Coach Stew No Campaigner
January 02, 2008 11:43 AM | General
From his very first press conference when he was named the team’s interim coach, Bill Stewart made it very clear that he wouldn’t campaign for the West Virginia football job. He has maintained that position throughout this week in Arizona.
“I think it will be handled in a great manner,” Stewart said. “My superiors … I’m very confident that the administration will pick the finest football candidate they can for the program at West Virginia University, no matter the outcome of this game – good, bad or indifferent for us.”
Stewart’s primary focus has been making sure West Virginia’s football team is focused on the task at hand: competing against a very good Oklahoma team.
“We have a tremendous staff,” Stewart said. “I said it for about two-and-a-half weeks – we have the greatest group of professional men working at the state flagship university in West Virginia right now that could possibly be there.
“These guys have done a tremendous job,” Stewart continued. “We’ve all taken on a role that we’re preparing our football team for a very formidable opponent in the University of Oklahoma.”
Stewart has been a head coach before so he is prepared for all that is asked of the job beyond the football field.
“It has been nothing out of the ordinary,” Stewart said. “I have had a few more speaking engagements. I’ve gotten to meet a lot of nice people. I am the same guy that will ride in a taxicab. I don’t need a limo – I am not going to change a bit.
“I am just a ball coach out here with a group of ball coaches with a tremendous football team that have been on a mission and we have a mindset, and that’s all we’ve been thinking about,” Stewart said.
Stewart says the only difference now is the police protection he receives from West Virginia’s state police troopers.
“They don’t know when I get back I go right into incarceration,” Stewart joked. “Those guys aren’t leaving my side because they said way back in my childhood, when is all this limelight coming?
“They said that’s the kid right there, the mountains of West Virginia, he stole turnips out of his neighbors’ gardens – and I did. He threw snowballs at cars – and I did. He threw apples at tractor-trailer trucks. I never hi the cab, but I hit the boxcars,” Stewart said.
“We jumped trains. I went to the high school and many a day walked up to the principal and walked out the back door and went fishing,” Stewart said. “That’s all Cub and Boy Scout honor, I did that. These guys are taking me back to pay for that.”
