5. Bill Stewart’s handoff to Dana Holgorsen in 2011
Say what? The Bill Stewart-to-Dana Holgorsen coaching transition ranking among the best handoffs since World War II?
Am I crazy? Yes, but that’s a discussion for another day.
Of course, the Stewart-Holgorsen transition wasn’t smooth – not because Stew left the cupboard bare, but rather because of the ill-fated idea of having Holgorsen serve one year as the team’s “head coach in waiting” with Stewart hanging around to offer fatherly advice and counsel.
No. 1, Bill Stewart wasn’t too thrilled about the plan considering the role he played in leading West Virginia to one of its greatest victories in school history over Oklahoma in the 2008 Fiesta Bowl, not to mention the three straight nine-win campaigns his teams produced in 2008, 2009 and 2010. You can argue that there could have been more wins during those years, but you can also argue that there easily could have been more losses, too.
The fans who wanted Stewart gone had already made up their minds three games into his WVU tenure in 2008 following back-to-back road defeats at East Carolina and Colorado, and nothing short of a national championship was ever going to change it. Speaking as a lifelong West Virginian, stubbornness has always been an integral part of our state’s sports DNA.
And secondly, Dana Holgorsen was not the type of person who was going to take counsel and advice from anyone. His ideas on how he wanted to run a football program were established long before he ever got the West Virginia job.
Therefore, the “coach in waiting” idea was destined for failure, which even director of athletics Oliver Luck sort of foreshadowed when he announced the plan on Dec., 22, 2010.
“I do want to say that I expect from all of our coaches, led by coach Stewart, coach Holgorsen and coach (Jeff) Casteel, a lot of professionalism during the transition,” Luck said. “As I have mentioned, I studied the transition models of Wisconsin and Oregon, and I think those transitions went extraordinarily well and were reflected by great results on the field and great experiences for the student-athletes.”
What Luck didn’t say, and what no media member in the room picked up on that day, was that in both instances Luck cited, the head coaches had direct input in choosing their successors. The one he didn’t mention, Jimbo Fisher succeeding Bobby Bowden at Florida State, didn’t go over well at all because Bobby thought he still had some gas left in the tank.
Not surprisingly, soon after spring football practice, Stewart stepped aside in June and accepted a buyout.
At any rate, the roster of top-tier talent Bill Stewart passed on to Dana Holgorsen ranks among the best of any succeeding coach – two NFL first-round draft picks, Bruce Irvin in 2012 and Tavon Austin in 2013, a second-rounder in quarterback Geno Smith, and two third-rounders in Stedman Bailey and Will Clarke.
Plus, don’t forget rookie free agent signees Quinton Spain, Donny Barclay and Terence Garvin were also handed off to Holgorsen as well. Spain, by the way, was a starting offensive guard in last year’s Super Bowl for the Cincinnati Bengals, while Barclay and Garvin played in the NFL for multiple seasons.
One other point to consider, the less-than-ideal transition didn’t seem to deter Holgorsen from winning 10 football games and putting 70 points on the scoreboard in West Virginia’s Orange Bowl victory over 14th-ranked Clemson.
