The 14 Biggest West Virginia Wins In College Football History (So Far)

WVU football is searching for its next great era. 

Perhaps it’ll be former head coach Rich Rodriguez who helps the Mountaineers rediscover the promised land. To be sure, West Virginia has a rich history of high-level football, and Rodriguez himself has been intimately involved in more than one big win.

On the precipice of a new coaching stint, it’s a good time to look back at the history of WVU football. And while countless Saturday kickoffs have entertained Mountaineer fans, there are about a dozen games over the last 70 years that rise to the top as truly memorable. 

Some of them were emotional or cathartic. Some announced WVU as a bigger presence on the national stage. But every game in the list below can legitimately lay claim to being one of the best, most memorable wins in the history of West Virginia football. 

West Virginia Football: Biggest Wins In Program History

Dec. 30, 1969: West Virginia 14, South Carolina 3

West Virginia wasn’t Navy or Notre Dame in the mid-century period of college football – it had to prove it belonged as an upstart with an independent streak.

The 1969 Peach Bowl did some real heavy lifting in that regard. Head coach Jim Carlen installed a wishbone offense just for this bowl contest, leading to a dominant ground game that caught the Gamecocks completely off guard. It was WVU’s first major bowl victory and a sign of things to come. 

Nov. 8, 1975: West Virginia 17, No. 20 Pittsburgh 14

The 68th edition of the Backyard Brawl featured legendary Pitt running back Tony Dorsett, so few local pundits were giving the underdog Mountaineers a chance. But Bobby Bowden coached a defensive gem, with the Eers mostly containing Dorsett. 

With the game tied at 14 points apiece in the final seconds, Bowden ran out walk-on kicker Bill McKenzie to attempt a 38-yard field goal… and he nailed it. 

Jack Fleming’s legendary call – “The ball game is over! There’s a mob scene out on the field!” – is still referenced in Morgantown today.

Dec. 31, 1981: West Virginia 26, Florida 6

The 1980s became a big decade for young head coach Don Nehlen and the Mountaineers, and the run started with another surprising WVU win in the Peach Bowl. 

The scattered 1981 sports betting market priced the West Virginia football odds market quite poorly, as the Eers were 11-point underdogs. But quarterback Oliver Luck dominated in Atlanta, and walk-on kicker Paul Woodside kicked four field goals, including a Peach Bowl-record 49-yarder. 

Sept. 11, 1982: West Virginia 41, No. 9 Oklahoma 27

If the 1981 Peach Bowl was the announcement that Nehlen had something cooking in Morgantown, then West Virginia’s non-conference trip to Oklahoma less than a year later was the confirming encore. 

Jeff Hostetler passed for 321 yards and four touchdowns as the Mountaineers smoked Barry Switzer’s Sooners, scoring the program’s first-ever road win against a top-10 opponent. 

Oct. 20, 1984: West Virginia 21, No. 4 Boston College 20

Boston College entered Morgantown with a long winning streak and eventual Heisman-winning quarterback Doug Flutie. Cue the underdog music.

WVU trailed 20-6 early in the third, but the Mountaineers clawed back throughout the second half and took a one-point lead in the final minutes of the game. West Virginia’s defense held against Flutie on the final drive, thanks in part to a critical sack from Freddie Smalls. 

Fleming’s call of the sack – “They got Flutie!” – remains another all-time reference in Morgantown. The fans flooded the field for hours after the game. 

Oct. 27, 1984: West Virginia 17, No. 19 Penn State 14

Any WVU oldhead can tell you how thoroughly Penn State dominated little brother West Virginia throughout the latter part of the 20th century. The Nittany Lions had played WVU virtually every year since 1956, and Penn State didn’t lose a single game. 

1984 is when the dam finally broke, with one of Nehlen’s best early teams finally ending the streak. The ‘84 Penn State win was yet another sign of WVU’s growing regional power, but the looming shadow of Penn State made it feel pretty personal for many fans, too. 

Nov. 19, 1988: West Virginia 31, No. 14 Syracuse 9

Major Harris and the Mountaineers ended up playing Notre Dame in a de facto national championship game in 1988. 

While most fans unfortunately remember the early injury to Harris and the dismal outcome against the Irish, the Mountaineers got there via a finale beatdown against ranked Syracuse, ensuring the first true undefeated regular season in WVU football history. 

Nov. 20, 1993: West Virginia 17, No. 4 Miami 14

In what may be the greatest game ever played at Mountaineer Field, West Virginia upset a top-tier Miami team to set up yet another undefeated Nehlen season. 

