Bill Stewart Done At West Virginia Following Dana Holgorsen Sabotage Attempts

Despite the revelations that have already spilled out from the messy divorce between Bill Stewart and West Virginia, it’s always been the case that we were unlikely to ever get the complete story. Now, it’s even less probable that we find out everything that’s going on; the university has rejected a request from the Associated Press to get a look at emails related to the end of Stewart’s tenure.

The next step here is a bit unclear. News organizations tend to look askance at public entities that don’t release records, but suing can be an expensive proposition. Will the AP suits decide the best use of money is to pursue emails to find out whether Bill Stewart told the editor of this paper or that that exaggerated tales about how Dana Holgorsen liked the craps table?

So some of the details might forever be behind a stonewall WVU appears to be putting up. But maybe we’re all better off knowing as little about the Stewart departure as possible. West Virginia fans and players, who have a football season to try to focus on, almost certainly are.

With the way the West Virginia world has turned this week, it was only fitting the Bill Stewart era came to a close at a 9 p.m. press conference on a Friday night. After reports began leaking indicating Stewart would step down on Friday afternoon, athletic director Oliver Luck met with the media late Friday evening to make the move official and introduce Dana Holgorsen as the Mountaineers next head coach. The announcement ends a whirlwind week that began with rumors of Stewart's attempt to undermine Holgorsen by leaking "dirt" to the media.

The press conference revealed little we didn't know already. Having Stewart around amidst a flurry of rumors became too much of a distraction, according to Luck, and the move had to be made now, not at the end of the year as planned. Luck and Stewart had discussions about the rumors circulating, though the West Virginia athletic director would not address the rumors or what, if anything, was gleaned from the meetings.

At the end of the week, the decision was made to part ways with Stewart and promote Holgorsen to head coach, triggering an incentive in his contract that bumps his 2011 salary to $1.4 million. Holgorsen said he plans to handle the offensive coordinator and head coaching duties this season, and trusts the rest of the staff to share some of the offensive duties when necessary. He doesn't yet know who will fill the open position on the staff, either.

It was a messy week in Morgantown, though the sideshow provided much-needed offseason entertainment for casual observers. The coach-in-waiting scenario most thought would fail did just that, but failed in such a spectacular and unexpected way that in my just kill the term and position. With a bumpy ride in the rear-view mirror, West Virginia now moves forward with Holgorsen at the helm, and can begin the healing process from whatever wounds this past month left.

For more on the Mountaineers, be sure to head over to Smoking Musket.

Nobody is quite sure what to call the reported Bill Stewart dismissal/resignation on Friday, but it's clear he left under fire after a hectic week in Morgantown. The week began with word that Stewart was allegedly behind the leaked Dana Holgorsen and ended with word Stewart had stepped down. Holgorsen, already the coach-in-waiting, will reportedly be named the head coach and receive a sizable pay raise.

Shortly after reports began to trickle out indicating Stewart had resigned, Sporting News' Matt Hayes tweeted the West Virginia coach had been "fired for conduct detrimental to the team." Smoking Musket, our West Virginia blog, took notice, and though the school will let Stewart exit with grace, it's clear the earlier reports of his attempt to undermine Dana Holgorsen weighed heavily on Friday's decision.

This type of language may never be used in an official annoucement, but it's clear sign that Stewart's behavior was egregious.  Wherever you stand on Stewart as a coach, the time had long come for this coaching saga to end.  The allegations of underhandedness of Stewart made it impossible for him to continue roaming the WVU sideline.

It's a sad end for Stewart as West Virginia learned the perils of naming a coach-in-waiting. Stewart never wanted to leave, and the Mountaineers plan for a smooth transition backfired in the worst way, leading up to the turmoil of the week and Friday's news. Whether he was quietly fired or actually resigned doesn't matter; this whole saga was anything but conventional and the way it ended was far from dignified.

For the latest on the West Virginia soap opera, stay with this StoryStream. For more on the Mountaineers, head over to SB Nation's SSmoking Musket.

Bill Stewart will resign as the head coach of the West Virginia Mountaineers sometime this afternoon, according to a report by The Charleston Gazette. He leaves the team amidst scandal with a 28-12 mark, a 1-2 mark in bowl games, and a reputation as a folksy coach whose teams played good if inconsistent football during his tenure.

With Stewart resigning, offensive coordinator and coach-in-waiting Dana Holgorsen will succeed Stewart as head coach. This move is well ahead of schedule: Stewart was set to serve as head coach for 2011 while Holgorsen was brought up to speed and groomed to take over the job. Thanks to the scandal surrounding Stewart allegedly leaking details of Holgorsen's difficulties with casino security personnel to local papers, this timeline is now dramatically accelerated. 

Holgorsen will likely now have to hustle to secure the services of Jeff Casteel, West Virginia defensive coordinator and a Stewart ally who turned down Rich Rodriguez's offer to follow him to Michigan to stay in Morgantown. A Mountaineer loyalist and defensive savant, Casteel's on-field acumen and off-the-field knowledge of the state would provide some serious assets for Holgorsen in year one at West Virginia. His value is unquestioned here; his willingness to stay on under new management, however, is unknown.

