Photo by: WVU Athletic Communications
WVU’s 2023 Grid Slate Loaded With Familiar Foes
February 01, 2023 12:32 PM | Football, Blog
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The 2023 West Virginia University football schedule was released yesterday.
The Mountaineers will once again face a daunting slate that includes 11 Power 5 opponents for the third straight year including two – Penn State and Pitt – that ended last season ranked in the Top 25.
West Virginia's trip to University Park, Pennsylvania, will be its first there since 1991, when Joe Paterno's Nittany Lions put one on Don Nehlen's Mountaineers. I remember that game well, standing on the West Virginia sideline listening to the Lion roar over the public address system each time Penn State scored a touchdown, which was quite frequently that day.
It will be the third straight year Neal Brown's team opens the season on the road at a Power 5 opponent, leaving the Mountaineers as the only Power 5 program to do so during that span of time.
Penn State is now off the list, thanks to West Virginia, of course. The Lions opened Big Ten play at Wisconsin in 2021 and at Purdue in 2022, while Notre Dame also comes off the list now that it is facing Navy in Ireland in its lid-lifter. The Irish kicked off their 2021 season on the road at Florida State and the 2022 season at Ohio State.
West Virginia's three-year streak of Power 5 road openers began at Maryland in 2021, and last year, the Mountaineers helped Pitt draw an Acrisure Stadium record crowd of 70,622. Hopefully, Panther fans will return the favor in Morgantown on Saturday, Sept. 16, when the two meet for the first time here since 2011 – Dana Holgorsen's first season coaching WVU.
Before I forget, one other thing to keep in mind about the Penn State opener – every single victory West Virginia has ever gotten in Happy Valley is considered an all-time win in school history!
Those of us old enough to remember the Penn State games can still recite the presidential administrations between West Virginia wins … Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard M. Nixon, Gerald R. Ford, Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan.
To save you some Googling, that's a long, long time!
Speaking of Mr. Holgersen, his Houston Cougars show up on this year's schedule on a Thursday night in Houston. That reunion will take place on Oct. 12 - 12 days after WVU must play at 2022's national runner-up TCU.
Off this year's schedule are Texas, Kansas, Kansas State and Iowa State – the Longhorns likely for good. In normal times, the Texas and Iowa State games would have been in Morgantown this year, while the Kansas and K-State games would have taken place in the Sunflower State.
What that means is West Virginia will be facing all four Big 12 newcomers, including BYU, which will be making its first-ever appearance at Milan Puskar Stadium on Saturday, Nov. 4. The Mountaineers and Cougars last met at FedEx Field in Landover, Maryland, on Sept. 24, 2016, with WVU withstanding a late BYU rally to hang on for a 35-32 victory.
The revival of the Cincinnati series brings back memories of the old Big East days in the mid-2000s when Brian Kelly had Bearcat football rolling. I remember a long field goal Pat McAfee kicked to send a game here into overtime, and I also remember former WVU athletic director Eddie Pastilong wanting to strangle the Big East replay official who ruled Isaiah Pead's goal-line fumble a touchdown in a 2009 loss at Cincinnati.
That call ended up costing the Mountaineers another BCS bowl bid because Cincinnati finished the year 7-0 in Big East play while WVU was 5-2. Had West Virginia won, both would have been 6-1 and the Mountaineers would have owned the tiebreaker.
A couple of other Cincinnati games stick out – the 2003 contest when Rick Minter's stifling Bearcat defense held West Virginia to only 243 total yards in a miserable 15-13 loss, and a 1989 affair when Don Nehlen used every single player he had available in a 69-3 drubbing. Four years after that 66-point Mountaineer victory, following an impressive 8-3 season with the Bearcats, Tim Murphy opted to give up big-time college football to coach at Harvard, where he just completed his 28thseason in 2022!
A trip to Orlando, Florida, to face Central Florida on Saturday, Oct. 28, will be a welcomed one for displaced Mountaineer fans now living in the Sunshine State. Defending Gus Malzahn's high-powered Knights offense and his unpredictable play calling will pose a big challenge for the Mountaineer defensive staff.
Among Big 12 regulars, West Virginia will get another crack at Texas Tech here in Morgantown on Saturday, Sept. 23. After some early success against the Red Raiders, West Virginia has now dropped four straight, including a pair of Milan Puskar Stadium defeats in 2019 and 2021.
Oklahoma State will be seeing red when the Cowboys come to Morgantown on Saturday, Oct. 21, following last year's season-ending 24-19 loss in Stillwater.
Oklahoma, in Norman on Saturday, Nov. 11, and Baylor, in Waco on Saturday, Nov. 25, will also be seeking payback after West Virginia beat both this year on last-second Casey Legg field goals.
And Duquesne, which West Virginia used to meet regularly in the 1930s when the Dukes were playing big-time college football, is once again on the gridiron slate when they come to Morgantown on Saturday, Sept. 9.
Hall of Fame tackle Joe Stydahar once had a bunch of blocked kicks in a road victory over the Dukes at Forbes Field in 1934, when he wound up having a school-record seven for the season.
It was Jumbo Joe's second-quarter block he managed to scoop up at the 10-yard-line and run into the end zone that decided the Duquesne game in West Virginia's favor, 7-0. That contest was played on a Friday night under the lights with an estimated 28,000 showing up to watch.
