How WVU Hire Changes Things

By Sean · Thursday, January 3, 2008 · 3:06 PM |  Share | Leave a Comment 

West Virginia surprised everyone last night by completely dominating Oklahoma to win the Fiesta Bowl by a score of 48-28. Interim head coach Bill Stewart did an outstanding job of getting the team ready for OU despite having to deal with Rich Rodriguez leaving for Michigan, and he did such a great job that the interim tag has been removed. Stewart was the tight ends and fullbacks coach as well as the special teams coordinator, but now becomes the head coach of the Mountaineers.

Some may wonder what exactly this has to do with Michigan, but it actually has a huge effect on the Michigan coaching staff. Coach Rod was expected to finalize his staff by the end of this week, but you have to wonder if that will still happen now that Stewart is WVU’s head coach. Since Stewart is an in-house hire, all assistants likely will be retained by him if they want to stay at WVU. At the same time, Coach Rod reportedly was going to bring several of his assistants from WVU to Michigan, but now that Stewart is the head coach, plans may change.

The question now is if these assistants that may have had a job lined up at Michigan will decide to come to Ann Arbor or stay where they are right now in Morgantown. I don’t doubt for a second that hiring Stewart shakes up everyone’s plans, including offensive coordinator Calvin Magee, who actually came to Ann Arbor with Rodriguez when he was introduced as head coach a few weeks ago. Magee now will likely have a decision to make in regards to where he wants to be, as before yesterday, he was coming to Michigan, no questions asked. With Stewart becoming the head coach, though, it wouldn’t shock me at all if Magee decided to stay at WVU.

This whole situation probably will resolve itself in the next few days, but it will be interesting to follow. Out of all the assistants, I would say that Magee and defensive coordinator Jeff Casteel are the ones that are most important for Coach Rod to hire at Michigan, and then director of strength and conditioning Mike Barwis as well. He is someone that is seen as one of the best at what he does in the nation, so having Barwis come to Michigan is a must.

I imagine plans are changing for both the WVU assistants and Rich Rodriguez, so we’ll just have to keep watching the situation to see if anything develops.