SCOTTSDALE, ARIZ. ? Bill Stewart didn’t need an actual job interview. His performance in the 21â2 weeks since Rich Rodriguez resigned, punctuated by West Virginia’s resounding victory over Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl, was enough.

Now he’s the coach of the Mountaineers, a promotion for a man who calls himself a “West Virginian all my life.”

“I had the longest job interview in America,” Stewart joked Thursday, hours after the 48-28 victory over the Sooners and before the team boarded a flight home.

The 55-year-old coach agreed to a five-year contract worth $800,000 a year, plus incentives. The base salary totals $4 million, the same amount West Virginia is seeking in a buyout of the seven-year contract, worth almost $2 million a year, that Rodriguez signed in August.

Stewart was appointed interim coach when Rodriguez left Dec. 16 to coach Michigan. West Virginia formed a search committee that, according to athletic director Ed Pastilong, interviewed “a large number of candidates.” Central Michigan coach Butch Jones, a West Virginia native, was considered a leading contender.

“In reality, he was being interviewed every day,” said Pastilong, who has known Stewart for nearly four decades. “I heard somebody say that last night he had the ultimate interview. But he always was one of our most serious candidates.”

Gov. Joe Manchin was among the enthusiastic group of boosters who attended the announcement at the Scottsdale resort where the Mountaineers had stayed.

“I couldn’t be more happy,” Manchin said. “I’ve watched this team come together and this gentleman right here, Billy Stewart, bring it together. He’s the glue. There’s not a mother or father watching today that wouldn’t be proud to have their son play for this man.”

Pastilong called Stewart to his room in the wee hours Thursday to offer him the job. Stewart has not signed a contract but agreed to terms with a handshake.

“I don’t have a lot of experience in these negotiations and things. That’s my agent right down there,” he said, pointing to his wife, Karen.

Stewart was head coach at VMI from 1994-96, compiling an 8-25 record. He also had stints as an assistant at Salem College, North Carolina, Marshall, William & Mary, Navy, Arizona State and Air Force.