While Thursday's earlier reports of ongoing buyout negotiations between the West Virginia Mountaineers and football coach Bill Stewart have been disputed by some, here's a report that the deal is just about done: the Sporting News' Matt Hayes says Stewart will be bought out and Dana Holgorsen will be elevated from offensive coordinator to head coach.

That's still not anything official from the school itself, but it's the first report from a national outlet that Stewart is in the process of being removed as West Virginia's coach. Friday's usually a good day to announce things like this.

No word yet on what that buyout amount may be, if the report is accurate, or when Holgorsen would be introduced as WVU's new head coach.

For more on the placid, undisturbed waters of the West Virginia athletic culture, visit SB Nation's The Smoking Musket. For more college football news, visit SB Nation's NCAA Football hub.

It sounds like a chapter of the great West Virginia Mountaineers succession drama might be wrapping up: West Virginia Illustrated reports "exit strategy" negotiations are underway between coach Bill Stewart and WVU. But wait there's more!

WVi also reports Stewart contacted a second West Virginia reporter in addition to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's Colin Dunlap. According to Thursday's report, the Dunlap and the anonymous reporter got in touch with each other shortly after being propositioned, comparing notes and presumably boggling before passing out for several hours.

It cannot conceivably be long now before Stewart is let go by Oliver Luck. If buyout negotiations aren't happening right now, you have to assume they'll happen very soon. The longer his name technically remains in place, the more unsettling this is for the program.

Unless something totally nuts happens, Dana Holgorsen should probably start thinking about what he'll do with the head coach's office, besides adding a blackjack table and so forth.

For more on the placid, undisturbed waters of the West Virginia athletic culture, visit SB Nation's The Smoking Musket.

West Virginia's shiny new AD Oliver Luck, never a man to suffer fools gladly at the best of times, has some thoughts on the recent alleged journalistic torpedoing of his incoming head football coach by his outgoing football coach. And while he's too genteel to name either Bill Stewart or Dana Holgorsen directly, there's enough there there to infer that yes, in fact, our WVU blogger may be onto something. Luck's statement:

"There have been various reports, much speculation, and rumor around our football program and coaches. But I want to make it clear that I consider these to be personnel matters and while I take them very seriously, I am dealing with them internally and privately – and I will not discuss them publicly.

"What I will say is that our athletic department coaches and staff are clear that their focus is on the program, the team and a successful season.

"My expectations of all our coaches and staff have not wavered; that is to run a clean and honest program with the utmost integrity and professionalism. Anything less is unacceptable and will not be tolerated."

For more on the placid, undisturbed waters of the West Virginia athletic culture, visit SB Nation's The Smoking Musket.

If you thought the West Virginia football situation was going poorly, that was nothing. If what Colin Dunlap said Monday night is true, things just went nuclear.

Coming on the heels of reports that Bill Stewart is the source to an article that sullies Dana Holgorsen’s reputation even more so than he was doing on his own, Dunlap put some context behind the story.

The former Pittsburgh Post-Gazette writer was a guest on Pittsburgh’s 93.7 The Fan Monday night when he said that Stewart asked him to “dig up some dirt” on his coach-in-waiting. This apparently including looking into unreported DUIs and any other “skeletons in his closet.”

Dunlap says this took place in December and that Stewart asked one other reporter to do the same thing.

Dunlap also reports that during spring practice, Holgorsen often overruled Stewart in front of the team.

If true, all of this jives with Monday’s news that Stewart was planting information about Holgorsen, ostensibly to get him run out of town.

Tuesday’s going to be a fun time in Morgantown. Especially since West Virginia players are scheduled to meet with the media in the morning.

I know they just approved beer sales during Mountaineer football games, but maybe the entire WVU athletic department should just go ahead and have a drink right now.

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West Virginia University officials are staying off the record and under the radar on the story of the Bill Stewart-Dana Holgorsen leak, but a separate report in Charleston, W. Va.'s Daily Mail dovetails with several items mentioned in the account of high personnel drama published this morning by our own Smoking Musket. Remember that bit at the end about Stewart allegedly leaving his new contract with the Mountaineers unsigned? According to the Daily Mail, that delay may have been on the part of the university wanting to investigate the source of the Holgorsen story -- and suspecting their own lame-duck head coach as the culprit -- rather than due to any recalcitrance from Stewart.

The author, Mike Casazza, noted last night on Twitter that the university's become "attuned to the pursuit of libel" since the emergence of the story in the Huntington papers, and is quite circumspect in his writing, but the dots are readily connectable at a casual glance [emphasis added]: 

Two sources said the contract has been awaiting signatures for weeks, but has been tabled as the athletic department determines who has and has not participated in fabricating stories about Holgorsen and compromising the coaching transition.

WVU Athletic Director Oliver Luck would not acknowledge on the university's search and suspicions, which are said to be more specific than expansive.

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