How many epic games can one program win by a score of 17-14?

Oct. 22, 2003: West Virginia 28, No. 3 Virginia Tech 7

Hated rival Virginia Tech was 6-0 when the Hokies came to Morgantown in 2003. The unbeaten record (and dreams of a championship game appearance) quickly ended, as the Mountaineers thoroughly dominated VPI.

Quincy Wilson finished the game with 178 rushing yards, while Tech didn’t score after halftime. And just as some of the early ‘80s wins signaled a growing relevance for Nehlen’s program, the ‘03 Tech upset signaled that West Virginia might have something cooking with young head coach Rich Rodriguez.

Oct. 15, 2005: West Virginia 46, No. 19 Louisville 44 (3OT)

It’s been 20 years, and the 2005 Louisville game is still one of the wildest comebacks I’ve ever seen. WVU was trailing 24-7 in the fourth quarter, and starting quarterback Adam Bednarik was injured.

Enter freshman backup Pat White. Alongside running back Steve Slaton, the dynamic duo somehow forced overtime, then punched and counterpunched through three overtime periods, finally winning the game when WVU’s defense held Louisville just short of the goal line on its two-point conversion attempt. 

Jan. 2, 2006: West Virginia 38, No. 8 Georgia 35

White and Slaton might have been young, but they were electric enough to help WVU sprint to a surprising 2005 Big East title. 

The reward? A showdown with SEC champion Georgia in the Sugar Bowl – West Virginia’s first-ever BCS appearance.

No one outside the state of West Virginia thought the Mountaineers could win this game. And I do mean no one. Yet Rodriguez and his young offensive dynamos stunned Georgia (and everyone else) en route to a 28-0 first-half lead, then held on late. 

Jan. 2, 2008: West Virginia 48, Oklahoma 28

Everyone knows the story, but I’ll tell it anyway. 

In the aftermath of the game-that-shall-not-be-named, West Virginia was left rudderless and adrift. In just a few days’ time, WVU football had gone from the precipice of the national title game to… Fiesta Bowl underdog? Rich Rodriguez had left for Michigan. The once-in-a-lifetime title shot had come and gone. Everything was undone. The team and fan base were devastated.

But interim head coach Bill Stewart rallied the team, delivering an epic pregame monologue that became instantly known as the Leave No Doubt speech. With virtually everyone in America picking Oklahoma to roll against a dejected WVU program, the Mountaineers punctuated one of their best-ever seasons with a life-affirming romp over future conference mate Oklahoma.

Jan. 4, 2012: West Virginia 70, Clemson 33

There are offensive explosions. Then, there’s whatever West Virginia did to Clemson in the early days of the Tigers’ Dabo Swinney period.

Clemson was an ascendant power in college football, and – like the previous BCS games – WVU was widely expected to get blown out. ESPN’s pregame coverage was dramatically one-sided. 

“I think Clemson beats West Virginia and destroys them,” Kirk Herbstreit opined before the game.

But in a back-and-forth game with non-stop offense, it was a defensive play that defined the Orange Bowl. Clemson had a dogpile at the goal line, trying to break the plane early in the second quarter for a go-ahead touchdown. But WVU defensive back Darwin Cook emerged from the pile with the ball, running it back 99 yards for a touchdown.

After that, it was a total avalanche for Geno Smith, Tavon Austin, Stedman Bailey, and one of the best air attacks ever assembled. The Big East days were ending, but the Mountaineers departed with an exclamation point.

Nov. 3, 2018: West Virginia 42, No. 15 Texas 41

A road win at a good-not-great Texas team in the late 2010s is hardly a top highlight on a list like this. Yet in an era of Big 12 football and overall Morgantown mediocrity, this famous game punctured a lot of forgettable football. 

This road game at Texas ended with a crazy touchdown over the top to Gary Jennings with just 16 seconds left. Head coach Dana Holgorsen decided that the Eers would go for the win with a two-point conversion, and quarterback Will Grier connected with David Sills on an inside slant – only to have the winning two points taken off the board. Texas had called a timeout just before the play.

Undaunted, Grier and Co. lined up in the same exact formation. This time, Sills was a decoy, and as Texas slid its defense over, Grier kept the ball and ran it around the left side of the line, right into the void that Sills had created. 

Half the starting WVU offense triumphantly taunted the Longhorn crowd with an emphatic horns down. Thus, the Horns Down Texas game was born, delivering one of the great endings in modern WVU history.