Campus Connection: 5 Nauseating Games
September 25, 2014 10:39 AM | General
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| Larry Williams sits on the turf following West Virginia's 13-9 loss to Pitt in 2007 that cost the Mountaineers an opportunity to play in the national championship game. | |
| All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks photo |
I have always enjoyed Dana Holgorsen’s tell-it-like-it-is approach with the media, and we got an entertaining example of it earlier this week when the coach was asked about last year’s 31-19 loss at Kansas - West Virginia’s game-five foe coming up next weekend.
“I’ve been watching (that game) for two straight days, and it makes me want to puke,” he said to scattered laughter.
It certainly was a nauseating performance for West Virginia, from watching James Sims run at will against the Mountaineers’ depleted defense to the offense putting on a successful demonstration of how to run three unsuccessful plays in a row before punting the football back to the Jayhawks.
At the conclusion of the game, a small band of KU students even converged on one of the goal posts the same way the U.S. Marines once went into Grenada.
It was the first Big 12 victory in 16 tries for coach Charlie Weis - a triumph Kansas was able to parlay into a pair of season-ending losses to Iowa State and Kansas State by a combined score of 65-10 to finish the year with a 3-9 record.
These eyes have witnessed several stomach-churning West Virginia performances through the years, from the blocked punt against Miami in 1996 that cast a pall over the entire state to the dropped interception against Pitt in 1989 that turned a sure Mountaineer victory into a sister-kisser.
The Syracuse abomination in 1992, the last-second loss to third-ranked Virginia Tech in 1999, the Virginia Tech defeat in 1989 when afterward the Hokie players were breakdancing at the 50-yard line on the state of West Virginia or WVU blowing a 13-0 fourth-quarter lead at second-ranked Pitt in 1982 … all of these were crushing defeats that caused indigestion, but in each instance the Mountaineers at least went down swinging (literally, in the case of the Syracuse loss).
However, here is a list of five miserable games that left us doubled over in the corner - the same way we felt after eating a really bad piece of chicken.
So grab a couple of bottles of water, break out the Pepto-Bismol if you have to, and find a comfortable place next to the toilet, because recalling these five West Virginia football games will certainly make you want to throw up:
5. Cincinnati 15, West Virginia 13 (2003)
Somebody must have passed out the butter during pregame warm-ups because West Virginia and Cincinnati combined to fumble the football a Mountaineer-Field-record eight times during this depressing 2003 game that set football back decades.
However, the majority of those fumbles came from West Virginia, the Mountaineers also managing to throw a pair of interceptions and missing a couple of field goals in the process. The tone was set early in the game when Pacman Jones got wiped out just as he was about to catch a punt, his fumble leading to the first of three Chet Ervin field goals for the Bearcats.
The West Virginia offense, which West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez predicted would play “like it’s hair was on fire” when he was hired, was a fire drill all afternoon, finishing with an anemic 118 yards rushing just one week after piling up 361 yards on the ground against East Carolina.
A day after reviewing the game tape, all Rodriguez could say about the game was that it was “a nightmare.”
It sure was.
Yak.
4a. Rutgers 17, West Virginia 12 (1994)
West Virginia reporters used to put their hands over the mouthpiece of their telephones and snicker whenever Don Nehlen would begin to talk up Rutgers like they were the sleeping giants of the East during his weekly Big East Conference coaches’ teleconferences.
“I don’t know why Rutgers keeps changing coaches up there,” Nehlen would say. “That Doug Graber is doing such a great job! That Terry Shea is one heck of a coach. Heavens, he even coached for Bill Walsh.
“Bill Walsh!”
Virginia Tech’s Frank Beamer was another guy guilty of always talking up Rutgers.
In the meantime, Nehlen, Beamer and the rest of the gang in the Big East used to beat on the hapless Scarlet Knights like a drum. Losing streaks, it seemed, always ended in Piscataway, New Jersey.
Well, in 1994, West Virginia discovered that the Knights had a little more fight in them than usual by handing the Mountaineers a nauseating 17-12 defeat. West Virginia that afternoon proved that a team could have a 15-minute advantage in time of possession, almost a two-to-one margin in total yardage and a 25-8 edge in first downs and still lose a football game.
“We can’t get into the end zone,” was the explanation Nehlen gave afterward of his team’s five-point loss.
Obviously.
Rutgers had just 190 yards of offense for the game and 53 of it came on a non-scoring pass to tight end Marco Battaglia – that’s how miserable things were for the Mountaineers that afternoon.
Hurl.
