Bill Stewart (football coach)

College coach infobox
Name = Bill Stewart


ImageWidth =
Caption =
Title = Head coach
Sport = Football
College = West Virginia
Conference = Big East
CurrentRecord = 1-2
DateOfBirth = birth date and age|1952|11|06
Birthplace = flagicon|West Virginia New Martinsville, WV
DateOfDeath =
Deathplace =
OverallRecord = 10-27
Contract = $800,000
BowlRecord = 1-0
TournamentRecord =
CFbDWID =
Championships =
Awards =
CoachingRecords =
Player = Y
Years = 1972-1974
Team = Fairmont State
Position =
Coach = Y
CoachYears = 1977-1978
1979
1980
1981-1983
1984
1985-1987
1988-1989
1990-1993
1994-1996
1998
1999
2000-2007
2008-present
CoachTeams = 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
= VMI
FootballHOF =
CollegeHOFID =
BBallHOF =

Bill "Stew" [Finder, Chuck. [http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07359/844334-144.stm Bill Stewart lays low as WVU hunts coach] , "Post Gazette", December 25, 2007. Accessed June 4, 2008.] 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. [ [http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=3178538 West Virginia hiring Stewart after big Fiesta win] ] He was previously the head coach of Virginia Military Institute for three seasons.

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.Finder, Chuck. [http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08004/846650-144.stm WVU hires its interim coach] , "Post Gazette", January 4, 2008. Accessed June 4, 2008.]

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.

Coaching career

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).

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. [ [http://www.centredaily.com/305/story/309063.html Steelers' Tomlin cheered by former boss Stewart's hiring at WVU] ]

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. [ [http://www.cfbdatawarehouse.com/data/div_iaa/bigsouth/virginia_military_institute/coaching_records.php Virginia Military Institute Coaching Records ] ]

Stewart resigned in 1996 after making a racially-insensitive comment towards a player regarding his on-field behavior. 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" [ [http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=3180348 ESPN - Slur incident at VMI sets WVU's Stewart on defensive - College Football ] ] and Tomlin, an African American, commented that he had never heard Stewart use a racial slur. 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.

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 convert|2000|yd|m|sing=on 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.

West Virginia University

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.

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. [ [http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=3178538 ESPN - In Stewart, WVU's successor to Rodriguez right under their nose - College Football ] ]

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. [ [http://westvirginia.scout.com/2/715958.html Scout.com: One Big Fiesta For Stewart, Mountaineers ] ] 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. [Finder, Chuck. [http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08015/849245-144.stm West Virginia Notebook: Dual duties may secure recruits for WVU] , "Post Gazette", January 15, 2008. Accessed June 4, 2008.]

Stewart plans on continuing the spread offense at West Virginia, however with more downfield passing than formerly used. [Hertzel, Bob. [http://www.timeswv.com/wvu_sports/local_story_015234352.html COLUMN: Pryor gets some food for thought] , "The Times West Virginian", January 15, 2008. Accessed June 4, 2008.] 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. [ [http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=3213050 ESPN - Former Wake Forest assistant Mullen will direct Mountaineers' offense - College Football ] ] On January 29, former Appalachian State receivers coach, Lonnie Galloway, was hired for the same position by Stewart. [ [http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/football/ncaa/01/29/wvu.assistant.ap/ SI.com - NCAA Football - WVU hires Appalachian St.'s Galloway as assistant - Tuesday January 29, 2008 4:11PM ] ] 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. [Furfari, Mickey. [http://www.timeswv.com/wvu_sports/local_story_031013238.html Joseph officially hired by WVU] , "The Times West Virginian", January 31, 2008. Accessed June 4, 2008.]

On February 6, 2008, Bill Stewart's recruiting class signed 23 letters of intent. The class did not include running back Terence Kerns, from Hargrave Military Academy, who later signed. [ [http://www.fredericknewspost.com/sections/sports/display.htm?StoryID=70952 The Frederick News-Post Online - Frederick County Maryland Daily Newspaper ] ] Hawaiian center Benji Kemoeatu signed later in March as well. [ [http://california.scout.com/a.z?s=166&p=8&c=1&nid=2982327 Scout.com: Benji Kemoeatu Profile ] ] 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. [ [http://www.msnsportsnet.com/page.cfm?story=12199&cat=exclusives MSNsportsNET.Com - West Virginia University Mountaineers ] ] 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. [ [http://www.wvmetronews.com/sports.cfm?func=displayfullstory&storyid=23569 West Virginia Sports News, Scores and Coverage ] ]

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. [ [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0jTKCgamaU YouTube - Bill Stewart on College Football Live - 4/22/08 ] ]

West Virginia opened up the 2008 season with a 48-21 victory over Villanova, in which Pat White threw for a career-high 5 touchdowns. However, the Mountaineers were then upset by ECU, 24-3. White was held under 100 yards passing and rushing, and running back Noel Devine was held under 100 yards rushing for the second consecutive game. The Mountaineers then traveled to Boulder, Colorado, where they were defeated by the Colorado Buffaloes 17-14 in overtime. The loss was highlighted by a 23-yard field goal miss in overtime by senior kicker Pat McAfee that allowed Colorado to kick a field goal to win the game. Before conference play opened, the Mountaineers defeated Marshall 27-3 to even their record at 2-2.

Record

CFB Yearly Record Subhead
name=Virginia Military Institute Keydets
conf=Southern Conference
startyear=1994
endyear=1996CFB Yearly Record Entry
championship =
year = 1994
name = VMI
overall = 1-10
conference = 1-7
confstanding = 9
bowlname =
bowloutcome =
bcsbowl =
ranking =
ranking2 = CFB Yearly Record Entry
championship =
year = 1995
name = VMI
overall = 4-7
conference = 3-5
confstanding = 6
bowlname =
bowloutcome =
bcsbowl =
ranking =
ranking2 = CFB Yearly Record Entry
championship =
year = 1996
name = VMI
overall = 3-8
conference = 3-5
confstanding = 6
bowlname =
bowloutcome =
bcsbowl =
ranking =
ranking2 = CFB Yearly Record Subtotal
name=VMI
overall=8-25
confrecord=7-17CFB Yearly Record Subhead
name=West Virginia Mountaineers
conf=Big East Conference
startyear=2007
endyear=PresentCFB Yearly Record Entry
championship =
year = 2007
name = West Virginia
overall = 1-0
conference = 0-0
confstanding =
bowlname = Fiesta Bowl
bowloutcome = W 48-28 vs. Oklahoma
bcsbowl = yes
ranking = 6
ranking2 = 6CFB Yearly Record Entry
championship =
year = 2008
name = West Virginia
overall = 2-2
conference = 0-0
confstanding =
bowlname =
bowloutcome =
ranking =
ranking2 = CFB Yearly Record Subtotal
name=West Virginia
overall=3-2
confrecord=0-0CFB Yearly Record End
overall = 10-27
bcs = yes


poll = two

External links

* [http://www.msnsportsnet.com/page.cfm?section=12967 Official Bio from WVU Athletics Department web site]

References