After Blaine Stewart departed from WVU to go back to coaching in the NFL with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Rich Rodriguez discussed the opening and what his plan is to fill that position before the season.
Blaine Stewart was re-hired to Rich Rodriguez’s staff to be the inside receivers coach for WVU, but after the recent news that he would be returning to the NFL with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, that is a position that will now need to be filled. Stewart had spent the last two seasons coaching the tight ends under former head coach Neal Brown after a two-year stint with the Pittsburgh Steelers as a coaching assistant.
“Yeah, yeah. I was surprised you guys didn’t ask about it I guess I would have said something, and I didn’t know when it was out there, when it doesn’t go out there. But Blaine got an opportunity to go back in the NFL and I’m happy for him,” Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez went on to say that they will take care of the vacancy at the inside receiver position and believes that they are in a good position to fill the hole.
“So probably over the next week or so, I’ll interview or look at some potential candidates, but we’re well- positioned to take care of it right now because of having Travis Trickett here, Travis is kind of the floating coach. So when running backs were open, Travis coached the running backs, and inside receivers there is open. He’ll coach them. So we’re in good shape,” Rodriguez said.
Stewart now joins Chad Scott as the second WVU assistant coach to leave WVU since the spring started. Many around the WVU football program thought highly of Stewart, making it a big loss to the coaching staff.
“Thank you to the fans for their unwavering support throughout my time in Morgantown. I look forward to continuing to represent this program in the future and wish all of you nothing but success moving forward. This chapter may be closing, but my connection to this place and the people here will never end,” Stewart said in a farewell to Morgantown on his Twitter/X account.
