Based on fan voting conducted throughout the summer on WVUsports.com, 16 of the best football teams in the 125-year history of West Virginia University football have been pared down to just one.
And the winner is … Don Nehlen’s undefeated 1988 squad that lost to Notre Dame in the 1989 Sunkist Fiesta Bowl in college football’s de facto national championship game that year.
The ’88 squad edged Rich Rodriguez’s 2007 team, which narrowly missed out on a bid to play in college football’s national championship game when the Mountaineers fell to arch-rival Pitt at Milan Puskar Stadium during the final weekend of the college football season.
Had West Virginia not lost to the Panthers, West Virginia would have faced Ohio State in the national title game that year instead of LSU, which ended up defeating the Buckeyes in college football’s big game played in New Orleans.
Two other outstanding Mountaineer teams - Nehlen’s undefeated 1993 squad and Rodriguez’s Sugar Bowl champion 2005 club - made it to the semifinals in fan polling.
A case could be made for the 2005 team reaching the finals instead of the 2007 squad, but essentially the key players from that ’05 team also played on the ’07 squad that defeated Maryland and Mississippi State outside of league play and won key Big East games against nationally ranked Rutgers, Cincinnati and Connecticut down the stretch to reach No. 1 in the national polls for the first time in school history on November 25.
Then the calendar flipped to December and 28 ½-point favorite West Virginia lost in stunning fashion to 4-7 Pitt, 13-9, in one of the biggest upset losses in college football that year, not to mention in Mountaineer history.
West Virginia’s upset defeat at the hands of the Panthers put an upside-down exclamation point on one of the wildest, wackiest years ever in college football, which featured 59 times when an unranked or lower-ranked team upset a higher-ranked team during the course of the season, including 13 occasions when an unranked team knocked off a top-five team.
That loss to Pitt, coupled with a 21-13 defeat against somewhat average South Florida in Tampa, Florida, clearly influenced Mountaineer voters’ opinions of the two finalists.
But West Virginia’s equally stunning 48-28 victory over third-ranked Oklahoma in the 2008 Tostitos Fiesta Bowl has to carry some weight, too - particularly when considering the circumstances - the Mountaineers coming off a crushing defeat to Pitt and then losing their head football coach a week later when Rodriguez chose to accept Michigan’s offer to replace Lloyd Carr as its football coach.
Interim coach Bill Stewart rallied the team to a 20-point Fiesta Bowl victory over a Sooner squad that had routed top-ranked Missouri, 38-17, in the Big 12 championship game.
West Virginia never trailed against the Sooners, jumping out to an early 6-0 lead on two Pat McAfee field goals before opening up a 20-6 halftime advantage as a result of two touchdowns, one a 57-yard gallop by fullback Owen Schmitt in the second quarter.
In the second half, following touchdown runs by Noel Devine and Darius Reynaud, game MVP Pat White hit a streaking Tito Gonzales for a 79-yard scoring strike early in the fourth quarter when Oklahoma was threatening a comeback. Devine put the game on ice when he outran the Sooner defense for a 65-yard touchdown.
That unforgettable evening in Glendale, Arizona, has to go down as one of the best-ever moments in WVU football history.
Yet what the 2007 team failed to do during the regular season, Don Nehlen’s talented 1988 squad was able to master.
No WVU grid team before or since completely dominated a regular season the way the Mountaineers did in 1988 behind the dazzling feet of Heisman Trophy finalist Major Harris.
West Virginia rolled through its regular season schedule that year, beating all 11 opponents by double-digit margins, including 55-24, 31-10, 22-10, 59-19, 51-30 and 31-9 victories over main Eastern rivals Maryland, Pitt, Virginia Tech, Boston College, Penn State and Syracuse.
The Mountaineers’ nine-week stretch from September 17 until November 19, when they pulverized the best football teams the East had to offer that year by an average margin of 23.9 points per game, has to go down as the most dominant stretch of football ever played at West Virginia.
WVU finished the season ranked second in the country in points per game, fifth in total offense, sixth in rushing offense, 13th in pass defense and 17th in total defense. The Mountaineers averaged an impressive 465.9 yards per game and an eye-catching 6.3 yards per play on offense.
And, WVU’s 51-30 victory over Penn State remains the largest margin of defeat ever suffered by a Joe Paterno-coached team and was clearly the highlight of a very memorable season.
In fact, West Virginia defeated common opponents Penn State and Pitt by a wider margin than top-ranked Notre Dame, which downed West Virginia, 34-21, in the Fiesta Bowl.
The Mountaineers’ national championship hopes took a nose dive on the game’s third play when Notre Dame linebacker Michael Stonebreaker pile-drove Harris to the ground, injuring Major’s throwing shoulder.
Harris’ inability to effectively pass the football, and his reluctance to run it the way he had all season, played a big role in WVU’s 13-point defeat to the Irish that was actually not nearly as close as the final score might indicate.
A re-tooled West Virginia secondary, minus starting free safety Darrell Whitmore, had trouble defending Tony Rice’s middle-of-the-field passes to Raghib Ismail, Ricky Watters and tight end Derek Brown, and the Mountaineers’ handicapped offensive attack was unable to help the defense by keeping the Irish offense off the field.
A Grantis Bell touchdown reception and then a Reggie Rembert touchdown run late in the game kept the game from being a total rout.
Had Harris not gotten injured, the game probably would have been more competitive. But would a healthy Harris have been enough to knock off the Irish?
Of course, it’s impossible to know for sure, but Mountaineer fans will always wonder if a healthy Harris would have made enough of a difference to change the outcome?
Those associated with the ‘88 team certainly believe so.
Thanks for participating in this summer’s 125-year football celebration and be sure to proudly display your 125-year flags as the Mountaineers attempt to make even more history this fall, beginning on Saturday, September 3, when they play host to the Missouri Tigers at Milan Puskar Stadium.
We hope to see you then!
For decades, hundreds of photographs chronicling some of the greatest moments in West Virginia University football history have been hidden away beneath piles of dusty media guides, tattered game programs, and yellowed newspaper clippings. Within the annals of the WVU athletic department, these archival treasures have been overlooked and forgotten over the years. That is until now.
With nearly twenty-five years of experience in intercollegiate athletics at West Virginia University, John Antonik brings these long-lost photographs to life with a narrative that highlights the key players, coaches, and the greatest moments in Mountaineer football history. Saturday Snapshots spotlights the dirt and grime, the sweat and tears, and the pageantry and tradition behind a team that has captivated the Mountain State from its inception. With stunning pictures, exclusive stories, and fascinating facts and statistics, it is the ultimate resource for the faithful West Virginia University football fan.
By spanning WVU football’s entire history—from that first game in snowy Morgantown on Saturday, November 28, 1891, to West Virginia’s appearance in the AutoZone Liberty Bowl in Memphis, Tennessee, on December 29, 2014—these snapshots will keep you turning the pages until the clock runs out.
