Bill Stewart was an assistant during two distinctly different times at West Virginia.
His first year on the staff was 2000, which was Don Nehlen's final year as head coach. The following seven years he served under Rich Rodriguez, who first floundered and finally flourished as he installed and then individualized his version of the spread offense.
Perhaps it was no surprise when Stewart's first game as WVU's head coach featured elements from both eras.
"I used the I-formation at times in the Fiesta Bowl and people probably thought I was nuts,"
he said.
There were effective flashes of the I-formation, most notably Noel Devine's 65-yard touchdown run on a toss left in the fourth quarter, but there were also the familiar looks and results of the spread. The mix worked, the Mountaineers rolled and Stewart was named full-time head coach the next day.
Stewart's first season has seen the spread struggle and the I-formation and under-center looks increase in recent weeks. Parts of Stewart's past are now part of his present.
"When we had Quincy Wilson here and we got going years ago, we weren't running the spread,"
he said. "When we had Avon Cobourne, we ran the spread. You've got to suit your personnel and we're blessed our little guy (Devine) can do both. The I-formation helped us the other day."
When WVU needed to make a play against Syracuse, it went away from the spread, right up to the very end. Facing third-and-7 from its own 8-yard line with a 10-7 lead and just five minutes left, Devine took a handoff in the I-formation and raced down the left sideline for a touchdown.
"When you're not clicking in the spread and not throwing -- bam, bam, bam -- hole routes, dig routes, this and that, you've got to help your quarterback somehow, someway get into a rhythm,"
Stewart said. "If we get in the I-formation, we've got a little bit of a chance to help our guy. You're seeing more teams jump into it. Auburn will do that. Even though they're a spread team, they'll jump into the I. You're seeing more and more teams do that now. "
Auburn (4-3), which travels to Mountaineer Field Oct. 23 for a 7:30 p.m. ESPN game thought it'd get with the times last season. Tony Franklin was hired away from Troy University and named offensive coordinator between the end of the regular season and the team's bowl game.
The Tigers debuted their spread and beat Clemson in overtime in the Chick-Fil-A Bowl and racked up 423 yards of offense in the process. Six games into this season, Franklin was fired and Auburn is back to its base offense with occasional spread plays.
All around college football, the spread offense isn't generating quite the same results as it did just a few years ago and teams are learning to do other things.
The hip system was perhaps too popular.
"Everyone has seen the spread now,"
Stewart said. "Everyone has some version of the spread. It's not like the old days when you saw BYU's passing attach and then, staying in the (Western Athletic Conference), you went to Air Force and the wishbone. You don't go from this one to this one to this one. That was difficult. Now, basically everyone does a lot of the spread stuff. You see it in practice every day. You see it in every game. Defenses are catching up."
The offenses are now challenged to stay ahead. WVU has followed the trend and used more conventional ideas -- and actually had good results -- while being more attentive to personnel.
The Mountaineers played without starting quarterback Pat White last week and used the I-formation more than in the recent past. It worked well enough to become a more regular part of what they do.
"Pat's more of a dual-threat guy and if you put him under center you throw half the look out the window,"
offensive coordinator Jeff Mullen said. "We kind of like keeping him in the shotgun a little bit more. But we'll go back and look at the tape and if it helps Noel Devine or whoever we have back there at running back, certainly we'll have a plan in place."
