WVU Football: Savoring the Fiesta Bowl

n’t, and when the Oklahoma defender slid down Gonzalez, I stood up and tried to shout...but couldn’t.

When was the last time you saw a WVU wide receiver running 50 yards absolutely alone, continuing to look back over each shoulder, waiting for a defender who never arrives?

When Devine sealed the rout with his weaving 65-yard touchdown run (“running between Oklahoma defenders like they were traffic cones,” someone wrote), I was spent.

Everyone who follows WVU football knows this is what the offense is capable of when it’s clicking. When the offensive line does what it’s supposed to do, the Mountaineers produce a tsunami of points. When it’s doesn't, and when the offense is gummed up behind the line (South Florida, Pitt), WVU stalls like a Duster with a balky clutch.

Devine’s Fiesta Bowl was Slaton’s Sugar Bowl of two years ago—a national introduction and a table-setter for the next season.

As for Slaton, I hope he comes back. I'd written earlier that if he returns, he’ll be next year’s Owen Schmitt, only faster. No, he won’t deliver the crushing blocks that Schmitt did, but not every block needs to plant the defender in the turf. Further, having Slaton and Devine in the backfield creates a two-tailback offense, adding a dimension of speed.

And I truly think that Slaton will rebound next year—if Stephen Maw stays on the line and relegates Selvish Capers back to backup.

I ran into Mountaineer fans in Sedona and on the flight home (all of them wearing their WVU gear; hey, it’s a victory lap), and most were skeptical of the hiring of Coach Stew. They figured next year would be fine, but worried about down the road, wondering if Stewart could recruit like Rodriguez.

The truth is, Coach Stew’s bravura performance after the Pitt game and in the Fiesta Bowl backed WVU administrators into a PR corner—how could they NOT hire him? And it’s not like they had a well-oiled coach-search machine running in the first place.

So Coach Stew gets handed the keys to a Ferrari next season. The Mountaineers may finish this season in the Top Five, and will almost certainly will start next season there. Most of the offense is coming back—Slaton and Darius Reynaud, we’re waiting on—but the defense will require rebuilding.

As of this writing, Coach Stew is trying to keep defensive coordinator Jeff Casteel.

At the top of Stew’s shopping list is a genius offensive coordinator and a recruiter who can own Florida and make inroads elsewhere in the South.

As a fan, I’m happy to get behind Stew. I buy his aw-shucks routine because the man seems sincere. Rodriguez, for all his gifts, was prickly and a shouter. And, as a journalist, I hated—absolutely HATED—his trait of never letting a reporter finish a question before he started answering it.

It’s rude, a signal of disdain for the questioner, and often an indicator of Asperger’s Syndrome. (Look it up.)

Besides, as I had written, it was time for Rodriguez to adapt his spread, and it was unclear, at least from the Pitt game, that he was willing to do so.

During the Fiesta Bowl, WVU unveiled a nice little running back drag route we haven’t seen before. Who knows—under Coach Stew, WVU might actually pass to the tight end.

And I can’t wrap up this overlong piece without stating the obvious: There’s no one in college football like Pat White.

He was brilliant throughout, as sharp as I’ve seen him (after a couple of his balls fluttered in the first quarter), and that designed rollout-run that netted him some 40 yards was simply electrifying.

Of the Oklahoma defender suddenly facing him, I thought, “Congratulations—you’re one-on-one with Pat White.”

This is the most satisfying win I can remember in a long, long time, topping even the 2006 Sugar Bowl.

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