Fresh off thrashing of Oklahoma, Stewart named head coach of Mountaineers
Apologies go out to Butch Jones, Doc Holliday, Terry Bowden and Jimbo Fischer. Your interest was both flattering and appreciated. But West Virginia found their man to replace former head coach Rich Rodriguez. In fact, they never really had to look far to find him.
The Mountaineers removed the interim tag and promoted Bill Stewart to head football coach just hours after West Virginia convincingly destroyed Oklahoma 48-28 in the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl on Wednesday night.
Stewart was named the interim head coach on Dec.16th when then head coach Rich Rodriguez took the same position at Michigan. Several candidates immediately were interested in the vacant job, including a pair of West Virginia natives, Central Michigan coach Butch Jones and former Auburn coach Terry Bowden.
A lesson to be learned from all of this, for all coaches in any sport: player support means everything. If the players are willing to back you, stand behind you and go out there, suit up and lay it all on the line, that’s the highest reward. It helped to have star quarterback Pat White backing him. During the post-game press conference, White immediately began lobbying for Stewart to take over. When White spoke, Athletic director Ed Pastilong listened.
Stewart was the head coach at VMI from 1994-96, going 8-25 in three seasons. Stewart has also had stops as an assistant coach at North Carolina, Arizona State, Air Force, Salem College, William & Mary, Navy, and Marshall.
This season, Stewart was the tight ends and fullbacks coach, as well as special teams coordinator. Stewart arrived in Morgantown in 2000 after he spent a couple seasons in CFL (Canadian Football League) as an offensive coordinator.
The departure of Rich Rodriguez was supposed to be the final death blow for West Virginia leading into the Fiesta Bowl. They lost the Backyard Brawl, the chance to play in the BCS title game, and then Rodriguez bolted for Big Blue. The Mountaineers weren’t supposed to contend with Oklahoma, let alone beat them soundly.
Hats off and congrats to Stewart. He got this team back to the level of football they were playing B.P. (before Pittsburgh). You can’t say enough about the preparation Stewart put into this game, and you could clearly tell West Virginia had something to prove, something to play for: pride, respect, and Bill Stewart.
Tags: Big East Football, Bill Stewart, NCAA Football, West Virginia Mountaineers