Published: November 19, 2008 01:18 pm            

Transition years are tough at WVU and elsewhere

CHARLESTON — Bill Stewart hears the barbs. They surely sting the first-year West Virginia coach. They also inspire him.

He's no different than many of those calling for more than his scalp. Ol' Billy Ballcoach is a West Virginia native who wants the Mountaineers among the elite in college football.

He's enduring a transition year about as well as can be expected ... better than most, if you look at the last half of WVU football history, as this column will in a minute.

And if you think things are tough in Morgantown, how about the deflating season in Ann Arbor?

Former WVU Coach Rich Rodriguez takes his first Michigan team to the Giant Horseshoe on the Olentangy on Saturday with a 3-8 record, maybe no starting quarterback or running back (injuries), and if the oddsmakers are right ... no hope against Ohio State.

The Wolverines have the most losses in their storied history, five losses in the Big House and will miss a bowl game for the first time since the 1974 season.

See, adapting to a coaching change isn't easy for anyone.

I tried to guide Stewart down a path traveled by his former boss and predecessor in the job, Stewart wasn't playing that Rich game, but ...

When the former Mountaineer coach (now at Michigan) took over for retiring -- and future Hall of Famer -- Don Nehlen in 2001, the program was coming off a 7-5 season and a Music City Bowl triumph had halted an eight-game WVU losing streak in postseason play.

Returning 15 starters, WVU went a difficult 3-8 in Rodriguez's first season in an altered program. Rodriguez took over a 9-4, Capital One Bowl-winning team at Michigan this season, and the Wolverines will finish a program-worst 3-9 if they lose to the rival Buckeyes.

Stewart was on Nehlen's staff in 2000 and was retained at WVU by Rodriguez. A comparison of transitions?

All Stewart would say is, "This has been a much smoother transition (than in 2001 at WVU). The challenge to keep it up there without a fall-off is a big one. But it's not me and it's not so much the staff, it's the players ... the way they conduct themselves on the field and off the field.

"It's been a transition year, big time. Look around at some other places in the first year a new staff comes in and it doesn't go so well."

OK, West Virginia goes to Louisville on Saturday with a 6-3 record, then a visit to Pitt and home date with sagging USF -- which has beaten the Mountaineers twice in a row -- to finish. A Big East Conference title and Bowl Championship Series berth are still very possible.

And, with one more victory to clinch a winning season, Stewart will be in pretty tall company in WVU football history.

Dating to 1950, only one West Virginia football coach has had a winning season in his first year. That man became a legend elsewhere -- Bobby Bowden.

Backpedaling, WVU went 7-5 in Nehlen's last year and 3-8 in Rodriguez debut. The Mountaineers were 6-6 in Nehlen's 1980 entry after a 5-6 in Frank Cignetti '79 finale. Cignetti's 5-6 opener in 1976 followed Bowden's 9-3 walk off to Florida State.

Bowden started 8-3 in 1970 to follow Jim Carlen's 10-1 exit in 1969 -- the most successful transition in WVU history. But Carlen was 3-5-2 in his 1966 debut, following Gene Corum's 6-4 Southern Conference champs in 1965.

Corum's WVU start was an ugly 0-8-2 in 1960, on the heels of Art "Pappy" Lewis' 3-7 in 1959. Lewis decade-long tenure began a lowly 2-8 in 1950, after Dudley DeGroot's 1949 club was 4-6-1.

DeGroot's first year was the previous one (1948), and he was the last WVU coach to have a winning debut season prior to Bowden (and perhaps Stewart). DeGroot's 1948 club went 9-3 and won the Sun Bowl, on the heels of Bill Kern's 6-4 success in '47.

Stewart is West Virginia's eighth coach since Lewis took over in 1950. Of the previous seven, only Bowden had a winning debut season ... and his 8-3 and four wins in the last five games in '70 wasn't good enough to get WVU into one of the 11 bowls played then (34 now).

(As an aside, Lee Corso did get one, coaching Louisville to a 24-24 tie against Long Beach State in the 1970 Pasadena Bowl -- yes, that was considered one of the 11 major bowls, barely).

When a program like WVU is 33-5 with three bowl wins over three seasons and is being mentioned with the USCs, LSUs and Buckeyes as top 10 perennials, it's easy to get spoiled.

However, there are plenty of cases like WVU in recent seasons, where a coaching change brought a retooling -- like last year at Louisville, the Mountaineer foe this Saturday. Pitt, Syracuse, both Miamis and now Michigan and Hawaii -- and more -- have experienced it in recent seasons, too.

It's not an excuse. It's reality. Winning off the bat in modern football at WVU has eluded even the likes of successful sideline swamis like Nehlen, Rodriguez, Carlen, Lewis.

History tells us, then, that on BillyBall, it's still far too early to tell.

        

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