CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Bill Stewart, a son of New Martinsville, W.Va., and now caretaker of the West Virginia University football team, sounds almost like an evangelist when he starts talking about the program he oversees.

He talks about the people, the colors, the passion, the feeling, the identity, the honor and other things West Virginia, the emotion impossible to contain.

And why not?

A year ago, Stewart was the Mountaineers' interim coach, having taken over in the stormy aftermath of Rich Rodriguez's departure to Michigan with no promise of keeping the job.

And now it's his and there's a Saturday date against North Carolina in the Meineke Car Care Bowl.

"He's one of a kind," WVU quarterback Pat White says with a smile.

So what's Stewart, 56, talking about as his players walk by with lunch plates loaded with barbecue?

How much he loves Chapel Hill and North Carolina.

"In 1979, I wrote a three-page letter in longhand on a yellow legal pad and sent it to Dick Crum asking for a job," Stewart says.

"He didn't have any paying jobs, but I came in as a graduate assistant. Full-time hours, no pay. He worked it out so that I got an out-of-state scholarship, which upped the money from $2,800 to $4,400, and that year we beat Michigan in the Gator Bowl."

From there, Stewart went to Marshall, William & Mary then Navy before returning to Chapel Hill in 1985, where he spent three years as an assistant coach on Crum's staff.

It was more than two decades ago, but it sounds like yesterday.

"I loved Chapel Hill," Stewart says. "I couldn't afford to live there, so I lived in Durham."

"Every day for three years, I rode to work with the same guys. (The late) Randy Walker, Bobby Elliott and me. The three amigos. ... I love the people. They were so good to me."

Almost on cue, the Tar Heels' team buses arrive at Lowe's Motor Speedway as Stewart is talking about his North Carolina days. As the Tar Heels and their coaches file into a garage area for lunch, Stewart sees a line of familiar faces, excuses himself from an interview and swaps handshakes and stories with old friends.

All these years later, Stewart has the job of his dreams, but it didn't come quickly. He started as a high school coach in the 1970s and West Virginia is the ninth college stop on a resume that includes time with the Montreal Alouettes (offensive line coach) and Winnipeg Blue Bombers (offensive coordinator) in the Canadian Football League.

This time last year, Stewart was seen as a bridge to someone else. It was his job to get the Mountaineers through the Fiesta Bowl against powerful Oklahoma and then figure out to what to do from there.

"I didn't know if I had a job or not," Stewart says. "I told my wife and son when we get home (from the bowl), we'll load the U-Haul and see where we can find a job.

"I was told I had no chance for the West Virginia job."

But after Stewart coached the Mountaineers to an emphatic 48-28 victory, the landscape changed. One day after the victory, he was named West Virginia's 32nd head coach.

"A fairy tale, dream come true," Stewart calls it.

There was, however, the reality of taking over a program that would enter this season without eight defensive starters and three players — running back Steve Slaton included — who are on NFL rosters this season.

It meant revamping the coaching staff and re-engineering the offensive scheme to incorporate a more prostyle passing attack. It meant losing two of the first three games before finding traction.

"When we went to East Carolina (in the second week of the season), we felt like, 'Yeah, we're West Virginia.' Then we got hit in the mouth," Stewart says. "We found out you have to do more than put on the gold and blue.

"The next week at Colorado, we lost but we became a football team and we're 10 points from being 11-1 this season. Are we a good team? Yes. Are we a great team? No."

Is there any place Stewart would rather be?

"To me, there is no better job," he says. "In West Virginia, we're hard-working, God-fearing people. It's not a job. It's not even an occupation. It's an honor and a thrill to coach this team.

"It's like I'm still a little boy who goes out to play football every day. I'm the luckiest guy in the world. To some people, this is a good job. To me, it's the job."