For the second time since spring practice began, West Virginia head coach Rich Rodriguez has to fill a vacancy on his coaching staff.
The latest being inside wide receivers coach Blaine Stewart heading to the NFL after Rodriguez previously filled running backs coach Chad Scott’s post with Larry Porter.
Stewart had been with the program since 2023 and was hired under previous head coach Neal Brown, but Rodriguez elected to rehire him once he was brought to Morgantown. But the move takes him back to his roots as he spent four seasons as an assistant coach with the Pittsburgh Steelers from 2018-22.
“Blaine had an opportunity to go back to the NFL and happy for him,” Rodriguez said.
While the Mountaineers will enter spring break this upcoming week, the plan for now is to hire a replacement for Stewart but have senior offensive assistant Travis Trickett fill in until that occurs. It’s the same formula that Rodriguez used when he had to replace Scott a few weeks before.
“We’re in good shape,” Rodriguez said.
The veteran head coach acknowledges that he has options on how he could approach the opening, such as using Trickett to backfill the position or finding a direct replacement, but the latter is important largely due to recruiting. The plan is to start the interview process or put together a list of candidates over the next week.
While the inside and outside wide receiver spots are a little bit different, the focus is on recruiting because that is where the biggest impact can be made.
“The recruiting piece is going to be a big part of it. Every coach has to recruit. Everybody in the program has to recruit but my thought is let me find the guy that can do the best job recruiting and that will be a big factor in who I hire,” Rodriguez said.
A good recruiter can be defined in many ways but for Rodriguez, it simply boils down to those coaches that are comfortable with going anywhere and landing potential prospects. While recruiting has become more position based instead of area driven, it helps if a coach has a history of doing it at a high level.
“Bringing big time players. So I think that’s the direction I’m looking at,” Rodriguez said.
----------
• Talk about it with West Virginia fans on The Blue Lot.
• SUBSCRIBE today to stay up on the latest on Mountaineer sports and recruiting.
• Get all of our WVU videos on YouTube by subscribing to the WVSports.com Channel
• Follow us on Twitter: @WVSportsDotCom, @rivalskeenan, @wesleyshoe
