When I think back to West Virginia ImplosionFest 2011, I'll probably always think of this article first. This dismissive piece by Dave Hickman in the Charleston Gazette claims that news circulating, mostly by blogs, about Bill Stewart and Dana Holgorsen was "Two percent fact. Ninety-eight percent unadulterated imagination."
In retrospect, I guess that's how you could describe his column, as well.
According to reports, the same kind of reports that correctly surmised that Bill Stewart was the mole who tried to plant a story denigrating Dana Holgorsen, are now saying that Stewart and West Virginia are in the midst of buyout talks and Big Stew's days as the Mountaineers head coach are coming to an end.
WVIllustrated decided to look into Colin Dunlap's claim that he and another reporter were contacted by Stewart to dig up dirt on Holgy. They found out that the a second call was placed to a reporter in West Virginia on the same day that Stewart called Dunlap.
Goodnight, Stewy.
The thing I keep trying to figure out is whether or not this helps the 2011 West Virginia football season. With the coach-in-waiting fiasco in place, I was reasonably sure the Mountaineers were going to have a bad season. Even with the most talent in the conference, the recipe for disaster off the field was going to produce poor results. Now? They'll be no question who's in charge and the players have some kind of chip on their shoulder over how the program is perceived.
After the Florida State debacle and now this, you can be pretty sure no AD is going to put together a coach-in-waiting deal that doesn't have the current coach's tacit approval.
The only question now is, which casino is the Dana Holgorsen Head Coach Celebration going to be at this weekend?