Current WVU head football coach Bill Stewart, who will be replaced by offensive coordinator Dana Holgorsen after the 2011 season, asked former Post-Gazette reporter Colin Dunlap to “dig up this dirt” on Holgorsen, Dunlap says:
" … He (Stewart) tried to flame-throw the guy (Holgorsen) in December by calling me and at least one other reporter because the reporter and I discussed it. He said, ‘can you get the word ’scumbag’ tattooed on the front of the sports page?’
"‘(Stewart said) you need to dig up this dirt. You need to get it out on this guy.’ And I said, ‘hey man, I’m not a part of some witch hunt.’"
Mike Casazza of the Charleston Daily Mail essentially confirms what Dunlap said:
- Colin was in the radio station to drop off his pay stub, not to flame-throw Bill Stewart. He wasn’t the subject of an interview, but more of a guest co-host as part of a free-flowing conversation and at a time when not a lot of reporters are awake or lucid.
- Colin didn’t say anything that a lot of people around and in the program and the athletic department didn’t already know. He did say things a lot of people didn’t want to hear.
So the speculation is that this could be the root of the Chuck Landon piece about Holgorsen, which claimed that he had had lots of alcohol-related problems since arriving in West Viginia.
WVU athletic director Oliver Luck, meanwhile, says that this situation will be dealt with privately. Stewart's contract is "on hold" while Luck tries to figure out what's going on.
One thing is for sure – we haven’t heard the last of the WVU coaching situation.