Gate 21

So, Bill Stewart is the new head coach at West Virginia. He was serving as the Interim Head Coach after Rich Rodriguez unceremoniously left town to head to Ann Arbor. He coached the Mountaineers to an impressive 48-28 win over Oklahoma, he’s from West Virginia, and apparently, the players love him. So is he a good choice as coach?

Well, we all know what WVU booster and managing partner of the Arizona Diamondbacks Ken Kendrick thinks:

He is so overmatched it’s not even funny. He’s a nice guy and a father figure. But they had a wonderful architect, and they hired the painter to build the next house.

Okay, interesting perspective — but tell us what you really think …

I have to say that I am a bit surprised by the choice, considering I’ve never heard of him (and he has the same name as a good friend of mine). More telling, I find it interesting that — to the best of my knowledge — he was not on the short list of candidates that the WVU powers that be were throwing around prior to the Fiesta Bowl win against the Sooners.

I sincerely wish Bill Stewart all the best as the coach of the ‘Eers, but his hiring looks an awful lot like a disaster which took place in Crap-el Chill (a/k/a Chapel Hill) about a decade ago, and that makes me wonder if WVU has really made a good decision.

After years of major-league sucking by UNC, in 1997, Mack Brown coached the Tarheads to a 10-1 regular season record — losing only to Florida State, and reaching their highest ranking in the polls in more than 50 years. Then, before UNC was set to meet Virginia Tech in the Gator Bowl, Mack Brown gives the Tarheads the middle finger and jumps ship to Texas in a manner strangely similar to the way that Rich Rodriguez high-tailed it to Meee-chi-guuun.

Enter Carl Torbush.

Carl Torbush had served as Mack Brown’s Defensive Coordinator for almost 10 years. He was immediately appointed the Interim Head Coach, in preparation for the Gator Bowl. Many names were being tossed around by UNC — including Lou Holtz, Jim Donnan, Ethel Mertz, and Obi-wan Kenobi. Nowhere in the run-up to the bowl was Carl Torbush mentioned as a serious candidate. Everyone in the football world freely conceded that Torbush was a defensive power, but he had only one season of head coaching experience — at Louisiana Tech Then, on January 1st, The Tarheads managed to pound the Hokies 42-3 in the Gator Bowl, which culminated with the players carrying Torbush off the field on their shoulders. Almost immediately he was named the head coach at UNC, and everyone “in the know” felt that they had gotten the best coach in the world to guide the Tarheads on to greatness.

The following year, the sucking began. UNC opened with a loss to Miami-Ohio, and only barely managed to qualify for the Las Vegas Bowl, ending up with a 7-5 record. In 1999 the Tarheads recorded a 3-8 season, which included a loss to Furman in Crap-el Chill. In 2000, UNC went 6-5, and Torbush got shown the door. He jumped around a bit from there, and currently serves as an assistant coach at Carson-Newman. UNC has since been through another coach, and still sucks … badly.

So what is the point of all of this?

The point is, that just like Torbush, Stewart came out of nowhere to win the coaching job on the heels of a sudden departure of the head coach, under remarkably similar circumstances. Like Torbush, Stewart is a longtime position coach, has had a long relationship with his school, and is “loved” by the players. (I’m ignoring the fact that both got carried off the field) More importantly, just like UNC in 1997, WVU is a program which is coming off of years of marginal to lousy performances, which desperately wants to be a major power. Just like UNC, there is no grand tradition of winning at WVU — they are new to this. Thus, the road back to the gutter is a short one.

This is a pivotal moment for the WVU program, they just defeated a team that most folks (myself included) figured they had no chance against. Ignoring the fact that they basically pissed down their leg against Pitt earlier this year, the ‘Eers had a great season — a season of the sort they don’t usually have. Just like the 1997 Tarhead season, they were at the cusp of beginning a tradition of some sort. The conventional wisdom would say that they should have gotten a coach who is a known commodity and who will impress recruits, for the sole purpose of continuing the winning trend. They, instead, hired Stewart.

Now, make no mistake, there have been some fine coaches which have risen through the ranks to lead programs under similar circumstances: Lllllloyd Carrrrrr (who only moderately sucked and got a championship … well, sort of), Larry Coker (who won a championship, but then completely imploded in 2006), and the Phil “The Great Punkin‘” Fulmer (whom I still think is a great coach for Tennessee, and has won a national championship). The difference with each of these coaches, however, is that they all rose to the head coaching position at schools which already had a long winning tradition, which were in major conferences. So too, with Carrrr and Fulmer, they were the only name on the list when it came time to find a new coach.

None of this applies to Stewart.

What’s more, unlike UNC in 1997 which uniformly supported Torbush, the day that Stewart takes the helm as the head coach Ken Kendrick — a booster of the program (i.e. a friend) — casts him as a moron to the national media. I can guarantee you that every single recruit which West Virginia tries to get this year will have a coach from some other school in their living room echoing those words. That’s a tough road to hoe.

Should Kendrick have restrained himself? Yes, that’s a no-brainer. His point, however, is a strong one. The road to success as a coach is a very tough one, and there are only a handful of individuals who can maintain success at the highest level. I wish Bill Stewart the best, but I am not convinced that he was a good choice.

It is a very difficult thing to come in like Stewart and win … just ask Carl Torbush.

- Go Figure …

About the Author:  A guy living in North Carolina who has an unnatural fascination with the color orange. Just because I'm a Tennessee alum and die-hard Volunteer fan doesn't mean that I can't poke a little fun at the Big Orange and anybody else for that matter. Feel free to complain all you want. >> Read more from this author

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