West Virginia-Maryland Series
September 15, 2010 07:00 PM | General
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - A lot has changed since the last time Maryland brought a football team to Milan Puskar Stadium in 2006. For starters, Coach Ralph Friedgen has relinquished play calling duties – that is now being done by coach-in-waiting James Franklin. And Don Brown now runs the Maryland defense in place of Chris Cosh.
West Virginia, too, has undergone many changes. Bill Stewart is now the head coach instead of Rich Rodriguez, with only Jeff Casteel and Bill Kirelawich remaining from the 2006 defensive staff.
Up until that time, the two teams played 28 straight times (including twice in one year) and then an additional year in 2007 before taking two years off in 2008 and 2009 so Maryland could play Cal.
“We’ve had a two-year leave of absence and I personally, being a native West Virginian, am excited for the chance to play the Maryland Terrapins again,” said West Virginia coach Bill Stewart. “It’s been a great rivalry throughout the years.”
West Virginia Director of Athletics Oliver Luck is also a big fan of the series, noting that it’s such an easy game for both schools to play considering their proximity.
“We sell out the games when they come here and they sell out the games when we go there,” Luck said. “Plus, Washington, D.C. has always been such an important area to West Virginia University with the large number of alums we have over there.”
Now the series has once again resumed this year with future contests planned through 2017. For years, the game has been meaningful to both schools such as in 1969 when the Mountaineers were able to beat one of their own when WVU graduate Roy Lester coached the Terrapins to a 31-7 loss against Jim Carlen’s Mountaineers at the old stadium.
Four years later in 1973, Danny Buggs ended one of the most exciting WVU-Maryland games ever with a 69-yard punt return for a touchdown in a 20-13 WVU victory during Jerry Caliborne’s first season patrolling the Terrapin sidelines.
Three years after that in 1976, Claiborne gained revenge with a 24-3 pasting in Morgantown on the way to an 11-1 season and a meeting with Houston in the 1977 Cotton Bowl.
Frank Cignetti’s signature win at WVU came in 1977 when his Mountaineers jumped out to a 24-0 first-half lead in College Park and then had to hang on for dear life in the second half against the No. 11 Terps, winning 24-16.
“I remember talking to Frank on an airplane recently and we talked about what West Virginia was up against back in the late 1970s with Pitt and Penn State being so good,” Luck remembered. “Maryland wasn’t quite on par with Pitt and Penn State in terms of talent, but we knew before we could even compete with them we had to beat teams like Maryland.”
The next three times these two teams played in 1980, 1981 and 1982 the winning margin was less than three points. Wilkes-Barre, Pa.’s Charlie Wysocki was the difference in the 1980 game in Morgantown, his two touchdowns and 149 yards helping Maryland to a tough, 14-11 victory.
West Virginia’s two wins in 1981 and 1982 came as a result of some good fortune.
In 1981 Rich Hollins recovered a fumbled punt at the Maryland 12 with 4:56 remaining in the game that led to Luck’s game-winning touchdown and in 1982, West Virginia was able to force Maryland quarterback Boomer Esiason into throwing high on his two-point conversion try to preserve its 19-18 triumph.
“The 1981 win was big for us because Maryland was good,” said Luck, while also recalling a pass interference call on an interception he threw in the corner of the end zone that placed the ball on the 1-yard line to set up his winning score.
The two teams also played entertaining games in 1983 and 1984. Jeff Hostetler overcame a two-INT first half to lead the Mountaineers to a 31-21 victory in College Park in 1983. A year later, Coach Bobby Ross snapped West Virginia’s three-game winning streak with a 20-17 win that came as a result of a 15-play, 84-yard drive to set up Jess Atkinson’s game-winning 21-yard field goal with 21 seconds remaining.
That victory was the first of three straight Terrapin wins, the third in 1987 coming after West Virginia jumped out to an early 14-0 lead when Eugene Napoleon took the game’s opening kickoff for a touchdown and linebacker Robert Pickett intercepted a Maryland pass and returned it for a TD.
