WVU’s Stewart doles out swift justice

By Darrell Laurant  |   Wednesday, June 11, 2008  |  Comments( 0 )

West Virginia Mountaineers
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When Bill Stewart replaced the departed Rich Rodriguez as head football coach at West Virginia last year, there was some concern out in the Mountaineer blogosphere that Stewart might be too nice a guy for the job.

Tell that to Charles Pugh.

Last Tuesday, the day the news broke that the senior safety had been charged with felony use of stolen credit cards (to the tune of $1,600), Stewart announced he would "take appropriate action when I have gathered all the facts."

Evidently, that didn't take long. On Wednesday, Pugh was bounced from the team.

"Coach Stewart is not a wrist slapper," WVU linebacker Reed Williams told a local TV station.

According to police accounts, Pugh and an unidentified woman supposedly found a set of keys in the university's student union, took them to a nearby parking lot, and used the clicker on the key chain to match them with a vehicle. Then, the complaint continues, they took several credit cards and $200 in cash from the vehicle.

One account had Quinton Andrews, another safety, involved in the theft, but that was later said to be erroneous. Good thing, too, because Andrews and Pugh were the leading contenders for a starting position at "bandit" safety.

A product of Orlando, the 6-foot-2, 200-pound Pugh had 60 tackles and three sacks in his career. He started three games as a Mountaineer, but did most of his work on special teams.

As a player, he was known as a hard hitter with a penchant for committing personal fouls.

Earlier in his brief reign as head coach, Stewart also got rid of linebacker John Holmes, defensive lineman James Ingram and running back Ed Collington after they were charged with selling marijuana.

And this week, reserve TE Evan Rodriguez (no relation to Rich) was cut loose after being charged with battery.
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