According to certain people here, I don’t love mountaineer football, but in fact hate it because I’ve stated the obvious this year: that we are not very good.

That being said, give me the feeling at the tailgate at 5 pm dec. 2, 2007 and the feeling I had up 10 with 4 minutes to play against Louisville in the elite eight.

I guess it all began for me with the 1981 home opener against Colorado St. I was eleven and attended the game with both of my parents. We scored at will in that game, played suffocating defense, and won 49-3. I remember distinctly the thrill of being in a large crowd that all wanted the same thing, the explosion of noise that resulted when a great play unfolded as we looked down on it from above, the pagentry of the band’s pregame, and the musical moments (Simple Gifts, Mountain Dew, the Chimes, Hey Baby, First Down …) I heard then for the first time that have punctuated my life ever since then.

But I think the main reason I love Mountaineer Football is we have prevailed so many times as underdogs…won so many times against the odds and when no one thought we could. To me, that resembles the true and best character of the place in which I was raised and still call home.

It is Mountaineer football. Wait, what does that even mean?

I love the memory of my dad, grandpa and I listening to Jack on the radio when WVU was on the road. I loved pretending to be Major Harris in my back yard as a kid. I love the memory of holding my breath with 70,000 of my closest friends as Robert Walker got to the corner against Miami. I love the memory of Travis Garvin streaking down the middle of the field and almost being knocked over the edge of the upper deck celebrating that TD.

I love that I always get a chill when I hear the first few notes of Simple Gifts.

It means so much because it has and always will be a huge part of my life. The best feeling in the world is high-fiving or side bumping my friends and family after a Mountaineer TD. That first sip of beer of liqour at the tailgate washes away anything that happened the week before and I am focused on the game at hand.

It is lame but I have a tear in my eye thinking about all the good and bad memories I have that involve Mountaineer football. Let’s Go Mountaineers!!

Remember how the crowd exploded when he was only at like, the seven? And it is on Youtube….tried to post link, but it wouldn’t let me. Search WVU Miami 1993.

Great stuff….Hail, ALL HAIL!!!

Dad swears I was at a game at Old Mountaineer Field against Syracuse and (believe me, I’m completely ashamed of this fact) I rooted for Syracuse because orange was my favorite color in those days. That’s just for full disclosure. If I could go back in time, believe me, I would smack myself.

I was also fortunate enough to be at the first game in current Mountaineer Field. I don’t remember much about the game itself, but I do remember John Denver singing.

Going to a family friends house to watch the ‘84 BC game (we couldn’t receive that channel back then) and WVU sticking it to Flutie for the 4th time.

But my real love affair began in 1988. I attended the Maryland game and watched Major do his magic to the tune of 55 points. That’s my first memory of the “Let’s Go” “Mountaineers” call and response cheer and being 14, that was just so cool to me. I was at another game that year (BC, I think) too.

I had a chance to go to the PSU game, and I’m still a little bitter at my parents for not letting me (but I understand why, now). Watching “The Play” on tv live….I still wish I were in the stands for that one.

I never understood the Pitt hatred until the following year. My cousin forged a note to my HS football coach so I could go to the Brawl with him and we sat in the endzone over the facilities building. The Pitt band was set up in temp bleachers on the field in front of us. Leading 31-9 with approx 9 min left….Alex van Pelt. A name that is right up down there with Marvin Graves. I still remember that damn panther and trombone player dancing around. Never has a tie felt so much like a loss.

Sitting in the student section before the last PSU game. It was a nice day until almost game time. Then, torrential rain (and snow?) came followed by a cold front. If Rodney Woodard could have just held on to the ball.

I used to wonder why the Alma Mater was so lame. Now I tear up every game singing it. I may not live in Morgantown, but every year..walking into Mountaineer Field, I feel like I’m at home once again.

…from the minute I attended my first game as a student (at Old Mountaineer Field), even though the team sucked and everyone went to watch the band play.

I especially loved it watching…

- Jeff Hostetler kick #9 Oklahoma’s ass all over their home field in 1982, and then when we did it against all odds in the 2008 Fiesta Bowl.

- The 1984 snap of the Penn State streak, and then the 1988 route when Joe Pa took his team off the field with time still on the clock while the fans rushed the field and the goal posts fell. (Yes, back then the goal posts were not protected by security personnel and technology to collapse them quickly.) To this day, WVU is the only team to score more than 50 points on any Joe Paterno coached Penn State squad.

- Undefeated regular seasons in ’88 and ’93

- Playing for the national championship in ’88, even though Major went down on the third play and we lost the game

- Never getting beat by Doug Flutie

- Watching the telephone wires melt under the intense heat of a bonfire in the middle of University Avenue

I could go on and on, but those are a few choice ones.

Lots of memories, but one of the earliest high points was Kerry Marbury running back the opening kickoff 100 yds against Penn State in 72. We lost that game after some questionable calls, but that moment at the start was amazing.

