The Sporting News reports that WVU is planning to buy out football coach Bill Stewart’s contract, and Dana Holgorsen will be the Mountaineers’ coach in 2011:
The only holdup in the negotiations is the buyout money. Coach-in-waiting Dana Holgorsen will take over as head coach.
When asked Thursday if he was planning a buyout for Stewart, WVU athletic director Oliver Luck said, “I can’t comment” in a text to Sporting News.
Given the assertions that have been circling regarding Stewart recently – that he told reporters to smear coach-in-waiting Holgorsen, resulting in apparently-inaccurate newspaper reports that Holgorsen had had as many as six alcohol-related issues since arriving in West Virginia – this wouldn’t be at all surprising. It’s funny: when the Huntington Herald-Dispatch story that started this whole thing came out, I thought it might result in Holgorsen being fired. No one is talking about that now. If in fact it turns out to be the case that Stewart was behind an inaccurate smear campaign against Holgorsen, there’s no way he’ll still be around when the football season starts.