There is a case to be made that Bill Stewart was put in an awkward spot when asked to work with Dana Holgorsen as part of the tenuous transition plan and he was the collateral damage. Maybe he wasn’t a bad guy or a bad coach, but was just a questionable character caught in a bad spot.

For those who now are crowing that they were right when they predicted Stewart would be a disaster and that the WVU administration moved too quickly and under a cloud of alcohol in the wee hours of the 2008 Fiesta Bowl celebration to give Stewart the job, I say not so fast my friend.

Stewart was the perfect man for the job at that moment, perhaps the only man who could have kept the program together in the thick darkness of the loss to Pittsburgh that kept them out of the BCS National Championship and sent Rich Rodriguez off for Michigan.

That moment could have sent West Virginia into a uncontrollable downward spiral that would last a decade or more, but Stewart brought about honor and stability when those were the most important ingredients.

Stewart’s problems would come later, and they were more of a personal nature than they were of a coaching nature.

His insistence upon defending and keeping offensive coordinator Jeff Mullen, perhaps out of stubbornness or out of loyalty to his friend, Jim Grobe of Wake Forest, the man who pushed the young coordinator upon him, was a deadly sin.

But equally as difficult to accept was the disintegration in his personality that became obvious after Luck made the decision to ease him out by bringing in Holgorsen as coach in waiting, setting in motion a situation that had no chance to succeed.

Time will pass and opinions will change and cement and it’ll be interesting to track through the months and years to follow — and somewhere, John Beilein nods. Nevertheless, the folks at the thriving Smoking Musket ask you to grade the Bill Stewart Era.