WHEELING - The video has been viewed more than 60,000 times, by enough people to fill Mountaineer Field beyond its capacity.

New Martinsville native Bill Stewart, the then-interim head football coach at West Virginia, was getting his guys motivated to take on heavily favored Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl in front of a rolling camera. Just watching it makes you want to go run through a wall somewhere.

"We gotta outblock them, we gotta outtackle them, we've got to outhit them and hustle ... ," he yelled. "It's real simple. Stay within the legal limits of the game. It's Mountaineers' pride. Nothing cheap. From the heart. Straining. Leave no doubt tonight they shouldn't have played the old Gold and Blue. Not this night."

That's what he told his players when the video was on.

On Wednesday at the 2008 YMCA Light of the Valley luncheon, where Stewart was the guest speaker, he revealed more of what he told his players that night - and it was just as motivational.

He told them a story about the Dog Soldiers within the Cheyenne Indian Nation, dating back to the 1830s. They were led by one one brave soldier, known as the dog soldier, who would spearhead the invasion, Stewart said.

"Every time the battle was right on the cusp and no one knew victory or defeat, the dog soldier would dismount, drive a stake into the ground. Attached to the stake was a rope. At the other end of that rope was his leg. He fought tomahawk and knife until the bitter end. The whole tribe was depending on him," Stewart said.

"Let me tell you, old No. 35 (Owen Schmitt), No. 5 (Pat White), No. 53 (Marc Magro), No. 7 (Noel Devine), No. 96 (Keilen Dykes), No. 83 (Tito Gonzales) - I can go on and on and on. They became the dog soldiers that night in Glendale, Ariz."

All of this conjures up a different image when thinking about how former coach Rich Rodriguez always encouraged his players to "hold the rope." The new coach wants his guys to attach it to their legs.

It wasn't the only battle reference used by Stewart prior to that game. In earlier weeks, he used a Crimean War analogy in describing what his players were - or in this case weren't - up against.

"The young men know the task at hand," Stewart said. "They see the film, and this and that. But as I've said, this isn't The Charge of the Light Brigade. We do have some bullets in our guns. I think it's going to be very interesting."

What this means is that in addition to learning how to play the game of football at an extremely high level, Stewart's players are getting some free history lessons along the way.

"I learned growing up on the banks of the beautiful Ohio (River) that it was about effort," Stewart said. "I learned from the Ohio Valley you better respect all and fear none. Villanova can beat the Mountaineers. But when Auburn or whomever, supposedly these great teams, come to town we won't be shaking in our boots. I can promise you. There will be some dog soldiers getting ready to storm the wall and take the hill. Because that's the way it's done in the great state of West Virginia."

Stewart's speech also included a Willie Mays reference. Mays used to say it's hard to be good.

"It's hard to be good in your daily walk, in your daily life. It's hard to be a good student; it's hard to be a good football player. It's hard to be a good young man," Stewart said.

He added that he wouldn't even want to be a teenager today, with the "Internet, crazy music and fast crowds."

"We have the best darn leaders in football in Morgantown today," he said. "Before (the Fiesta Bowl), 125 young men bought into a plan. Eight days and seven nights with your Mountaineers. One young man busted curfew. He was sent home the following morning. If it was my son, I'd have sent him home the following morning. That's just how it is."

Stewart said he wants his players to play fast, but Mountaineers fans to slow down.

"Take them one day at a time," he advised. "Don't worry about the 13th game and what city it's going to be in. Worry about the first game. And stop and smell the roses along the way. We're too fast anymore. We need to savor each and every opportunity. Each and every outing your Mountaineers play this year beginning the 30th of August at fifteen-hundred and thirty hours, you must stop and savor the moment and enjoy it. If you do that, you'll have a wonderful fall. You'll be content, you'll be at peace, and you won't worry about the next game."

Stewart had the interim tag dropped from his name the morning after the Fiesta Bowl. It was a move that was questioned from the start by many of the "experts."

"I've got a lot of naysayers out there. I love it, I absolutely love it," he said. "We're in the greatest country in the world, where your opinion is not only welcomed, it's almost wanted. Get online, make a statement, hit the Internet and it's gospel. They forgot that this old country boy lives in the same America. And I have a chance to do something about that. We do as a staff, as a team, and we're going to work as hard as we can."