'In Morgantown, A Content Native Follows An Ambitious One'

by: Carnacki

Mon Aug 25, 2008 at 09:25:36 AM EDT

Off in the corner on that July day at the table sporting the 2008 West Virginia media guides, there were waves of laughter from those being entertained by the first-year Mountaineers coach.

But pinning down Bill Stewart to talk football, well, that wouldn't be quite so easy.

In a college football world where coaches who earn millions have become rock stars, Stewart is a bit of Buck Owens in a world of Motley Crue.

But he also is simply fun to listen to; asked a question about his Heisman hopeful quarterback Pat White and somehow Stewart ends up in the Bronx.

"Boys, if I could hit the curveball, I wouldn't be sitting here today," Stewart said. "I love baseball. I was there, last Wednesday, in the house that Ruth built, in the 27th to last game played at Yankee Stadium.

People love the new coach. The old coach, Richie Rich, not so much.

Stewart was named interim coach after Rich Rodriguez bolted for Michigan weeks before West Virginia played Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl last season. Few would have predicted that Stewart, a coach with a long resume as an assistant but one short on head coaching experience, would be the choice to replace Rodriguez, a coach who made the program a perennial national contender.

But hours after leading West Virginia to a 48-28 victory over Oklahoma at the Fiesta Bowl last January, West Virginia athletic director Ed Pastilong offered Stewart, a New Martinsville, W. Va., native, the position.

A dream scenario in the eyes of Stewart, who in his West Virginia bio says: "I was born a West Virginian, I was bred a West Virginian and hopefully when they lay me down I'll be a West Virginian, be it on the banks of the Ohio River or in the hills of Monongahela County."

Ask him about his returning core of players that makes West Virginia a consensus choice to win the Big East and Stewart, 55, ends up spinning yarns of growing up bleeding Mountaineer blue and gold.

Since this is a political blog I'll point out that Vic Sprouse wrote favorably of Richie Rich's decision to unlawfully break his contract with WVU.