Photo by: WVU Athletic Communications
Some Ingenuity Helps WVU Avoid Losing Season in 1980
August 25, 2018 08:56 AM | Football
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - Here's a little Saturday diversion before we set our sights on the Tennessee Volunteers next weekend because, well, sometimes you run into good stories.
Earlier this week, I got one out of Hall of Fame coach Don Nehlen that I had never heard before while fishing for something else during his midday drive back from Charleston.
I had gotten the coach on his cell phone to see if he had a couple of minutes; he said he had plenty because he was just beginning his drive up I-79 with his cruise control set to 74 miles per hour so I began firing away hoping his cell coverage remained intact.
I wanted to know about West Virginia's game with Tennessee coming up next Saturday in Charlotte and why the two schools have never played a football game against each other until this year (you can read about that tomorrow morning).
He said he didn't know, and he wasn't aware of any discussions ever taking place between the two storied programs, even though he was pretty good friends with former Tennessee coach Phil Fulmer.
I brought up some of the other Northeastern schools that played Tennessee through the years and when I got to Rutgers, and mentioned that its old coach Frank Burns once ruined a Tennessee homecoming in Knoxville back in 1979, Nehlen veered off topic like he was dodging an eight-point buck standing right in the middle of the interstate.
"Frank Burns, the most predictable coach I ever prepared against!" Nehlen began. "It was unbelievable. You knew exactly what they were going to do! Off tackle left, off tackle right and then throw the ball over the middle on third down. It was amazing, but the problem was stopping them."
Nehlen was especially worried about stopping Rutgers in 1980, his first season coaching the Mountaineers.
West Virginia had a string of four straight losing seasons going and Nehlen desperately wanted to avoid a fifth. His team that year got off to a great start by winning four of its first five games, but then a misguided midseason trip to Hawaii began a stretch of losses that dipped West Virginia's record to 4-5 after a blowout defeat at Virginia Tech.
Nehlen temporarily righted his listing ship at Temple, beating the Owls, 41-28, in cavernous Veterans Stadium in front of 50,000 empty seats mixed in with about 10,000 football fans.
That evened West Virginia's record at 5-5, and Nehlen needed one more win against either Rutgers or Syracuse to snap the losing streak.
Sensing his team was still in a fragile state and worried that it would take Rutgers lightly with Syracuse looming in the home finale, Nehlen sought the help of legendary "Voice of the Mountaineers" Jack Fleming for some inspirational assistance.
And he needed it against Rutgers, which had lost by just four points to top-ranked Alabama at the Meadowlands earlier that season, and boasted a fine 6-3 record.
So Nehlen called Fleming on a Monday afternoon and asked him for a favor.
"Hey Jack," the coach began, "I really need your help with something. I don't want this to get out, and I certainly don't want Rutgers to find out about this, but I need you to put together a fictitious radio broadcast of our game with Rutgers this weekend that I can play to my team.
"We know everything they do because they've been doing the exact same thing for years, but the problem is I'm worried we can't stop it," he continued. "The first play is going to be a run to the left. The next play they are going to run is a sweep to the right and the third play is going to be a pass over the middle.
"So, what I need is for you to put together something with some crowd noise behind it to get our guys jacked up. I want you to say Darryl Talley stuffs the running back on the first play, and then Dennis Fowlkes buries the ball carrier on the second play. Then, on that pass over the middle, I want you to announce that Timmy Agee intercepts the ball and takes it all the way back for a touchdown.
"Can you get that to me by tomorrow, Jack?"
Fleming told Nehlen he would.
Nehlen got the recording from Fleming, put it in his cassette player and it sounded exactly like a game broadcast to the point where it made the hair stand up on the back of neck.
"Amazing," Nehlen said.
It was so good, in fact, that when he played it to his team they were just as excited as he was.
Then right before the start of the game, Nehlen instructed his captains to defer their choice until the second half and kick the football to Rutgers. He wanted his players to run down there as fast as they could and pound the guy to whom they were kicking the football.
He also wanted Rutgers to have the football first because he knew exactly what Burns was going to do.
Lo and behold, the first play Rutgers ran to the left and then to the right on the second play. On third down the Scarlet Knights tried a pass, but instead of throwing it across the middle to where Agee was positioned at free safety, the pass went to the sidelines where Steve Newberry was there to intercept it.
"The only thing they did different," Nehlen chuckled, "but if they would have thrown it over the middle Timmy would have gotten it."
The players had reacted just the way Nehlen had hoped they would and the offense came through with 21 points in the second quarter to help the Mountaineers pull out a tough, 24-15 victory.
More importantly, it was the sixth win of the season, and it helped put the Mountaineers on the path toward much greater success in the years to come, thanks to a little resourcefulness and ingenuity from its football coach and the skills of the team's play-by-play radio announcer.