In 1988, West Virginia’s 55-24 rout snapped Maryland’s four-game winning streak and set in motion the Mountaineers’ 11-0 regular season and meeting against Notre Dame in the 1989 Fiesta Bowl for the national championship.
The 1990s also gave us some interesting WVU-Maryland games. In 1992, first-year coach Mark Duffner had the Mountaineers on the ropes with a 33-14 lead heading into the fourth quarter before backup quarterback Darren Studstill led WVU to 20 unanswered points and a 34-33 come from behind win.
West Virginia won another shootout in the nighttime rain at College Park when the Mountaineers were able to overcome four Robert Walker fumbles and Scott Milanovich’s 451 yards passing in a 42-37 Mountaineer victory.
Following a 13-0 slugfest that West Virginia won in Morgantown in 1996, the two teams once again lit up the scoreboards over the next eight years, the winning team scoring at least 30 points in each of those games. Maryland got the better end of the stick with 33-0, 32-20, 48-17, 34-7 and 41-7 victories during that stretch before West Virginia snapped the Terps’ four-game winning streak in Morgantown in 2004 with a 19-16 overtime win.
That victory set in motion West Virginia’s current four-game winning streak heading into Saturday’s contest in Morgantown.
The Mountaineers’ four-game winning streak is their longest in the 46-game history of the series dating back to 1919. Maryland won six straight during a 17-year period from 1949-66 under coaches Jim Tatum, Tom Nugent and Lou Saban.
Maryland has played West Virginia more than any other non-conference opponent, the Terrapins having only faced six schools more than the Mountaineers. Meanwhile, Maryland is West Virginia’s fifth most frequent foe, trailing Pitt (102 games), Penn State (59), Syracuse (57) and Virginia Tech (51).
Overall, West Virginia owns a slim 23-21-2 record against the Terps, including a 12-9-1 record in Morgantown.
Stewart expects another difficult game on Saturday afternoon.
“Maryland is a good football team,” Stewart said. “I don’t know about the last two years because we haven’t played them but I know we played them in 2007 and we’re playing them again this year – that’s what I know. I very much look forward to this football game; it’s going to be a tough one.”
History says they usually are.
West Virginia, too, has undergone many changes. Bill Stewart is now the head coach instead of Rich Rodriguez, with only Jeff Casteel and Bill Kirelawich remaining from the 2006 defensive staff.
Up until that time, the two teams played 28 straight times (including twice in one year) and then an additional year in 2007 before taking two years off in 2008 and 2009 so Maryland could play Cal.
“We’ve had a two-year leave of absence and I personally, being a native West Virginian, am excited for the chance to play the Maryland Terrapins again,” said West Virginia coach Bill Stewart. “It’s been a great rivalry throughout the years.”
West Virginia Director of Athletics Oliver Luck is also a big fan of the series, noting that it’s such an easy game for both schools to play considering their proximity.
“We sell out the games when they come here and they sell out the games when we go there,” Luck said. “Plus, Washington, D.C. has always been such an important area to West Virginia University with the large number of alums we have over there.”
Now the series has once again resumed this year with future contests planned through 2017. For years, the game has been meaningful to both schools such as in 1969 when the Mountaineers were able to beat one of their own when WVU graduate Roy Lester coached the Terrapins to a 31-7 loss against Jim Carlen’s Mountaineers at the old stadium.
Four years later in 1973, Danny Buggs ended one of the most exciting WVU-Maryland games ever with a 69-yard punt return for a touchdown in a 20-13 WVU victory during Jerry Caliborne’s first season patrolling the Terrapin sidelines.
Three years after that in 1976, Claiborne gained revenge with a 24-3 pasting in Morgantown on the way to an 11-1 season and a meeting with Houston in the 1977 Cotton Bowl.
Frank Cignetti’s signature win at WVU came in 1977 when his Mountaineers jumped out to a 24-0 first-half lead in College Park and then had to hang on for dear life in the second half against the No. 11 Terps, winning 24-16.
