Published September 20, 2011 - 7:19am
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The Mountaineers of West Virginia have a proud football tradition — even though it’s not exactly an SEC-rich football tradition. With the potential collapse of the Big East and West Virginia’s pursuit of becoming the SEC’s 14th member, SEC fans are wondering if West Virginia is a good fit for the proud football conference. Does Morgantown belong in the same category as Tuscaloosa, Athens and Gainesville?
West Virginia University was founded in 1867 as a federal land-grant college. Today WVU has just over 29,000 students, which is on par with most SEC schools. The school boasts what is now the newest stadium in the SEC, Mountaineer Field at Milan Puskar Stadium, built in 1980 and named for a pharmaceutical executive who donated $20 million. With a capacity of 60,000, Puskar Stadium is the third-smallest SEC facility after Vanderbilt Stadium and Mississippi State’s Davis-Wade Stadium.
Given the lack of professional sports in West Virginia, the Mountaineers football and basketball programs have a passionate student following that has generated a certain degree of infamy. In 2005, GQ Magazine named West Virginia fans among the “ten most obnoxious college sports fans” in the country, comparing the Mountaineers faithful to “soccer hooligans” and citing an impressive record of 1,129 intentional street fires lit over a seven-year period. (Vanderbilt was the only SEC school to make the GQ list that year, but in the Commodores’ case, it was for their “apathy.”)
Mountaineers football dates back to November 1891 when West Virginia’s first team was demolished 72-0 in Morgantown by Washington & Jefferson (now a Division III school). West Virginia posted its first winning campaign in 1895, posting a 5-1 record. In 1922 the Mountaineers had its first undefeated team, their 10-0-1 record blemished only by a 12-12 tie with Washington & Lee.
That 1922 team didn’t give up a single point in its final six regular season games. It also proved to be the start of a mini-Golden Era for West Virginia. From 1922 thru 1925, the Mountaineers went 35-3-2, with two of those three losses coming against traditional rival Pittsburgh.
West Virginia spent most of its first football century as an independent. In 1950, the Mountaineers joined the Southern Conference — the same conference that the SEC’s founding members had left in 1936 — and enjoyed a brief period of dominance, winning 30 consecutive conference games from 1952–1958 and claiming five conference titles. West Virginia withdrew from the Southern Conference in 1968 and remained an independent for the next two decades.
In 1988, West Virginia posted its first undefeated, untied regular season, going 11-0 before losing to an undefeated Notre Dame in a Fiesta Bowl that served as a de facto national championship game.
In 1991, the centennial year of West Virginia football, the Mountaineers joined the Big East Conference as a charter football member. West Virginia has won or shared in six Big East titles. The 2005 team notably went 11-1, culminating in a 38-35 Sugar Bowl victory over Georgia. Overall, West Virginia averaged 10 wins a year from 2005–2010 and is one of only four schools to win at least nine games in each of the past six seasons.
West Virginia has also had an unusual degree of coaching turmoil during this period as well. In 2007 and coming off a 10-2 regular season, Rich Rodriguez left West Virginia for Michigan just four months after signing a new contract. The departure was acrimonious and led to the university suing Rodriguez for breach of contract, which eventually led to the coach and Michigan paying a financial settlement.
Rodriguez was succeeded by one of his assistants, Bill Stewart, who was initially named interim coach for the 2008 Fiesta Bowl. After leading West Virginia to a 48-28 upset over then-No. 3 Oklahoma, West Virginia officials immediately named Stewart the permanent coach and gave him a five-year contract, a move that was heavily criticized by some Mountaineers boosters.
Although Stewart produced a 28-12 record over three full seasons as head coach, his tenure ended abruptly this past June. Previously the university announced the hiring of Oklahoma State offensive coordinator Dana Holgorsen as “head coach-in-waiting.” Originally Holgorsen planned to serve as Stewart’s offensive coordinator in 2011 before taking over as head coach in 2012. The plan quickly fell apart. When media reports emerged about Stewart allegedly trying to “dig up dirt” on Holgorsen to discredit him with the press, West Virginia forced Stewart to resign and accept a buyout.
