The West Virginia Mountaineers football team represents West Virginia University (WVU) in the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of college football. West Virginia plays its home games at Milan Puskar Stadium on the campus of West Virginia University in Morgantown, West Virginia. The Mountaineers have won or shared a total of 15 conference championships, including eight Southern Conference titles and seven Big East Conference titles. The Mountaineers compete in the Big 12 Conference.
History
Early history (1891–1949)
The West Virginia University football program traces its origin back to November 28, 1891, when its first team fell to Washington & Jefferson 72–0 on a converted cow pasture. Despite its humble beginning, West Virginia enjoyed a 25–23–3 overall record prior to 1900, which proved to be a fruitful century of Mountaineer football. The early 1900s brought about early successes for the program, namely during the 1903 and 1905 seasons when WVU posted records of 7–1 and 8–1 respectively. WVU produced a 6–3 record in the 1904 season, despite losing to Penn State, Pitt, and Michigan by a combined score of 217–0. The 1908–20 period produced the four-year head coaching tenures of C.A. Lueder (1908–11) and Mont McIntire (1916–17, 1919–20), representing the longest coaching tenures during this early period of Mountaineer football. Lueder's Mountaineers produced a 17–13–3 record, while McIntire's teams produced the most success of any Mountaineer team prior to 1921, compiling a 24–11–4 record including an 8–2 finish in 1919.
That same Mountaineer team also produced West Virginia's first ever Consensus All-American and potential College Football Hall of Fame inductee, Ira Errett Rodgers. Rodgers scored 19 touchdowns and kicked 33 extra points for WVU in 1919 season, leading the nation with 147 total points. Rodgers also threw 11 touchdown passes that season, an unheard of feat at the time and a Mountaineer record until 1949. The Mountaineers enjoyed their first period of success during the 1920s, coinciding with the successful coaching tenures of Clarence Spears (1921–24) and Ira Errett Rodgers (1925–30, 1943–45). Under the tutelage of Spears, West Virginia compiled a 30–6–3 record with its best performance coming in the 1922 season. The 1922 edition of the Mountaineers remains the only team in West Virginia history to produce an unbeaten season, finishing with a 10–0–1 mark. Spears's Mountaineers surrendered only 34 total points in 1922, posting six consecutive shutouts to finish the regular season. The 1922 season also produced notable victories against rival Pitt and against Gonzaga in the East-West Bowl, the program's first bowl game appearance. Offensive tackle Russell Meredith garnered First-Team All-American honors. In homage to the successes of the 1922 season, West Virginia University undertook construction of what became the first incarnation of Mountaineer Field.
The Mountaineers continued their success under Spears in posting subsequent one-loss seasons in 1923 (7–1–1) and in 1924 (8–1), with Spears departing the program for Minnesota thereafter. Ira Errett Rodgers replaced Spears and the Mountaineers posted an 8–1 record in 1925. After a 6–4 finish in 1926 and a 2–4–3 record in 1927, the program produced an 8–2 finish in 1928. Rodgers's first tenure as West Virginia coach ended with records of 4–3–3 in 1929 and 5–5 in 1930. Taking over for Rodgers in 1931 was Earle "Greasy" Neale, but his tenure was short-lived as the Mountaineers failed to produce a single winning season under his guise, going a combined 12–16–3 over Neale's three years as coach. Charles Tallman, an End who achieved All-American status with the Mountaineers in 1923 with the Mountaineers, replaced Neale in 1934 and produced immediate results as the program posted 6–4 records in 1934 and 1936. Although West Virginia posted a 3–4–2 record in 1935, the program produced an All-American in Joe Stydahar, an offensive tackle. "Jumbo Joe" later became both a College Football Hall of Fame and Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee. Despite his winning record, Tallman resigned after the 1936 season to pursue his career in law enforcement as Superintendent of the West Virginia State Police. Marshall Glenn picked up right where Tallman left off, leading West Virginia to an 8–1–1 record in 1937. The season concluded with an upset of Texas Tech in the 1938 Sun Bowl. Running back Harry Clarke led the way for the Mountaineers that season, rushing for a then school record 921 yards and 10 touchdowns. Glenn's success was short-lived, however, as subsequent WVU teams posted losing records of 4–5–1 in 1938 and 2–6–1 in 1939, leading to his ouster. West Virginia experienced a lag in success during much of the 1940s, producing only three winning seasons while witnessing the split coaching tenures of Bill Kern (1940–42, 1946–47) and the second appearance of Ira Errett Rodgers (1943–45). Under the direction of head coach Dudley DeGroot in the 1948 season, the Mountaineers returned to prominence with a 9–3 finish, adding another Sun Bowl victory to its resume with a 21–12 defeat of Texas Western (now known as UTEP). Despite that successful first season at the program's helm, DeGroot resigned after a disappointing 4–6–1 finish in 1949.
Art Lewis era (1950–1959)
When Art "Pappy" Lewis became West Virginia's head coach in 1950, he remarked that it was the job that he had always wanted. Known by his peers as an exceptional recruiter and by his players as a father figure, Lewis established a family-like atmosphere within the Mountaineer football program. Lewis's Mountaineer teams held true to form, experiencing their most consistent success during the 1950s as it ever had previously. After forgettable campaigns in 1950 and '1951, the 1952 season brought WVU its first winning season since 1948. The Mountaineers finished with a 7–2 record, highlighted by a 16–0 upset victory of No. 18 Pitt in Pittsburgh.
