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Ten Most Viewed Football Stories of 2016
January 01, 2017 09:58 AM | Football
As we ring in the New Year, what do you say we take a quick look back at the 10-most viewed football stories posted on WVUsports.com in 2016?
And, in true Countdown to Kickoff style, we’ll do it in descending order:
Talk about getting a bang for your buck! Three graphs, 62 words and two graphics - the before and after depictions of the new stadium field turf. Who was it who said a picture is worth a thousand words? Or, in this case, worth more than 54,000 clicks …
This was West Virginia’s second appearance in the Associated Press Top 25 poll released on Sunday, November 13 following the Mountaineers’ hard-fought 24-20 victory at Texas. The win boosted West Virginia’s overall record to 8-1 and kept alive its faint College Football Playoff hopes.
It was West Virginia’s biggest jump in the polls in 2016 and it came on the heels of the Mountaineers’ impressive 48-17 victory at Texas Tech. It was the highest ranking for WVU in the AP poll (12th) since Dana Holgorsen’s first season in 2012 when the Mountaineers reached No. 5 on October 7, 2012.
Who says Saturdays are slow news days? Announced on Saturday, December 3, Mountaineer fans from Weirton to Welch, Martinsburg to Matewan and all points in between - plus the entire world, hopped on to read about coach Dana Holgorsen’s new deal that puts him under contract for the next five years. At the conclusion of it, in 2021, Holgorsen will have served the second longest coaching tenure in school history, trailing only Don Nehlen’s 21 years of service to Mountaineer football.
After slipping to No. 15 the week prior, West Virginia jumped five spots in the USA Today coaches’ poll to return to the top 10 on Sunday, November 6, following its 48-21 victory over Kansas. Quarterback Skyler Howard passed for 260 yards and accounted for five total touchdowns in the blowout victory over the Jayhawks.
Coach Dana Holgorsen announced the return of West Virginia University great and record-setting wide receiver Stedman Bailey to campus to complete his bachelor’s degree in multidisciplinary studies and help out as a student-assistant coach. Bailey’s professional career was interrupted when he was shot in the head while sitting in a car in Miami Gardens, Florida, on November 26, 2015. Bailey said he still has hopes of making a pro football comeback.
West Virginia made its first appearance in the Associated Press Top 10 in four years following its impressive 34-10 victory over TCU at Milan Puskar Stadium. The win was the Mountaineers’ sixth in a row to begin the season and marked their best start to a football campaign in 10 years when WVU began the 2006 season 7-0.
Talk about click bait … Everything you needed to know was in the headline, and yet you still clicked on it more than 93,000 times! And once you got in there to read it, you were also encouraged to wear blue and purchase the handful of tickets remaining for the game. You did both!
The official announcement revealing West Virginia’s invitation to play Miami in the 2016 Russell Athletic Bowl, marking the first time these two old Big East rivals were to face each other in 13 years. WVU finished the regular season with 10 wins, the highest regular season total since achieving the same number of victories during the 2005, 2006 and 2007 campaigns. Miami, under first-year coach Mark Richt, was riding a four-game regular season win streak and was a matter of only a few points away from winning 11 games in 2016.
It's only fitting that a look back at 2016 would also include a look ahead to 2017. In the old days of the Big East, the wedding planners usually had to wait until late in the spring to figure out those available Saturdays to arrange their autumn nuptials. But now, thanks to the Big 12, those plans can be made months in advance. Therefore, for all you love birds out there, circle September 30 on your calendars for this fall. That’s the date the Mountaineers are idle. By the way, the lid to 2017 lifts on Saturday, September 2 in Landover, Maryland when WVU opens the season against our old friends from Blacksburg, Virginia. We’ll see you there!
As for WVUsports.com, it was another banner year with nearly 22 millions page views for 2016.
Thank you Mountaineer Nation and Happy New Year!
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