Bill Stewart (football coach)
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| Bill Stewart | ||
|---|---|---|
| Title | Head coach | |
| College | West Virginia | |
| Sport | Football | |
| Conference | Big East | |
| Team record | 1-0 | |
| Born | November 6, 1952 | |
| Place of birth |  New Martinsville, WV |
|
| Annual salary | $800,000 | |
| Career highlights | ||
| Overall | 9-25 | |
| Bowls | 1-0 | |
| Playing career | ||
| 1972-1974 | Fairmont State | |
| Coaching career (HC unless noted) | ||
| 1977-1978 1979 1980 1981-1983 1984 1985-1987 1988-1989 1990-1993 1994-1996 1998 1999 2000-2007 2008-present |
Salem College (Asst.) North Carolina (Asst.) Marshall (Asst.) William & Mary (Asst.) Navy (Asst.) North Carolina (Asst.) Arizona State (Asst.) Air Force (Asst.) VMI Montreal Alouettes (OL) Winnipeg Blue Bombers (OC) West Virginia (Asst.) West Virginia |
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Bill "Stew"[1] Stewart (b. November 6, 1952 in New Martinsville, West Virginia) is an American football coach and the current head coach of the West Virginia Mountaineers football team. On January 2, 2008, he led the Mountaineers to a 48-28 victory over the Oklahoma Sooners in the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl as the interim head coach. He was named as the school’s 32nd head football coach on January 3rd.[2] He was previously the head coach of Virginia Military Institute for three seasons. Stewart also popularized the term, "West By God Virginia" after his Fiesta Bowl victory.[3]
Contents |
[edit] Personal life
Bill Stewart and his wife, Karen, are both natives of New Martinsville, West Virginia. They have one son, Blaine. Stewart considers himself to be a devout Christian.[4]
[edit] Playing career
Stewart is a 1975 education graduate of Fairmont State College, where he was a three-year letterman and team captain for the WVIAC champions in 1974.
[edit] Coaching career
[edit] Early career
Stewart’s coaching career began at his alma mater of Fairmont State, where he was a student assistant coach for a season. He became an assistant coach at Sistersville (W.Va.) High School in 1975.
In 1977, he moved to Salem College where he was an assistant football and head track coach for two seasons. In 1979, he was an assistant coach at the University of North Carolina. He has also been an assistant coach at Marshall University (1980), William and Mary (1981 - 1983), Navy (1984), North Carolina (1985 - 1987), Arizona State (1988 - 1989) and Air Force (1990 - 1993).
[edit] Virginia Military Institute
In 1994, he assumed the head coaching position at Virginia Military Institute. Stewart was 8 -25 over three seasons. Bill Stewart gave current Pittsburgh Steelers' head coach Mike Tomlin his first job as an assistant at VMI in 1995. Coach Tomlin returned the favor by calling the West Virginia University administration urging them to hire his former boss as the new head coach.[5]
Stewart was the 26th head college football coach for the Virginia Military Institute Keydets located in Lexington, Virginia and he held that position for three seasons, from 1994 until 1996. His career coaching record at VMI was 8 wins and 25 losses. This ranks him 15th at VMI in total wins and 24th at VMI in winning percentage.[6]
Stewart resigned in 1996 after making a racially-insensitive comment towards a player regarding his on-field behavior.[4] Stewart took responsibility for his comments and offered to resign in order to save the jobs of his assistants. About the incident, Stewart said "It was an isolated incident that never happened before and never happened after. I would certainly change the wording but never the intent. I was coaching him and trying to help the kid"[7] and Tomlin, an African American, commented that he had never heard Stewart use a racial slur.[4] The player at whom the slur was directed admitted he did not believe Bill Stewart was racist, and would be proud to have his son play for Stewart.
[edit] Canadian Football League
Bill served as the offensive line coach for the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League in 1998. His line blocked for Mike Pringle, the first 2,000-yard (1,800 m) rusher in CFL history. In 1999, he moved on to be the offensive coordinator of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers where he coached two all-conference receivers and a one thousand-yard rusher.
[edit] West Virginia University
[edit] 2000-2007
Head Coach Don Nehlen hired Stewart at WVU in January, 2000 as the quarterbacks coach. Stewart was retained by Rich Rodriguez when he became the head coach after the 2000 season. Stewart remained the quarterbacks coach and special teams coach until 2007 when he moved to coach the tight ends and serve as associate head coach.
[edit] 2008 season
Following Rodriguez's departure to become the head coach at the University of Michigan, Bill Stewart was named interim head coach of the Mountaineers for their Fiesta Bowl game. Stewart led the team to an upset win over the #3 Oklahoma Sooners in the 2008 Fiesta Bowl to a final score of 48-28. In the press conference following the awards ceremony, Fiesta Bowl MVP and West Virginia quarterback Pat White said of Stewart, "He needs that job. He deserves it, the head coaching job."
WVU booster and co-owner of the Arizona Diamondback Ken Kendrick, however, was unhappy with the hiring of Stewart. An outspoken supporter of Rodriguez, Kendrick called Stewart "overmatched" and said that he was "very concerned" for the future of WVU football.[8]
On January 3, 2008, a day after the Fiesta Bowl victory, Bill Stewart was announced as West Virginia's 32nd head coach. Stewart agreed to a five-year contract for $800,000 a year, totaling a $4 million base salary.[9] Stewart hired former Mountaineer assistant coaches and players Steve Dunlap, David Lockwood, and Doc Holliday, along with assistant coach Chris Beatty and Dave Johnson. Stewart was also able to keep defensive coordinator Jeff Casteel and defensive line coach Bill Kirelawich.
