If anyone is interested in getting to know new WVU head coach Bill Stewart, here's a good article for ya...

The Charleston Gazette Wrote:Q&A with Bill Stewart
Stew has a hard time turning people down
By Dave Hickman
Staff writer
May 17, 2008

MORGANTOWN - Sitting down with West Virginia football coach Bill Stewart for a brief question and answer session is next to impossible.

The first thing one has to do is set some ground rules.

First, and most importantly, is it possible for you to keep your answers short enough that we have room to fit it all into one newspaper? You have a tendency to ramble.

"See, though, there's a method to my madness. If I ramble, you don't have time to ask as many questions.''

Touche.

With that in mind, then, just a handful of questions for the 56-year-old coach:

What's the status of your contract? (To which Stewart paused and thought for a moment.)

"I don't know. I haven't done anything. I haven't worried about that and I don't worry about that. I guess I'm just working off the term sheet.''

And that doesn't concern you at all?

"No. Not at all.''

How are you progressing on the personal responses you're writing to the more than 1,300 mostly congratulatory e-mails you received after you were named the head coach?

"I'm at 545 [remaining] right now. But they keep coming in. I wrote as many hand-written letters and notes back to people as I could, but I've just never been a big e-mail guy. But I've tried to chip away at some of that.''

You had a small taste of this when you were the head coach at VMI, but I would imagine this is a lot different. How overwhelming have you found it trying to balance your duties as a football coach and as a goodwill ambassador and as a fundraiser and everything else the job entails?

"Not overwhelming. It's time consuming, but not overwhelming. You can't go to every single event because I wouldn't get any work done here. And the top priority is this team, this university, then the other things. It's hard to turn people down, but you have to do it. It's tough to do if you have a conscience. I'd love to go to everybody's parade and everybody's speaking engagement, but you'd be gone every day.''

So have you done any parades? You seem like you'd be right at home on the back of an open convertible waving to people.

"I'm going to Buckhannon Saturday for the Strawberry Festival, but I'm tying it in with a Special Olympics fundraiser the same day there. If it was just the parade I probably couldn't do it.

"Here's the thing. Last Saturday I went to Fairmont State for something I thought was very important, their all-sports banquet. [Because of that] I only got to see five innings of [his son, Blaine's] baseball doubleheader. Sunday I was at the Victory Awards Dinner. I got to see three innings of a doubleheader. Neither of those bothered me because I should have been there, but I'm spending time with other people's youngsters instead of my own. And I have a right to be a dad and to be a husband, so I tell people to be careful what you ask for on the weekends.''

Without getting into specifics or personalities, some coaches around the country and even at West Virginia lately have a reputation for micro-managing the actual coaching aspect of the job of a head coach. You don't seem to tilt in that direction, true?

"I've been very blessed to have coached on both sides of the ball on a [Division] I-A level. So I know a little bit about that. But my forte is going to be special teams. I want the team to know that when I step up to that podium, the head coach is coaching special teams and they'd better make darn sure that special means S-P-E-C-I-A-L.

"I have a background in offense, but we have a good staff. I'll interject ideas there because I want my personality in there. We're going to run the ball, but we're going to throw the ball down the field. Deep down the field. I'm going to make you get out of the box. I know a little bit about that having coached on the defensive side of the ball.

"Now, defensively, if I even walk in that room ... are you kidding me? We've got three guys who have been I-A coordinators [Jeff Casteel, Steve Dunlap and David Lockwood]. We've got Bill Kirelawich. They don't need Bill Stewart in there.

"I'm not an innovator, I'm not a genius. I can lead people. That's what I do. I can lead them and they'll follow.''

You wrote a public letter last week in support of WVU president Mike Garrison, who is under pressure to resign. Did anyone approach you or ask you to do that?

"No. Absolutely not. I wrote that because I'm a history teacher. And a great way to win a war is to divide and conquer. Now is not the time to divide. Now is the time to unite and to keep this university strong. I wrote that from my heart, I wrote it for all the right reasons and I don't really care who agrees or disagrees. It's how I feel, it's my makeup.''

Lastly ... smoking helmets, blaring music, train whistles. (Stewart began laughing). So what is the Billy Stewart intro and atmosphere going to be like at WVU home games this fall, or do you care?

"Not one bit.''

But someone has to organize that kind of stuff. Can we assume you will leave that to whomever it falls to in the athletic department?

"I don't care who does it. Let the seniors decide what we're going to do. Let the athletic department decide. I'm not into that Barnum & Bailey stuff. My deal is blocking, tackling and playing hard. That's what I'm into. That's what I can control.''

To contact staff writer Dave Hickman, use e-mail or call (304) 348-1734.

I like his attitude about closing ranks. It's how to survive in war.