Holgorsen and his offensive prowess — he produced top-five offenses at three different schools over the past five years — will soon be tested against the SEC, which is unfamiliar territory for the Mountaineers. West Virginia has a sparse record of competition against its new conference brethren. Indeed, the Mountaineers have never played Alabama, Tennessee, Arkansas or fellow SEC rookie Texas A&M. The only SEC schools West Virginia has played more than twice are South Carolina (12 games, the last in 1994) and Kentucky (20 games, the last in 1983).
West Virginia’s current staff does have one notable SEC alum, running backs coach Robert Gillespie, who played at Florida for four years under Steve Spurrier and served as a captain of the 2001 Gators. Not surprisingly for a Spurrier disciple, Gillespie finished his college career ranking second all-time at Florida for receptions and receiving yards by a back. Spurrier later signed Gillespie as a rookie with the Washington Redskins and gave him his first coaching job as an assistant at South Carolina.
Hard to say. It would bring the SEC into the Pittsburgh area/market. WV is a pretty strong football team, and should be competitive year-in and year-out.
Personally, I’d prefer Maryland. That brings us into both the Baltimore and the D.C. market, plus their facilities are a little better. Maryland is also pretty strong academic-wise.
Going to be interesting to see what happens. I do hate to see so many conferences falling apart like they are.
Nooo Please Make it UVA or VA Tech so i can get some good SEC football in my new backyard!
Welcome to the neighborhood. You’ll get sick of these VT “fans” before too long. If there are 25 TVs, they’ll insist that every one be turned to the VT game and will then proceed to not watch it.
No.
Are you warming up to Texas A&M yet?
No
I’d like it if all these conferences would stick to their names. SOUTH EASTERN!!! West Virginia is not really the Southeast. If you’re in the Atlantic Coast Conference, for example, shouldn’t your state border that ocean? Just sayin’.
If you don’t think West Virginia is a southern state, you have clearly never been there.
Um, do a history lesson and figure out why W. Va was founded? Then you’ll understand why its NOT in the South.
There is a difference to being southern and hill-billy.
Yes and no; team wise they are, but their fans are not. I think the team outweighs the fans, issue-wise.
I’d much rather see Clemson jump to the SEC, but unless something cam be done about the ACC buyout, not much will happen. Interestingly enough, the Big East blowup gives USF and TCU an opening. Two Texas teams, WVU and either USF or Clemson (or add both and bring in Baylor or Missouri) and we’ve got a true super conference, rather than a Big Three and the rest, or a PAC Three and the rest.
Don’t know. Still on the fence about this one as am I about the A&M deal.
No way! We already have one fan base as bad as them (LSU) we don’t need another. This expansion Sh*t is getting way out of control. Super Conferences is an awful idea that is going to take a lot out of college football.
Yea, we’ll take West Virginia, along with Texas A&M. 14 teams is enough for now. If the SEC chooses to expand to 16 teams, who else is available? I don’t see any ACC teams jumping to the SEC, so that realisticly leaves possibly Missouri, Navy, Oklahoma or OK State, or even a CUSA school (Heaven forbid).But it’s OK – I’ll do anything for a football playoff bracket.
West Virginia? I guess it will be alright if the rest of the SEC wants to know what it would like to play against the Hanson Brothers.
Missouri, then west virginia and either usf or tcu if we go to 16 teams. clemson will be blocked by sc. fsu will be blocked by UF. GT will be blocked by uga. nc and nc state bring nothing but basketball. Vt brings nothing once Frank Beamer is gone.
Wow, not in the South? I am sorry to bring it to the attention of some of you but, the Civl War ended long ago, the South Lost! Get over it! You people from Alabama are hilarious! You act as if Alabama is high class society? I bet if you look up the term redneck in the dictionary it says see Alabama! You guys have a guy going around killing trees and you are better than WVU how again? Get over yourselves! Maybe you tend to forget that your beloved head coach is a WV native? Our fanbase is being cleaned up by the AD. He is not going to tolerate the behavior of what has tarnished the image of WVU. If I didn’t know better, it almost sounds like you guys are afraid of a little added competiton?