WVU assistants resign, will join Rodriguez in Michigan
Friday, January 04, 2008
By Chuck Finder, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Assistant head coach Calvin Magee -- an award-winning offensive
coordinator whose role in play-calling helped to turn West Virginia
into a top statistical unit nationally, not to mention a 48-28 winner
in a school bowl-record, 525-yard performance Wednesday in the Fiesta
-- highlighted a list of offensive coaches to formally tender their
resignations today to join ex-Mountaineers coach Rich Rodriguez at
Michigan.
Most of the strength and conditioning staff headed by Mike Barwis and
safety coach Bruce Tall resigned to work for the Wolverines, as well.
Out the door following Magee -- the 2007 Assistant of the Year, awarded
by the American Football Coaches Association -- were quarterback coach
Rod Smith, a native of Franklin, W.Va., and offensive line coach Greg
Frey, both of whom lasted barely one year with the Mountaineers after
coming from South Florida.
That left receivers coach Tony Dews, who joined the staff last March
from UNLV, as the only remaining incumbent offensive assistant under
new head coach Bill Stewart, who worked with tight ends and fullbacks
among his other duties.
Barwis long was a favorite of the Mountaineers players, and his work
was lauded for helping to physically build them into a national
contender. He will be joined in Michigan by much of his West Virginia
staff: director of skill development Chris Allen plus assistant
strength coaches Parker Whitman and Kenato Tamura.
Aside from Tall, the defensive staff is intact for the time being.
Defensive coordinator Jeff Casteel has a standing offer to come to
Michigan, too, but he remains undecided. Stewart sat down with many, if
not all, of these assistants today in a continuing effort to keep them
on the West Virginia staff, but some long before he became head coach
had decided to depart.
Defensive line coach Bill Kirelawich, for 22 years a member of the
Mountaineers' coaching staff, apparently turned down an offer to follow
Rodriguez and will stay with West Virginia.