4b. Rutgers 13, West Virginia 9 (1992)
Less than 23,000 fans were on hand at Rutgers Stadium to watch one of the worst football games ever played, at least that’s how West Virginia fans viewed it following the Mountaineers’ 13-9 loss.
Believe it or not, WVU actually went into the game still in contention for a bowl invitation, and I recall a couple of bowl scouts actually being in attendance at Rutgers Stadium before they wised up and slipped out the back door at halftime.
There are two other things that I distinctly remember about this game. One, before the stadium was enclosed Rutgers used to have a small cannon positioned on the hillside beyond the end zone with three guys who looked like they were from the Pennsylvania Dutch Country dressed up in Revolutionary War attire there to fire it whenever the Scarlet Knights scored a touchdown.
Rutgers only scored one TD that afternoon on a first-quarter Ray Lucas pass and you could immediately tell that the three guys up there to fire off the contraption were completely caught off guard because the Scarlet Knights scored touchdowns so infrequently back then.
The other thing that I recall was West Virginia getting a late turnover in Rutgers territory and Don Nehlen not having a single healthy running back to put into the game. I believe a battered and heavily bandaged Jon Jones drew the last straw and was told to go back out there. I remember him trying to reattach his shoulder pads as he ran out onto the field and whenever that happens during crunch time, things usually don’t turn out well.
And they didn’t.
Barf.
2. Temple 17, West Virginia 14 (2001)
I figured out real early in my career exactly where Temple stood in the pecking order of Eastern College football when I used to listen to Don Nehlen talk about the Owls.
In the games that Nehlen felt pretty good about, he usually went out of his way to poor-mouth his team while building up his opponent; he did this with the Mid-American schools that West Virginia frequently played back when Nehlen was coaching and he always did this with Temple, which, ironically, ended up in the MAC for a while, too.
Nehlen would say things like “that 88 is a really fast player” or “76 is a heck of a defensive tackle” or “number 12 throws a really tight spiral.” Never once can I specifically recall the coach ever mentioning a Temple player by name, although he likely did.
On one occasion, Nehlen even referenced Temple as “flat-out scary” before catching himself by adding “to a degree.”
What?
Well, a year after Nehlen retired in 2001, you could detect a similar outlook from new coach Rich Rodriguez. The Mountaineers were in the middle of a difficult transition from Nehlen to Rodriguez that season and a game against Temple was a welcomed respite after rough losses to nationally ranked Maryland, Virginia Tech, Miami and Syracuse.
Beat Temple and Pitt to end the year and go into the offseason on a high note - at least that’s what the coaches and the players were most likely thinking.
Well, so much for that. Cap Poklemba’s 35-yard field goal (remember him?) with 9:50 left in the game proved to be the deciding points in a 17-14 Owls victory. A crowd of 37,120 – the eighth lowest in Mountaineer Field history at the time – was all that were there to see it. The collective groan that came after Poklemba’s kick could almost be heard all the way down at the Puskar Center.
“It’s one of the toughest (losses) I’ve ever had as a coach,” said Rodriguez afterward. “It might be the toughest.”
Gag.
1. Pitt 13, West Virginia 9 (2007)
There is no game in West Virginia football history that conjures up more indigestion than the loss to Pitt in 2007.
It’s galling to Mountaineer fans that a quarterback as bad as Pat Bostick will forever have his name attached to this game, and it’s also galling that we will have to listen to linebacker Scott McKillop run his mouth whenever there are anniversaries of the game in the years to come.
As bad as West Virginia played, the Mountaineers still had plenty of chances to win it. A couple of missed field goals and three fumbles hurt the cause, for sure, but WVU was poised to score the go-ahead touchdown late in the fourth quarter when Noel Devine’s kickoff return moved the football to the Pitt 33. From there, three plays netted seven yards to set up a fourth and short at the Pitt 26.
And it was there where McKillop made the play of the game by hauling down Steve Slaton a yard short of the sticks. Had McKillop not tackled Slaton the West Virginia running back had a clear path to the end zone.
WVU’s next possession also began in Pitt territory and the Mountaineers moved the football all the way to the Panther 21 before turning the ball over on downs.
Then Pitt, after taking a safety, was able to run out the clock to defeat West Virginia, 13-9, and end the Mountaineers’ hopes of reaching the BCS national championship game.
The Pitt coaches took such satisfaction in ruining West Virginia’s season that they had special “13-9” Christmas cards made up to send out to all of the local recruits that year.
Now doesn’t that make you want to throw up?
Enjoy your weekend!
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Coach Ryan Garrett | April 6
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Coach Rich Rodriguez | April 6
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