One day after a report emerged that West Virginia “is searching for anonymous contributors to newspaper stories it says contain ‘blatant inaccuracies’ about the football team’s head coach-in-waiting and offensive coordinator” Dana Holgorsen, a reporter may have sealed Bill Stewart’s fate as the Mountaineers head coach.
During a radio interview with 93.7 The Fan in Pittsburgh very late last night/early this morning, and as transcribed by Dr. Saturday‘s Graham Watson, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette beat writer Colin Dunlap let fly some explosive accusations against Stewart, claiming that the lame-duck head coach requested both he and another unnamed reporter dig up tawdry details on the man who will replace him as head coach in 2012.
Or, at least that was the plan before the mother of on-the-record bombs was dropped on the situation by Dunlap.“It was the day he was going to the bowl game because I distinctly remember there was a coaches convention in Pittsburgh with high school coaches,” Dunlap recounted on the radio. “He was flying from down from Pittsburgh to Orlando for like pre-prep work.
“He tried to flame-throw the guy in December by calling me and at least one other reporter because the other reporter and I discussed it. [Stewart] said, can you get the word, I think it was scumbag or something, tattooed on the front of the sports page? You need to dig up this dirt; you need to get it out on this guy. And I said, ‘Hey man, I’m not a part of some witch hunt.’ But I understood the guy was like backed in a corner and was in a tight spot. ...
[Asked why he won’t until now to come out with the information.]
“The reason is, No. 1 at the time I kind of gave the guy the benefit of the doubt because I knew he was backed in a corner and kind of scared, and in a sense, I sat on a story,” Dunlap said. “That’s a pretty big story that I could have written. So that’s No. 1, I gave him the benefit of the doubt. But why now is because there’s a pattern forming. And, no one had really ever asked me until you just asked me if Bill Stewart had ever had a problem with truth, and I answered your question truthfully.
...
“This makes a second instance where he’s trying, if -- if -- it’s true that he’s even involved with assailing Dana Holgorsen’s character or attempting to, this would make the second instance thus a pattern would form of him going after the same man.
“I just think that the [coach-in-waiting] situation is doomed to fail.”
Ummm, wow.
In the hours before and shortly after the Charleston Daily Mail report on WVU looking into the source of leaks regarding alleged alcohol-fueled incidents involving Holgorsen surfaced, it was rumored on at least a couple of websites that Stewart’s wife or even Stewart himself may have been the “whistle-blower”.
While Dunlap’s late-night bombshell in no way concretely ties Stewart to the leaks, it doesn’t, obviously, paint either Stewart or the university in a very positive light at all. And, if true, could prove to be the death knell a year early for Stewart’s career at the school.
In fact, at this point in time, it would be more of a surprise if Stewart were on the final season than if he weren’t. It’s also getting to the same point that it could be similarly said of Holgorsen as well.