Reporter: WVU's Stewart Asked Me To Dig Up Dirt on Successor

By Cam Martin 

Former Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reporter Colin Dunlap claimed last night that West Virginia head football coach Bill Stewart called him last December and asked him to dig up dirt on Stewart’s successor-in-waiting, Dana Holgorsen. Dunlap made his allegations on 93.7 The Fan in Pittsburgh.

Holgorsen was named coach-in-waiting on Dec. 16 and Dunlap says Stewart called him several days later and made the request. Dunlap formerly covered Mountaineers football for the Post-Gazette. He resigned from the newspaper in late May.

“He tried to flame-throw the guy in December by calling me and at least one other reporter because the other reporter and I discussed it. [Stewart] said, can you get the word, I think it was scumbag or something, tattooed on the front of the sports page? You need to dig up this dirt; you need to get it out on this guy. And I said, ‘Hey man, I’m not a part of some witch hunt.’ But I understood the guy was like backed in a corner and was in a tight spot.”

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Holgorsen has been the focus on several damning newspapers articles in recent weeks, including a May 28 piece in the Huntington Herald-Dispatch that said Holgorsen had been involved in at least three and maybe as many as six alcohol-related incidents since being named to succeed Stewart. West Virginia officials are now investigating the possibility that Stewart or his wife, Karen, were the sources for several disparaging stories about Holgorsen and that information may have been fabricated to paint Holgorsen in an unflattering light.

In related news, naming a successor-in-waiting is always a great idea.

(H/T/ to Dr. Saturday)

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