West Virginia University has two more trophies for its bulging football showcase.

Coach Bill Stewart was presented those at Eastern College Athletic Conference awards banquet Tuesday night before a large crowd at the Meadowlands in East Rutherford, N.J.

One is the ECAC/Meadowlands Lambert Trophy, for which WVU was a unanimous choice, and the other is for being selected by the ECAC as 2007 Team of the Year for 2007. Both are symbolic of NCAA Division I-A supremacy in the East.

Attending that fete with Stewart were defensive coordinator Jeff Casteel, defensive line coach Bill Kirelawich, WVU deputy director of athletics Mike Parsons, and director of football communications Mike Montoro.

Stewart admittedly was elated

“We are very excited,” he said. “This is a great honor for the players, coaches, the university and our great fans.

“It’s a tremendous accomplishment that just doesn’t come around each year. This is the fourth time for West Virginia University, and we’re excited about that.”

“There’s a lot of history and tradition to the ECAC and also the Lambert Trophy,” Parsons said. “Since we’ve been in the Big East, a lot of people have kind of forgotten about this.

“But we know and realize how prestigious it is. That is why the three remaining coaches from our coaching 2007 staff are making the trip. It is a great accomplishment and honor which WVU certainly is pleased to accept.”

The Mountaineers posted an 11-2 record in 2007, including an impressive 48-28 upset of No. 3-ranked Oklahoma in the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl game on Jan. 2 at Glendale, Ariz. WVU won a share of the Big East championship for the fourth time in the last five years and wound up No. 6 in the final rankings.

This is the fourth time a West Virginia team has won the Lambert Trophy. The school also captured the award in 1988 and 1993, the only undefeated regular seasons, and shared it with old rival Pitt in 1975.

The ECAC is the largest athletic conference in the country and the only multi-divisional league. It has 322 member schools and more than 122,000 student-athletes. The league spans across 16 states from Maine to North Carolina and westerly to Illinois.

It was founded in 1938 with 58 charter members.

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