Justified by faith we are at peace with God: WVU

Fact vs. Opinion

By John Antonik for MSNsportsNET.com
January 4, 2008

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - The last couple of days I have made the mistake of listening to talk radio and reading the posts on Internet chat boards covering the entire spectrum of West Virginia football.


	West Virginia is 28-4 since quarterback Patrick White became the starter following the Louisville game in 2005. All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks

I have listened to the comments made by certain influential people to the effect that Bill Stewart is overmatched in his new role as head football coach of the West Virginia Mountaineers. I heard one analogy referring to Stewart as a house painter that was hired to complete the work started by the architect Rich Rodriguez.

People are certainly entitled to their opinions.

Now here are some facts regarding Rich Rodriguez’s seven years coaching the WVU football program.

Yes, Rodriguez won 60 games, won one outright Big East title and shared three others. Yes, he is the originator of the spread offense that has rewrote the school record book and is the most copied offense in college football today.

Yes, Rodriguez was responsible for two of the school’s three best bowl victories and put the Mountaineers into position to win this year’s Fiesta Bowl. Yes, Rodriguez has had West Virginia in the national rankings for the last three years, guiding WVU to an unprecedented three-straight Top 10 finishes.

His place among the top coaches in college football has unquestionably been established, particularly over the last three seasons in 2005, 2006 and 2007.

There are, however, some interesting stats that you must also consider when you examine Rodriguez’s West Virginia record in its entirety.

WVU under Rodriguez performed extremely well against bad football teams, going 30-4 against schools that had losing seasons. The four losses were against 5-6 Notre Dame and 4-7 Temple in 2001, to 5-7 Cincinnati in 2003, and of course, the loss to 5-7 Pitt this year that cost the Mountaineers a shot at the national title.

Rodriguez was a perfect 4-0 against non-Division I teams. He also had a spotless 5-0 record against teams that finished the season with .500 records. That makes him 39-4 against teams the Mountaineers were supposed to beat.

However, when you examine his record against teams with winning seasons it is a much more pedestrian 21-22. He was 1-6 against teams with winning seasons his first year in 2001 playing a Big East that was at its strongest with Miami 12-0, Syracuse 10-3, Boston College and Virginia Tech 8-4, and Pitt 7-5. Maryland, under first-year coach Ralph Friedgen, went 10-2 in 2001 and lost to Florida in the Orange Bowl. (Incidentally those were the types of teams Don Nehlen regularly faced in the 1990s when the Big East had two bona-fide college football powers in Miami and Virginia Tech, an established Eastern power in Boston College, and non-conference games against Penn State and Nebraska early in the decade, and non-league games later against Purdue, Ohio State and Notre Dame).

In 2002 and 2003 Rodriguez had back-to-back 3-4 records against teams with winning seasons, and he had a 1-4 mark against winning teams in 2004.

The trend against good teams began to turn in 2005 with West Virginia posting a 3-1 mark against winning teams. The last two years under Rodriguez the Mountaineers were 10-3 against winning teams.

It's not a coincidence that West Virginia’s performance against winning teams changed dramatically when quarterback Patrick White became a full-time starter after the Louisville game (more on that later).

Rodriguez’s West Virginia teams went 3-0 against the SEC – beating Mississippi State twice – but were 8-10 overall against teams from other BCS conferences. WVU was 5-7 against ACC teams, 0-2 against the Big Ten and 0-1 versus Notre Dame.

On the other hand, Rodriguez was 13-1 against Mid-American and Conference USA schools.

Pre-Patrick White, Rodriguez’s record at West Virginia stood at 33-22 – good, but certainly not Alabama or Michigan good. For a comparison, Don Nehlen was 39-16 through his first 55 games at West Virginia. Can you guess who his quarterbacks were for most of that stretch? Try Oliver Luck and Jeff Hostetler.

Present-Patrick White, the Mountaineers are 28-4 (that includes the Fiesta Bowl victory over Oklahoma that is credited to interim coach Bill Stewart). It must be noted that White did not play in the victory against Rutgers last year, and missed parts of losses to South Florida and Pitt this season. He was also not the starting quarterback in West Virginia’s come-from-behind victory over Louisville in 2005, although he played a major role in the triumph.

Rodriguez ran White more frequently in West Virginia’s biggest games, too. In the 2006 Nokia Sugar Bowl, White carried the football 24 times against Georgia.

In 2006, White had 23 carries in the Louisville loss and 22 attempts against both Pitt and Georgia Tech. This year White ran 22 times against Rutgers, 24 times against Louisville and 27 times against Connecticut.

To be fair White also had 20 carries in Wednesday’s Fiesta Bowl victory against Oklahoma.

The point is this: I remember John Wooden being considered a very good college basketball coach before he had Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Bill Walton and Sidney Wicks. But it wasn’t until after they came to Westwood that he became the Wizard of Westwood.

And now you know the rest of the story.

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