Nexstar’s West Virginia Television Stations to Broadcast Classic 2008 Fiesta Bowl
May 14, 2020 06:07 PM | Football
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Do you need some Mountaineer football in your work-from-home-office life? West Virginia Illustrated has you covered with a replay of the classic 2008 Fiesta Bowl, airing on Nexstar television stations across West Virginia on Saturday, May 16 and Saturday, May 23.
Mountaineer Nation will remember this game well. The ninth-ranked Mountaineers, led by interim head coach Bill Stewart, took on the fourth-ranked Oklahoma Sooners and most of the nation was predicting a Sooner blowout. In fact, in an online ESPN poll, 84% of America thought an Oklahoma victory was a sure thing, and oddsmakers had installed Oklahoma as eight-point favorites. Even more challenging, no interim head coach had won a bowl game that year, going 0-for-6.
The replay will have the famous "Leave No Doubt" pregame speech, delivered by the late Stewart, and we'll visit with Owen Schmitt, Reed Williams, Pat McAfee and Coach Jeff Casteel as we dive deep into what was so special about that West Virginia squad on that night in Arizona. McAfee added that it was "probably the craziest time in maybe all of college football history to be honest with you, and I'm not 100-percent sure that anybody other than Bill Stewart would have been able to rally the troops; we all had so much respect for him."
West Virginia University play-by-play man Tony Caridi will serve as the host for the event. Caridi sets the stage early with the reminder of the great run this squad had during the 2007 season only to trip up at the end of the regular season followed by coach Rich Rodriguez bolting for a new head coaching position just weeks before this game against Oklahoma.
"What I recall initially when (Rodriguez left), we had a great first bowl practice," Casteel, the team's defensive coordinator, added. "I mean, we were wondering how the kids were going to handle it, and the kids were outstanding, and if anybody would have watched practice they wouldn't have known anything was going on. The kids were awesome and really throughout the whole bowl prep, it was just a great group of guys."
The FOX Sports broadcast team takes over from there and leads Mountaineer Nation on a four-hour WVU celebration including Pat White's famous postgame speech proclaiming that Stewart should become the new head man of the West Virginia football squad.
Set your reminder, order take-out from your favorite local establishment and tune in for the classic replay of the 2008 Fiesta Bowl. It was a great night to be a Mountaineer!
The entire Nexstar West Virginia station air schedule:
Saturday May 16
Clarksburg NBC (WBOY) Channel 12 7p-11p
Beckley CBS (WVNS) Channel 59 6p-10p
Saturday May 23
Charleston CBS (WOWK) Channel 13 7p-11p
Wheeling CBS (WTRF) Channel 7 7p-11p
Mountaineer Nation will remember this game well. The ninth-ranked Mountaineers, led by interim head coach Bill Stewart, took on the fourth-ranked Oklahoma Sooners and most of the nation was predicting a Sooner blowout. In fact, in an online ESPN poll, 84% of America thought an Oklahoma victory was a sure thing, and oddsmakers had installed Oklahoma as eight-point favorites. Even more challenging, no interim head coach had won a bowl game that year, going 0-for-6.
The replay will have the famous "Leave No Doubt" pregame speech, delivered by the late Stewart, and we'll visit with Owen Schmitt, Reed Williams, Pat McAfee and Coach Jeff Casteel as we dive deep into what was so special about that West Virginia squad on that night in Arizona. McAfee added that it was "probably the craziest time in maybe all of college football history to be honest with you, and I'm not 100-percent sure that anybody other than Bill Stewart would have been able to rally the troops; we all had so much respect for him."
West Virginia University play-by-play man Tony Caridi will serve as the host for the event. Caridi sets the stage early with the reminder of the great run this squad had during the 2007 season only to trip up at the end of the regular season followed by coach Rich Rodriguez bolting for a new head coaching position just weeks before this game against Oklahoma.
"What I recall initially when (Rodriguez left), we had a great first bowl practice," Casteel, the team's defensive coordinator, added. "I mean, we were wondering how the kids were going to handle it, and the kids were outstanding, and if anybody would have watched practice they wouldn't have known anything was going on. The kids were awesome and really throughout the whole bowl prep, it was just a great group of guys."
The FOX Sports broadcast team takes over from there and leads Mountaineer Nation on a four-hour WVU celebration including Pat White's famous postgame speech proclaiming that Stewart should become the new head man of the West Virginia football squad.
Set your reminder, order take-out from your favorite local establishment and tune in for the classic replay of the 2008 Fiesta Bowl. It was a great night to be a Mountaineer!
The entire Nexstar West Virginia station air schedule:
Saturday May 16
Clarksburg NBC (WBOY) Channel 12 7p-11p
Beckley CBS (WVNS) Channel 59 6p-10p
Saturday May 23
Charleston CBS (WOWK) Channel 13 7p-11p
Wheeling CBS (WTRF) Channel 7 7p-11p
Tuesday, September 15
Tuesday, September 15
Tuesday, September 15
Tuesday, September 15