Bet you didn't know that.
These are some things for you to keep in mind while you are filling out your ticket forms for the 2023 season.
The Mountaineers will once again face a daunting slate that includes 11 Power 5 opponents for the third straight year including two – Penn State and Pitt – that ended last season ranked in the Top 25.
West Virginia's trip to University Park, Pennsylvania, will be its first there since 1991, when Joe Paterno's Nittany Lions put one on Don Nehlen's Mountaineers. I remember that game well, standing on the West Virginia sideline listening to the Lion roar over the public address system each time Penn State scored a touchdown, which was quite frequently that day.
It will be the third straight year Neal Brown's team opens the season on the road at a Power 5 opponent, leaving the Mountaineers as the only Power 5 program to do so during that span of time.
Penn State is now off the list, thanks to West Virginia, of course. The Lions opened Big Ten play at Wisconsin in 2021 and at Purdue in 2022, while Notre Dame also comes off the list now that it is facing Navy in Ireland in its lid-lifter. The Irish kicked off their 2021 season on the road at Florida State and the 2022 season at Ohio State.
West Virginia's three-year streak of Power 5 road openers began at Maryland in 2021, and last year, the Mountaineers helped Pitt draw an Acrisure Stadium record crowd of 70,622. Hopefully, Panther fans will return the favor in Morgantown on Saturday, Sept. 16, when the two meet for the first time here since 2011 – Dana Holgorsen's first season coaching WVU.
Before I forget, one other thing to keep in mind about the Penn State opener – every single victory West Virginia has ever gotten in Happy Valley is considered an all-time win in school history!
Those of us old enough to remember the Penn State games can still recite the presidential administrations between West Virginia wins … Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard M. Nixon, Gerald R. Ford, Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan.
To save you some Googling, that's a long, long time!
Speaking of Mr. Holgersen, his Houston Cougars show up on this year's schedule on a Thursday night in Houston. That reunion will take place on Oct. 12 - 12 days after WVU must play at 2022's national runner-up TCU.
Off this year's schedule are Texas, Kansas, Kansas State and Iowa State – the Longhorns likely for good. In normal times, the Texas and Iowa State games would have been in Morgantown this year, while the Kansas and K-State games would have taken place in the Sunflower State.
What that means is West Virginia will be facing all four Big 12 newcomers, including BYU, which will be making its first-ever appearance at Milan Puskar Stadium on Saturday, Nov. 4. The Mountaineers and Cougars last met at FedEx Field in Landover, Maryland, on Sept. 24, 2016, with WVU withstanding a late BYU rally to hang on for a 35-32 victory.
The revival of the Cincinnati series brings back memories of the old Big East days in the mid-2000s when Brian Kelly had Bearcat football rolling. I remember a long field goal Pat McAfee kicked to send a game here into overtime, and I also remember former WVU athletic director Eddie Pastilong wanting to strangle the Big East replay official who ruled Isaiah Pead's goal-line fumble a touchdown in a 2009 loss at Cincinnati.
That call ended up costing the Mountaineers another BCS bowl bid because Cincinnati finished the year 7-0 in Big East play while WVU was 5-2. Had West Virginia won, both would have been 6-1 and the Mountaineers would have owned the tiebreaker.
A couple of other Cincinnati games stick out – the 2003 contest when Rick Minter's stifling Bearcat defense held West Virginia to only 243 total yards in a miserable 15-13 loss, and a 1989 affair when Don Nehlen used every single player he had available in a 69-3 drubbing. Four years after that 66-point Mountaineer victory, following an impressive 8-3 season with the Bearcats, Tim Murphy opted to give up big-time college football to coach at Harvard, where he just completed his 28thseason in 2022!
A trip to Orlando, Florida, to face Central Florida on Saturday, Oct. 28, will be a welcomed one for displaced Mountaineer fans now living in the Sunshine State. Defending Gus Malzahn's high-powered Knights offense and his unpredictable play calling will pose a big challenge for the Mountaineer defensive staff.
Among Big 12 regulars, West Virginia will get another crack at Texas Tech here in Morgantown on Saturday, Sept. 23. After some early success against the Red Raiders, West Virginia has now dropped four straight, including a pair of Milan Puskar Stadium defeats in 2019 and 2021.
Oklahoma State will be seeing red when the Cowboys come to Morgantown on Saturday, Oct. 21, following last year's season-ending 24-19 loss in Stillwater.
Oklahoma, in Norman on Saturday, Nov. 11, and Baylor, in Waco on Saturday, Nov. 25, will also be seeking payback after West Virginia beat both this year on last-second Casey Legg field goals.
And Duquesne, which West Virginia used to meet regularly in the 1930s when the Dukes were playing big-time college football, is once again on the gridiron slate when they come to Morgantown on Saturday, Sept. 9.
Hall of Fame tackle Joe Stydahar once had a bunch of blocked kicks in a road victory over the Dukes at Forbes Field in 1934, when he wound up having a school-record seven for the season.
It was Jumbo Joe's second-quarter block he managed to scoop up at the 10-yard-line and run into the end zone that decided the Duquesne game in West Virginia's favor, 7-0. That contest was played on a Friday night under the lights with an estimated 28,000 showing up to watch.
Bet you didn't know that.
These are some things for you to keep in mind while you are filling out your ticket forms for the 2023 season.
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