, and faster than the other team. Once they go away you enter the Dark Ages of UT football.

Back on the original post: I turned off the TV when the score was 14-7. I expected the final to be something like 31-14; I'm kinda surprised WVU kept it as close as they did. If I'm a West Virginia fan, I'm not liking what's on the horizon for the forseeable future.
 
The minute WVU announced Stewart as their coach I immediately thought of this as their Larry Coker. A nice guy who inherits a load of talent from a great coach but is in over his head and will oversee the deterioration of the program. The only difference between the two is the level of talent Coker inherited his first year was so obscene.
 
Funny how people view things.

CU's play calling was piss poor on offense and defense. Their saving grace was their players stepped up beyond what they should expect on short yardage plays for the entire game. Some play fakes in these situations would have won WVU the game.

The trick play for WVU was a perfect call but horrendous execution.

WVU did not throw deep because CU's safeties were 12-15 yards off the ball even though they did not often throw. When WVU was around the 15, the safeties were on the goalline. If they employ these tactics against us, you won't see many long balls from us.

The lack of timeouts was an issue early in WVU's last drive. Running it down to 4 seconds at that point made perfect sense. You did not want to give CU the ball at midfield with half a minute left.

By and large coaches are the same, they make many questionable calls throughout a game, but someone has to win and someone has to lose. This was exhibited this game. Colorado could not score for the last 50 minutes of regulation against a team that is on the road and is not known for defense.

I still never understand why a coach settles for a field goal try late in the game. If you simply play the odds, a team will turn the ball over 3 or 4% of the time. Anyone know a kicker that makes 95% of his field goals? I would say that our turnover rate as a percentage of plays is similar to our extra point success rate.
 
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the other Big East teams should send OU '07's defense appreciation payments until Stewart is fired. JFC.
 
stewart signed a six year extension. you would think they would have waited until the end of the season, but i guess they want give the appeal of stability for recruiting.

either way, i hope their buyout clause was minimal. we know from the RR departure, that WV doesn't have a whole lot of money to through around.... or at least they are not that willing to spend it.
 
Akers started off with a bang. His first decision was to scrap the wishbone, a decision almost made for him because of the rules changes, specifically the 30-90 scholarship limitation. Someone correct me on this one, I think the limits started in 1978?, so Freddie knew he wouldn't have the depth to field two halfbacks + a fullback. (I realize Fred's first year was '77, I'm thinking Fred was planning for the future)

So, Akers moved Earl from fullback to tailback, installed the I formation, with the offense of give it to Earl, give it to Earl, and pitch it to Earl. Fred had Earl, so when during the OU game, first and second string QBs went down with injuries, Randy McEachern(sp, whew I can't spell his name) came in and just handed to Earl the rest of the game, the famous 13-6 win. Johnnie Johnson and Brad Shearer teamed up to stop Thomas Lott on Fourth and 1 at the five yard line. Boom, it took both of them, Shearer hit him low, Johnson hit him high, he didn't come close to the first down. Then Erxleben kicks a fabulous punt to effectively end the game, I want to say a 76ish yard punt.

Next week it was mostly the same in a more exciting win over nationally ranked? Arkansas. This game was more exciting because of the kicking duel that might emerge. Steve Little of Arkansas had a huge leg, and Erxleben had the NCAA record of 67 yards against Rice. I want to say Little had a kick of 66 yards against a more formidable opponent, maybe in 1976, so when Exleben spotted the tee, he moved it back a yard so he could have the record all to himself.

Here is the twist you would have never seen from Darrell. Akers threw a screen pass to Earl. Wow! He almost scored, then the next play, our smallish halfback danced into the end zone. I remember because my dad groaned when he started dancing, quoting DKR, "act like you've been there before!" my dad shouted at the TV. Anyway a 13-9 win, notice the three field goals by Little, and no TDs allowed by the Texas defense in two consecutive games over nationally ranked opponents.

At that point we knew it was a special year. And Akers was golden that year almost entirely because of his decision to put in the I formation and put Earl at tailback.

But as the years went by, people expected Fred to grow as a head coach, specifically in his decision making. He never did. I don't think he ever got over that 38-10 loss to Notre Dame, on Jan. 1, 1978. You would have hoped he would learn how to prepare a team for a bowl game, but it didn't seem to happen.

One of Fred's biggest problems was ego. He was a defensive coach, but he wouldn't agree to give the offensive reins to anyone. The specific example was the famous Cotton Bowl victory against Alabama.

January 1982, Robert Brewer has had a special year as QB, and the team was 9-1-1 going into the bowl game. The tie was one of those ridiculously frustrating games where the offense just couldn't do anything against Cougar High, of all teams. The loss was the embarrassment of the decade to that point, a 42-11 loss to Arkansas. I remember talking to a friend the next day at church and the first thing out of his mouth was "Akers should be fired, that team was not prepared to play at all".

You guys have to remember that there weren't that many big games on national TV back then, so when an embarrassment like that happened, it carried a lot of weight with the fans. We only saw 2 to 3 games a year on TV.

Anyway, so New Year's Day, '82, Brewer is sick and tired of being chased around the backfield, comes to the line and calls timeout. Texas is trailing, 10-7?, and the ball is on the 'Bama 30. He goes to the sideline, he is the one who appears to be initiating the conversation. Back then the camera angles were pretty good. I'm guessing with fewer games to cover, the networks put a pretty good effort out there.

Okay, so we all know what happens, it's a QB draw, the 'Bama defense parts like the Red Sea, no defender is within 10 yards as Brewer scores the winning TD. Afterwards there is a dispute over who made the call! Akers claims it was his call, and the offensive assistant says he made the call.

There are plenty of other examples of Akers doing some strange things. For example, he would always take his best players and put them on defense. The quickest fastest, whatever adjective you want to use, they were put on defense. No balance in other words. Later in his time at Texas I think Akers finally gave in and hired an offensive coordinator, but by then the recruiting problems had made his life much more difficult.

I was at Akers last game, I remember all of the Aggie cars with the "Keep Fred" signs on their cars. My grandfather went with me, we bought some scalped tickets, sat in the off and on rain, watched a very frustrated Texas team work their butts off in a loss to the Ags, I want to say 16 - 3.

I can give you other examples, but the main idea here is that Akers inherited a tremendous program, and did a fabulous job with the defense, but fell far short in the decision-making portion of the coaching that seems to always fall nowadays on offensive coordinators. If Fred had only seen the light and hired an OC, maybe in '79, '80, we might have had National titles in '81, and certainly '83. I say '81 because of the tie. That darn tie hurt so bad because it was later in the year. Everyone knew the team was totally unprepared against Arkansas, but to tie the Coogs was the straw that broke the camel's back. Texas would end up the year ranked #2 in the country, with the #1 defense. Probably the best Texas defense ever. Underrated of course because of the Arkansas fiasco, that team hit so incredibly hard.
 
pretty sure Stewart screwed up clock mgmt. in 1st half also. he got bailed out by CU making a penalty and having 10 seconds put back on the clock. He seemed to be overly proud of his timeouts - like he wanted to take them home and show them to mama.

Hook'em!!!
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