"I always wondered what ever happened to that tape," Nehlen laughed.
And now we do, too, coach.
Saturday Sound
Earlier this week, I got one out of Hall of Fame coach Don Nehlen that I had never heard before while fishing for something else during his midday drive back from Charleston.
I had gotten the coach on his cell phone to see if he had a couple of minutes; he said he had plenty because he was just beginning his drive up I-79 with his cruise control set to 74 miles per hour so I began firing away hoping his cell coverage remained intact.
I wanted to know about West Virginia's game with Tennessee coming up next Saturday in Charlotte and why the two schools have never played a football game against each other until this year (you can read about that tomorrow morning).
He said he didn't know, and he wasn't aware of any discussions ever taking place between the two storied programs, even though he was pretty good friends with former Tennessee coach Phil Fulmer.
I brought up some of the other Northeastern schools that played Tennessee through the years and when I got to Rutgers, and mentioned that its old coach Frank Burns once ruined a Tennessee homecoming in Knoxville back in 1979, Nehlen veered off topic like he was dodging an eight-point buck standing right in the middle of the interstate.
"Frank Burns, the most predictable coach I ever prepared against!" Nehlen began. "It was unbelievable. You knew exactly what they were going to do! Off tackle left, off tackle right and then throw the ball over the middle on third down. It was amazing, but the problem was stopping them."
Nehlen was especially worried about stopping Rutgers in 1980, his first season coaching the Mountaineers.
West Virginia had a string of four straight losing seasons going and Nehlen desperately wanted to avoid a fifth. His team that year got off to a great start by winning four of its first five games, but then a misguided midseason trip to Hawaii began a stretch of losses that dipped West Virginia's record to 4-5 after a blowout defeat at Virginia Tech.
Nehlen temporarily righted his listing ship at Temple, beating the Owls, 41-28, in cavernous Veterans Stadium in front of 50,000 empty seats mixed in with about 10,000 football fans.
That evened West Virginia's record at 5-5, and Nehlen needed one more win against either Rutgers or Syracuse to snap the losing streak.
Sensing his team was still in a fragile state and worried that it would take Rutgers lightly with Syracuse looming in the home finale, Nehlen sought the help of legendary "Voice of the Mountaineers" Jack Fleming for some inspirational assistance.
And he needed it against Rutgers, which had lost by just four points to top-ranked Alabama at the Meadowlands earlier that season, and boasted a fine 6-3 record.
So Nehlen called Fleming on a Monday afternoon and asked him for a favor.
"Hey Jack," the coach began, "I really need your help with something. I don't want this to get out, and I certainly don't want Rutgers to find out about this, but I need you to put together a fictitious radio broadcast of our game with Rutgers this weekend that I can play to my team.
"We know everything they do because they've been doing the exact same thing for years, but the problem is I'm worried we can't stop it," he continued. "The first play is going to be a run to the left. The next play they are going to run is a sweep to the right and the third play is going to be a pass over the middle.
"So, what I need is for you to put together something with some crowd noise behind it to get our guys jacked up. I want you to say Darryl Talley stuffs the running back on the first play, and then Dennis Fowlkes buries the ball carrier on the second play. Then, on that pass over the middle, I want you to announce that Timmy Agee intercepts the ball and takes it all the way back for a touchdown.
"Can you get that to me by tomorrow, Jack?"
Fleming told Nehlen he would.
Nehlen got the recording from Fleming, put it in his cassette player and it sounded exactly like a game broadcast to the point where it made the hair stand up on the back of neck.
"Amazing," Nehlen said.
It was so good, in fact, that when he played it to his team they were just as excited as he was.
Then right before the start of the game, Nehlen instructed his captains to defer their choice until the second half and kick the football to Rutgers. He wanted his players to run down there as fast as they could and pound the guy to whom they were kicking the football.
He also wanted Rutgers to have the football first because he knew exactly what Burns was going to do.
Lo and behold, the first play Rutgers ran to the left and then to the right on the second play. On third down the Scarlet Knights tried a pass, but instead of throwing it across the middle to where Agee was positioned at free safety, the pass went to the sidelines where Steve Newberry was there to intercept it.
"The only thing they did different," Nehlen chuckled, "but if they would have thrown it over the middle Timmy would have gotten it."
The players had reacted just the way Nehlen had hoped they would and the offense came through with 21 points in the second quarter to help the Mountaineers pull out a tough, 24-15 victory.
More importantly, it was the sixth win of the season, and it helped put the Mountaineers on the path toward much greater success in the years to come, thanks to a little resourcefulness and ingenuity from its football coach and the skills of the team's play-by-play radio announcer.
"I always wondered what ever happened to that tape," Nehlen laughed.
And now we do, too, coach.
Saturday Sound
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