a speech!!! First of all my dad is a West Virginia fan so that is my 2nd team,WVU MADE A STATEMENT THAT NIGHT!
Like something out of a movie.
Wow, RIP Bill. He was put in a very hard position by his school and did pretty well despite the odds. It's a shame what he tried to do to Holgorsen though.
At only 59, that's way too young to go. RIP.
RIP Bill Stewart...
...but he did not get the shaft. He probably shouldn't have been hired in the first place but WVU's administration, boosters, and fans were riding some wacky emotional rollercoaster following the loss to Pitt, the loss of RichRod, and the BCS bowl win.
I think it's clear he made his own bed regarding the end of his tenure at West Virginia by leaking inside information about the coach-in-waiting to outside media in an attempt to undercut WVU's succession plan.
I completely forgot about that.
Luck needed to either nut up and fire the man (after going 28-12 in 3 seasons) or keep him and allow him to coach. The one-year planned shotgun marriage between Holgorsen and Stewart was a terrible idea that put both coaches in an awful spot, particularly Stewart. "Hey, you get to be coach for one more year and then we're putting you out to pasture. Treat the new guy well." What would you have done?
RIP! Such sad news. I feel bad about making fun of him in 2008 and 2009.
Did anyone else see this post and wonder if something strange had happened down there? I wouldn't have been shocked to see foul play or a suicide or something. Mainly because it's so unthinkable to have natural causes take out a guy so young. Very sad. It's amazing that even going through the high stress environment of coaching how many coaches die shortly after getting out of it.
I had the same thoughts.
I'm gonna have to take the ol' tinfoil hat off for this one. Stewart went to a job in which he was overwhelmed. He had to work 100-hour weeks. Then, he was involved in a bitter power struggle, which, of course, he lost.
No grand conspiracy here. This was just too much stress and too old of a heart to take it.
RIP.
59 is relatively young but it's not that young. He had a stressful job, made that much more stressful by the Holgorsen situation. He may have been bitter about getting fired (and considering the way that happened I would be surprised if he wasn't). He may have felt he didn't have anything to live for.
If he'd had any other bad health factors (e.g., Type 2 diabetes he hadn't kept in control), this wouldn't be surprising at all.
Wow, that's pretty shocking. 59 is fairly young. Thoughts and prayers for his family and for the WVU community.
As a person who woke up one morning like it was any other day and then got a phone call at work that his 52 year old Father was dead of a heart attack, I know how awful it is. Godspeed Mr. Stewart, my prayers are now with your family.
Wow, that's just crazy. Sad news, for sure.
Had his team all sorts of fired up for the Fiesta Bowl v. Oklahoma in January '08, Sam Bradford didn't know what hit him. May perpetual light shine upon him.
I thought he was older too.
, , ,from John Radcliff at Smoking Musket. His words of regreat are cautionary to anyone to those who criticize public figures on the record. He is now eating his harsh words about Stewart, and they don't taste good at all.
big time coaches do not last very long when the retire or fire, I would think the stress of the job and the 16 hour days can't help. RIP Bill Stewart
RIP Bill Stewart and condolences to WVU fans...
RIP Bill Stewart!
Methinks EDSBS is going to have a weird time with things in the near future.
RIP My man, He got a raw deal from WVU.
RIP Mr. Stewart. As a tribute, Chunkums should rock that old avatar he/she had of Stewart looking like he smelled a really bad fart. I always enjoyed that.