Bill Stewart's Version of College Football Realignment

On Wednesday, Bill Stewart announced his version of realignment . Stewart compartmentalized the coaching positions at WVU.

Dave McMichael, recently hired from Uconn, will be the offensive special teams coordinator. McMichael will oversee extra point attempts, field goal attempts, and kickoff returns.

Steve Dunlap, the safeties coach, will be the defensive special teams coordinator. Dunlap will oversee kickoff and punt return coverage, as well as extra point and field goal defense.

Stewart’s answer to Doc Holliday‘s departure, the previous recruiting coordinator, is Chris Beatty.

Chris Beatty was officially named the recruiting coordinator on Wednesday. Beatty has been instrumental in WVU’s recruiting success. With Beatty in his new position, WVU should continue the trend of recruiting success.

Jeff Mullen retains his duties as offensive coordinator and quarterback coach. Stewart believes that Mullen represents the best offensive coordinator in the country.

Stewart further compartmentalized the offensive structure by naming Dave Johnson the run game coordinator and Lonnie Galloway the pass game coordinator.

Johnson will retain his duties as offensive line coach. So too will Galloway as receivers coach.

Stewart cited a need for continued improvement on the offensive side of the ball. WVU’s failure in 2009 to put teams away will be Mullen’s emphasis in 2010.

Defensively, Jeff Casteel continues as the defensive coordinator. Stewart also voiced Casteel’s status as the best defensive coordinator in all of America.

Stewart’s compartmentalization of the defense is adding defensive run coordinator to Bill Kirelawich duties, and adding pass defense coordinator to David Lockwood’s duties.

Stewart cited the need to improve defensive takeaways for 2010. Specifically, Stewart felt the defense did not produce enough fumbles in 2009.

The weakest link of the 2009 Mountaineer football team was special teams. The fact that the special teams were not special was not new. The fact special teams were coached by the head coach, Bill Stewart, was not new. The correlation one tended to draw, unfortunately, was not new either.

There was a growing belief that Bill Stewart could not effectively coach the special teams. This writer disagrees. Bill Stewart has the ability to do an exceptionally effective job as coach of the special teams.

Further, Bill Stewart is developing into a remarkable head coach. He has hired quality assistants and signed each assistant to an excellent contract. He also has detailed their job description, and established the appropriate benchmarks.

Stewart has created an environment to ensure his players have the best chance of succeeding academically, personally, and physically. Bill Stewart is tough, when it is needed, and understanding, when it is needed. To this point, he has appropriately applied both.

Bill Stewart’s integrity is above reproach. By association, WVU football‘s integrity is as well.

The problem is not Bill Stewart’s ability to be the head coach. Nor is the issue with Bill Stewart as special teams coach. The problem is Stewart was doing both at the same time. In order to do one, he took away from the other.

As head football coach, Bill Stewart signed the 18^th ranked recruiting class in college football on Feb. 3 of this year. Last year Stewart’s recruiting class was ranked 23^rd nationally. WVU has never had back to back recruiting classes of that quality.

WVU’s 2009 roster showed 23 juniors. All 23 of those juniors are on pace to graduate in 2010. The WVU football team is improving academically at a rate unheard of in past years.

To Bill Stewart’s credit, he recognized the shortcomings his first two teams have demonstrated. Further to his credit, he is addressing those shortcomings with a proactive and definitive set of goals.

It has been well documented that Bill Stewart has produced back-to-back 9-4 seasons at WVU. Some fans view those records as proof that Stewart is not a good football coach. Other fans view those records as proof that Stewart is a good football coach.

Whichever side of the debate you choose to stand one fact cannot be overlooked. Bill Stewart, with his coaching realignment, has publicly recognized the need for improvement. Stewart then publicly set a critical path for that improvement.

Head coaches of college football teams represent some of the most egotistical individuals in American society.

Like him, or not, as a person or a coach, Bill Stewart is not among those egotistical individuals. What a refreshing revelation for WVU football fans.