7-4 may not seem spectacular to you, but you must understand the circumstances of the times. First, WVU football was a decent regional football program...not a national football program... that had been on tough times since Bowden left in 1975. Nehlen not only got the program winning, he did a lot of foundational work that helped elevate our program to national status.
During the Cignetti years, WVU was so poor that it had to pull the coaches off the road and they couldn't recruit because they didn't have the money to pay the expenses associated with recruiting. And because of the baffoons who ran the state, you couldn't give a football or basketball coach more than a one year contract. While Nehlen never had the big money behind him that other regional programs like Penn State and Pitt had, he found a way to compete and elevate our program in the eighties and nineties.
Anyone who is dismissive of what Don Nehlen did here is misinformed.
Those who look at Nehlen's average record of 7-4 just don't understand the total circumstances of where our programs were at the time. WVU has done amazingly well in spite of being underfunded compared to its competitors for many years. And even though we are enjoying the fruits of the Big 12 money these days, those programs who have been enjoying that same money for years continue to operate at a structural advantage against us.