In case you have not heard, West Virginia promoted assistant coach Bill Stewart to head coach following his team’s drubbing Oklahoma like a rented mule in the Fiesta Bowl. ACC Now put the best spin on the move:
West Virginia scores one for the Big East, and Bill Stewart.
Oh, and West “By Gawd” Virginia, please hold for UNC on Line 1:
UNC: Yeah, about that promoting the popular assistant who wins big in the bowl game?
WVU: Yeah?
UNC: It doesn’t end well.
WVU: What?
UNC: Just call us back in 10 years.
I would point out that it does not have to be a 10 year proposition as long as your AD does not get in his head that he has to hire an alum and trolls the water to find a career NFL assistant who has never run a major college program or in the case of basketball a former player with only one year of head coaching experience under his belt. It is a fairly safe bet that the half life for Bill Stewart is tied directly to the number of years of eligibility left for Rich Rodriguez’s recruits. In fact it might be tied to how much time Pat White has left that is unless Stewart is some kind of recruiting genius and we just don’t know it.
January 4, 2008 at 2:54 pm |
I was thinking the same thing. Ask UMass how well it worked for them when Calipari left.
January 4, 2008 at 3:08 pm |
I don’t know what it is that makes these ADs think that promoting a an assistant who was 8-25 at VMI is a good idea. Actually I do know what it is, they listen to the players who all love the guy without considering whether he can recruit more player or has the first clue about sustaining the success the predecessor had built.