I kind of needed this thread/post

Early on it was just a part of life. Like Christmas at the family farm, pepperoni rolls, or you grandmother’s cooking. I don’t remember when I first started watching Mountaineer football. I wasn’t hooked at first, but I recall watching the 88 game against ND at the age of 4 and a plethora of games in the years following. Mountaineer football was like another holiday. My dad watched it, my grandfather’s watched it, the white trash relatives in Ohio were dicks towards us because of it…it was just something that represented family and WV.

I didn’t fully get hooked until I hit my teenage years, but even then didn’t make it to my first game until 2003 Wisconsin. Up until then I’d always watched the games on tv, just never had the opportunity to see one. My guess is that my dad didn’t want to expose me to the students or any intoxicated fans (a good call on his part in hindsight as it may have ruined it for me). Even though my early life was spent watching the game on the tube, we still grew up with certain things that we had no idea were related to WVU football. I knew and loved simple gifts and country roads long before I saw our band perform them in person.

WV is a state of unimaginable beauty that some of the nicest people you’ll ever meet call home yet we are constantly looked down upon due to stereotypes. Because of this WVians seem to rally behind each other more than anywhere else. I can tell you from experience that I’ve yet to meet anyone from PA, KY, Ohio, Virginia, Maryland, or any other state who is as proud and connected to their home as we seem to be of ours. WVU football is just another focal point for our pride.

nuff said

IN 1963 my father took me to a game in old Mountaineer Field, I was 8 years old. Navy and Roger Staubak were in town and beat us, but I really got into the Mountaineer Spirit, remember the male only cheerleaders chanting “We don’t give a dam about Navy we are the Mountaineers”.

I grew up in the very northern part of the state, OSU was 3 hours away, Penn State was 2 hours away and Pitt was way too close – I really grew a loyalty and pride of being a WVU fan and always knew we would someday be a top ten or a national champion – we were always just a few players away from beating these guys when they were at their peaks.

Due to cost , GPA and Jimmy Carter, after being laid off from the steel mills I went to OSU to be an IT guy – the best game I saw while I was there was Major’s first game against the mighty OSU Buckeyes – I knew then things were going to change and we would become a nationally recognized big time NCAA program.

I am 100% beind the Stew Crew – If anyone thought this years team with an inexperiences offence and defensive line would be a top ten team is crazy – what they have and will accomplish is a foundation for a potential national championship contender over the next 3 years with the yound guys getting good experience and top 10 recruits.

Hang in there

eers ball isn’t about out classing the opponent. it isnt about having more talent then the opponent. its about out fighting the opponent. put a mans talent in one hand, put his heart in the other, the one thats heavier matters more.

quite simply eers ball is about bringing your hard hat to work, rollin up your sleves, and getting the job done. its like everything else in the state, and within about a 250 mile radius. leave the fancy throw it all over the field game to those showboats who dont know what it means to have to fight for every game

Wow, some of these post brough back memories to me just now.

I started with WVU football in the early/mid 80’s. My family would always spend a weekend down around Elkins during a fall festival and then stop at various places on the way home to Wheeling. My grandfather would put the game on in the car and we’d listen to Jack tell the story of the game. I remember going to Dolly Sods listening to the game, passing the football around near where we parked, my grandfather in his WV jacket (simple WV on the left chest of a button up nylon jacket) my dad telling me stories of watching WVU on the road, WVU’s dominance of the Southern Conference.
Then move on to when they went undefeated and my gold WVU shirt was my favorite shirt to wear to school. Watching Major, Reggie Rembert, etc.. The loss to ND and how bad it felt.
1994, Zack Abraham’s catch with less than a minute to go to beat Pitt, after Pitt had scored to take back the lead.

Then the more recent stuff comes to mind as well.

Kragthorpe has given you a good one. Let’s call this week’s game the Battery Bowl, and setup a promotion that anyone bringing a dozen batteries gets into the stadium for half price, and set the lefties on the side of the field entrance for the Louisville players which gives them the best shot at actually hitting someone, and righties on the other. Then offer a prize to anyone who hits Krags dead in the face with their battery…

Seriously though, I’m as lost for ideas as you are. Although you could point out that WVU can still win The BEast if we win out. However, I think if the Mountaineers are going to attempt to win out, first they need to replace Tandy with Pat Miller, and then if Brown can’t deliver, let Geno have an opportunity. The fumbles and tentative play I’ve seen from Jarrett Brown since the Auburn game gets me to thinking that Geno Smith would do as well, if not better. Brown hasn’t been the same QB since Auburn grabbed 5 of his turnovers, and Smith showed me in the Marshall game that he can fit the ball into a tight spot and take the Mountaineers into the end zone…

And this guy

Also the 2005 Sugar Bowl and 2008 Fiesta Bowl