Beginning with the 1953 season, the Mountaineers would reel off three consecutive eight-win seasons and five Southern Conference (SoCon) championships in six seasons. In 1953, the Mountaineers finished with an 8–2 record, their first SoCon championship, a No. 10 ranking in the Associated Press (AP) Poll, and a berth in the Sugar Bowl with Georgia Tech. The 1954 edition of the Mountaineers also finished the regular season with an 8–1 mark, losing their only game to Pitt by a 13–10 score. The Mountaineers did not earn a bowl bid, however, despite winning their second consecutive SoCon title and earning a No. 12 ranking in the AP Poll. In 1955, the Mountaineers engineered yet another eight-win season and SoCon championship, but upset losses to Pitt and Syracuse doomed West Virginia's shot at a bowl bid. Despite its disappointing finish, WVU produced two All-American offensive linemen and future College Football Hall of Fame inductees in Bruce Bosley and Sam Huff. Bosley earned Consensus All-American status that season, becoming the first Mountaineer to do so since Ira Errett Rodgers in 1919.
Despite finishing with a modest 6–4 record in 1956, West Virginia won its fourth consecutive SoCon title with a 5–0 record in conference play. The 1957 season resulted in a 7–2–1 record and a 3–0 mark in Southern Conference play. Although the Mountaineers once again compiled an undefeated SoCon record, they were not awarded the conference championship, as VMI earned the title with a 9–0–1 overall record and 6–0 record in SoCon play. In 1958, the Mountaineers had their first losing season in eight years, but their 4–0 record in SoCon play earned them a 5th conference title in six seasons. The 1958 season was the final season that West Virginia would win a conference championship under Lewis's tenure. The Mountaineers finished 3–7 in 1959, losing the final five games of the season by a combined score of 24–140. Lewis resigned as head coach afterward. Despite the program's drop off in success in his final two seasons as coach, Lewis produced 58 victories overall during his tenure at West Virginia, placing him fourth overall in the program's history.
Gene Corum era (1960–1965)
After Lewis's departure, the program hit an all-time low in 1960 under first-year head coach Gene Corum, posting its worst season to date: 0–8–2. The Mountaineers were simply outclassed by their opponents, being outscored 40–259 on the season. The Mountaineers rebounded, however, and by 1962 were back to their winning ways, posting an 8–2 record and 4–0 conference record. Despite their undefeated conference record, once again the SoCon crown eluded the Mountaineers in favor of the VMI Keydets and their 6–0 record in conference play. West Virginia did not have to wait long for its next SoCon title, however, as the program won the title in the 1964 and 1965 seasons consecutively. The Mountaineers finished 7–4 in 1964 and participated in the Liberty Bowl against Utah, West Virginia's first bowl game in 11 years as well as the first major college football bowl game ever played indoors and to be broadcast nationwide in the United States. Corum's tenure ended thereafter, posting a 29–30–2 record over his six seasons as head coach. Corum's legacy went well beyond wins and losses, however, as he integrated WVU football in 1963 with the program's first African-American recruits in Roger Alford and Dick Leftridge.
Jim Carlen era (1966–1969) Following the 1965 season, Jim Carlen took over for Corum as head coach. After a 3–5–2 finish in 1966, Carlen guided the Mountaineers to their 8th and final SoCon championship in 1967. West Virginia left the Southern Conference thereafter, participating as an independent until 1991. Carlen's Mountaineers would produce subsequent winning seasons in 1968 and 1969, posting records of 7–3 and 10–1, respectively. The 1969 edition of the Mountaineers was the most successful West Virginia team since the 1922 season. Not only did the Mountaineers win 10 games, but they earned their first bowl game victory since 1948 with a Peach Bowl victory over No. 19 South Carolina, as well as a No. 18 final ranking in the Coaches Poll. The dynamic rushing tandem of running back Bob Gresham (1,155 yards and 9 touchdowns) and fullback Jim Braxton (843 yards, 12 touchdowns) led the Mountaineers. Gresham became the second Mountaineer to ever rush for more than 1,000 yards (Garrett Ford, Sr. was the first with 1,068 yards in 1966). At the conclusion of the 1969 season, Carlen departed West Virginia for Texas Tech. The Mountaineers responded by hiring Bobby Bowden.
Bobby Bowden era (1970–1975)
It appeared that the Bobby Bowden era of Mountaineer football could not have begun more smoothly early in the 1970 season, or so it seemed. The Mountaineers were 4–1 to start the season and led arch rival Pitt 35–8 at halftime in week six. What transpired was one of the most infamous collapses in Backyard Brawl and West Virginia football history. The Mountaineers surrendered 28 unanswered points, losing to the Panthers 36–35 and leading Bowden to remark that he had "embarrassed the whole state of West Virginia" in the process. Despite the disappointment of the Pitt defeat, West Virginia went on to finish the 1970 season with an 8–3 record. Fullback Jim Braxton and linebacker Dale Farley earned All-American honors.
The Mountaineers continued their winning ways under Bowden in 1971 and 1972, posting records of 7–4 and 8–4 respectively. The 1972 West Virginia team earned the program's first trip back to a bowl game in three years, participating once again in the Peach Bowl against North Carolina State. The season also witnessed the offensive prowess of running back Kerry Marbury and wide receiver Danny Buggs. Marbury ran for 16 touchdowns in 1972, a record that remained unbroken until 2002. Buggs recorded 35 receptions for 791 yards and eight touchdowns, ran for four touchdowns, and returned two punts for touchdowns to amass 14 total touchdowns.