When backup quarterback Jarrett Brown announced he was joining West Virginia's basketball team under head coach Bob Huggins, Bill Stewart allowed him to try both sports, saying, "...anything he can do to help this great university, I’m very much in favor of it.” Stewart also announced he was trying to convince star quarterback Patrick White into playing baseball for West Virginia, since he was drafted by Major League Baseball's Anaheim Angels out of high school, as well.[10]
Stewart plans on continuing the spread offense at West Virginia, however with more downfield passing than formerly used.[11] On January 24, 2008, West Virginia announced that former Wake Forest quarterbacks coach Jeff Mullen would become the team's new offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach.[12] On January 29, former Appalachian State receivers coach, Lonnie Galloway, was hired for the same position by Stewart.[13] Stewart officially completed his coaching staff on January 31, when he hired former Notre Dame assistant for the new head strength and conditioning position at West Virginia University.[14]
On February 6, 2008, Bill Stewart's recruiting class signed 23 letters of intents. The class did not include running back Terence Kerns, from Hargrave Military Academy, who later signed.[15] Hawaiian center Benji Kemoeatu signed later in March as well.[16] Jerome Swinton, a cornerback from Florida, was called, “The best football player we have...he’s probably the best football player we recruited," by Stewart.[17] The 2008 class, led by 5-star offensive guard Josh Jenkins from Parkersburg, West Virginia, was ranked 37th by Scout.com and 44th by Rivals.com.
On February 19, 2008, runningbacks Noel Devine and Jock Sanders were identified as two out of a group of football players, the rest whom were unidentified, who were in an altercation at a Morgantown bar where two students were in a fight with the group. No charges or arrests were made, but Stewart did say, "To me a drug incident is not a fist fight," said Stewart." To me disrespecting someone downtown of the opposite sex is a whole lot worse that bumping into a guy in a bar, which you shouldn't be in the bar anyhow. But, to me there's intangibles in life. Sometimes there's confrontations, sometimes you don't handle confrontations right, but preplanned, pre arranged instances--you can't overlook that." His reference to a drug incident was when he had to kick of John Holmes, Ed Collington, and James Ingram from the team when they were convicted of possession of marijuana.[18]
On April 17, two days before the team's Gold & Blue Spring Game, Bill Stewart was featured on ESPN's College Football Live, where he gave an interview. On April 22, Stewart was again featured on College Football Live as part of their All-Access feature.[19]
[edit] Record
| Year | Team | Overall | Conference | Standing | Bowl | Coaches# | AP° | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Virginia Military Institute Keydets (Southern Conference) (1994 – 1996) | |||||||||
| 1994 | VMI | 1-10 | 1-7 | 9 | |||||
| 1995 | VMI | 4-7 | 3-5 | 6 | |||||
| 1996 | VMI | 3-8 | 3-5 | 6 | |||||
| VMI: | 8-25 | 7-17 | |||||||
| West Virginia Mountaineers (Big East Conference) (2007 – Present) | |||||||||
| 2007 | West Virginia | 1-0 | 0-0 | W 48-28 vs. Oklahoma Fiesta Bowl † | 6 | 6 | |||
| 2008 | West Virginia | 0-0 | 0-0 | ||||||
| West Virginia: | 1-0 | 0-0 | |||||||
| Total: | 9-25 | ||||||||
| National Championship Conference Title Conference Division Title | |||||||||
| †Indicates BCS bowl game. #Rankings from final Coaches Poll of the season. °Rankings from final AP Poll of the season. |
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| Preceded by Rich Rodriguez |
West Virginia Head Football Coach 2008-current |
Succeeded by Incumbent |
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[edit] External links
[edit] References
- ^ Finder, Chuck. Bill Stewart lays low as WVU hunts coach, Post Gazette, December 25, 2007. Accessed June 4, 2008.
- ^ West Virginia hiring Stewart after big Fiesta win
- ^ YouTube - WestByGodVirginia.net Commercial
- ^ a b c Finder, Chuck. WVU hires its interim coach, Post Gazette, January 4, 2008. Accessed June 4, 2008.
- ^ Steelers' Tomlin cheered by former boss Stewart's hiring at WVU
- ^ Virginia Military Institute Coaching Records
- ^ ESPN - Slur incident at VMI sets WVU's Stewart on defensive - College Football
- ^ ESPN - In Stewart, WVU's successor to Rodriguez right under their nose - College Football
- ^ Scout.com: One Big Fiesta For Stewart, Mountaineers
- ^ Finder, Chuck. West Virginia Notebook: Dual duties may secure recruits for WVU, Post Gazette, January 15, 2008. Accessed June 4, 2008.
- ^ Hertzel, Bob. COLUMN: Pryor gets some food for thought, The Times West Virginian, January 15, 2008. Accessed June 4, 2008.
- ^ ESPN - Former Wake Forest assistant Mullen will direct Mountaineers' offense - College Football
- ^ SI.com - NCAA Football - WVU hires Appalachian St.'s Galloway as assistant - Tuesday January 29, 2008 4:11PM
- ^ Furfari, Mickey. Joseph officially hired by WVU, The Times West Virginian, January 31, 2008. Accessed June 4, 2008.
- ^ The Frederick News-Post Online - Frederick County Maryland Daily Newspaper
- ^ Scout.com: Benji Kemoeatu Profile
- ^ MSNsportsNET.Com - West Virginia University Mountaineers
- ^ West Virginia Sports News, Scores and Coverage
- ^ YouTube - Bill Stewart on College Football Live - 4/22/08
