For the first time since the Don Nehlen and Joe Paterno era, West Virginia and Penn State will renew their old rivalry in State College, Pennsylvania.
While many West Virginia natives know the implications of this rivalry, there is also a good number of West Virginians that have never experienced the Mountaineers doing battle with the Nittany Lions.
There’s no doubt that this is a bit of a lob-sided rivalry, as Penn State leads the all-time series 48-9-2 since the inception of the game in 1904.
While there’s no doubt the Nittany Lions have dominated this series, there are a few games that Mountaineer fans bring up to this day.
1984
Leading up to the home game against Penn State in 1984, the Mountaineers had been battered and scarred by the Nittany Lions for over two decades. For 25 straight games, West Virginia had been beaten by Penn State from the years of 1959-1983. Even in 1958, the Mountaineers did not have the satisfaction of beating the Nittany Lions, as the two played to a tie.
Coming into Morgantown, Penn State was 5-2 and ranked No. 19 nationally, while West Virginia was 6-1 and ranked No. 18.
The game was a defensive slugfest for the majority of the night, so it was fitting that the first defining play came on the defensive side of the ball in the fourth quarter. Leading 10-7, West Virginia forced Penn State running back Steve Smith to fumble at his own 39-yard line, setting up a chance to extend the lead.
What followed was one of Mountaineer Field’s best moments, as running back Pat Randolph took a handoff 22-yards for the touchdown, extending the WVU lead to 17-7.
Penn State scored a touchdown with just over nine minutes left to play to cut the lead to 17-14, and after the Mountaineers failed to put more points on the board, the burden of making the “big play” would fall on the defense’s shoulders yet again.
Penn State started moving the ball in the final minutes in an attempt to play the spoiler yet again. As fans and students started to make their way out of their seats and onto the areas near the playing field, Penn State ran a pass play near the WVU 30-yard line with under a minute left to try to move further towards the end zone.
The Nittany Lion pass was intercepted by Larry Holley to seal the 17-14 victory. Despite there still being some time on the clock, the sellout Mountaineer Field crowd poured onto the field, ripping down the goal posts before Penn State could even get off the field. The scoreboard read “Finally,” as West Virginia broke the 25-game losing streak against the Nittany Lions.
1988
In late October of 1988, the West Virginia football team was rolling like never before, bringing a 7-0 record into the game against the 4-3 Nittany Lions.
West Virginia was led by star dual threat quarterback Major Harris, who finished the season 5th in the Heisman Trophy voting. The Mountaineers also featured a deep running back room with A.B. Brown, Eugene Napoleon, and Undra Johnson, who combined for 284 yards on the ground against the Nittany Lions.
While the running backs scampered past the Penn State defense for the majority of the game, the day belonged to the quarterback Harris.
In the air, Harris threw for 230 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions en route to a 51-30 victory over the Nittany Lions. Harris also showed his abilities on the ground, scoring one of the greatest touchdowns in WVU history, as the young Pittsburgh native took a broken play and cut, juked, and sprinted towards the end zone from 27-yards out, leaving five Nittany Lion defenders on their face.
The Mountaineers took the momentum from the beatdown of Penn State and finished the regular season undefeated for the first time in program history before falling to Notre Dame in the Fiesta Bowl.
The 2023 Mountaineers will look to pull off the upset against Penn State on Saturday night, as the Nittany Lions are ranked No. 6 in the preseason coaches’ poll, while the Mountaineers have been picked to finish last in the Big 12 conference.
Undoubtedly, if West Virginia comes out of Happy Valley 1-0, it will line up with the thrill of the wins in 1984 and 1988. WVU will be looking to break a four-game losing streak against Penn State, as the Nittany Lions took care of the Mountaineers from 1989-1992 before the rivalry was halted.
AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar.