“I remember talking to Frank on an airplane recently and we talked about what West Virginia was up against back in the late 1970s with Pitt and Penn State being so good,” Luck remembered. “Maryland wasn’t quite on par with Pitt and Penn State in terms of talent, but we knew before we could even compete with them we had to beat teams like Maryland.”
The next three times these two teams played in 1980, 1981 and 1982 the winning margin was less than three points. Wilkes-Barre, Pa.’s Charlie Wysocki was the difference in the 1980 game in Morgantown, his two touchdowns and 149 yards helping Maryland to a tough, 14-11 victory.
West Virginia’s two wins in 1981 and 1982 came as a result of some good fortune.
In 1981 Rich Hollins recovered a fumbled punt at the Maryland 12 with 4:56 remaining in the game that led to Luck’s game-winning touchdown and in 1982, West Virginia was able to force Maryland quarterback Boomer Esiason into throwing high on his two-point conversion try to preserve its 19-18 triumph.
“The 1981 win was big for us because Maryland was good,” said Luck, while also recalling a pass interference call on an interception he threw in the corner of the end zone that placed the ball on the 1-yard line to set up his winning score.
The two teams also played entertaining games in 1983 and 1984. Jeff Hostetler overcame a two-INT first half to lead the Mountaineers to a 31-21 victory in College Park in 1983. A year later, Coach Bobby Ross snapped West Virginia’s three-game winning streak with a 20-17 win that came as a result of a 15-play, 84-yard drive to set up Jess Atkinson’s game-winning 21-yard field goal with 21 seconds remaining.
That victory was the first of three straight Terrapin wins, the third in 1987 coming after West Virginia jumped out to an early 14-0 lead when Eugene Napoleon took the game’s opening kickoff for a touchdown and linebacker Robert Pickett intercepted a Maryland pass and returned it for a TD.
In 1988, West Virginia’s 55-24 rout snapped Maryland’s four-game winning streak and set in motion the Mountaineers’ 11-0 regular season and meeting against Notre Dame in the 1989 Fiesta Bowl for the national championship.
The 1990s also gave us some interesting WVU-Maryland games. In 1992, first-year coach Mark Duffner had the Mountaineers on the ropes with a 33-14 lead heading into the fourth quarter before backup quarterback Darren Studstill led WVU to 20 unanswered points and a 34-33 come from behind win.
West Virginia won another shootout in the nighttime rain at College Park when the Mountaineers were able to overcome four Robert Walker fumbles and Scott Milanovich’s 451 yards passing in a 42-37 Mountaineer victory.
Following a 13-0 slugfest that West Virginia won in Morgantown in 1996, the two teams once again lit up the scoreboards over the next eight years, the winning team scoring at least 30 points in each of those games. Maryland got the better end of the stick with 33-0, 32-20, 48-17, 34-7 and 41-7 victories during that stretch before West Virginia snapped the Terps’ four-game winning streak in Morgantown in 2004 with a 19-16 overtime win.
That victory set in motion West Virginia’s current four-game winning streak heading into Saturday’s contest in Morgantown.
The Mountaineers’ four-game winning streak is their longest in the 46-game history of the series dating back to 1919. Maryland won six straight during a 17-year period from 1949-66 under coaches Jim Tatum, Tom Nugent and Lou Saban.
Maryland has played West Virginia more than any other non-conference opponent, the Terrapins having only faced six schools more than the Mountaineers. Meanwhile, Maryland is West Virginia’s fifth most frequent foe, trailing Pitt (102 games), Penn State (59), Syracuse (57) and Virginia Tech (51).
Overall, West Virginia owns a slim 23-21-2 record against the Terps, including a 12-9-1 record in Morgantown.
Stewart expects another difficult game on Saturday afternoon.
“Maryland is a good football team,” Stewart said. “I don’t know about the last two years because we haven’t played them but I know we played them in 2007 and we’re playing them again this year – that’s what I know. I very much look forward to this football game; it’s going to be a tough one.”
History says they usually are.
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