Classic Nehlen
- Thread starter ColoradoMountaineer
- Start date
...Great article. Nehlen put WVU back into the national spot light. People who only knew Nehlen in the 90's, have no clue what dandy Don did for this program. IMO, he is the best coach WVU has ever had. Including Bowden who left for Florida St., and cry-baby RichRod.
Nehlen changed WVU football for the better. Today's program owes an enormous debt to him.
The posters who continually attach Nehlen have no clue about what their talking about. Nehlen took over from they Dark days of Frank Cig and restored the honor of WVU football. He laid down the law with Oklahoma the very 1st time he played them something are current coach hasn't achieved. He ruined Boston college 1984 season and beat Penn State. People forget that Pitt was a national power back in those days. There is a reason why he is a hall of fame coach and for any fool reading this who continually attacks him stop picking out the bad years of his tenure and look at the good. The good far outweighed the bad
Some of my greatest memories of WVU football came while Nehlen was coach. I for one will always be thankful of what Don Nehlen did for WVU's program. If only Major would have not gotten hurt WVU would have a national championship.
laid down the law with Oklahoma? Yes he beat them. Congrats. It was an upset. It happens. Appalachian State laid down the law with Michigan once I guess. To get a real understanding, compare Nehlens record against those great Pitt teams. Did he ever beat one of them when they were great? How did Nehlen fare against the top schools? He beat Penn State yes. However he beat Penn State when they were down. Beating a 5-6 penn state team is like high fiving Stewart for beating Auburn when they also were 5-6. Fact is Nehlen averaged 7 wins over 21 years and routinely got beat by the great teams when he played them.
Last edited:
no way, now how was WVU gonna beat Notre dame with a healthy major Harris. The final score was a lot closer than that game really was. And major was not gonna make up that many points himself to beat them. It certainly could've been closer with him. However the Irish were just much better than WVU. Plain and simple.
Don Nehlen would have easily won a national championship if he where coaching at one of the Blue blood programs. If you could have 2 undefeated regular seasons at Wvu then who knows how many he would have had at the likes of Ohio state, Michigan etc etc. He was able to put in place a platform for future coaches to achieve excellence. When Nehlen took the Wvu job there where those who told him he could never win here. I am thankful that he didn't listen to non Believers and the loyalty he showed the Wvu program for 2 decades. If not for this loyalty Wvu might be the Kansas of the modern day MAC
Modern day Kansas of the MAC? Let's not get carried away here lol. Nehlen was presented a new state of the art mountaineer field to unveil to recruits his first game here at WVU. He also had a great nucleus to build from (Darryl Talley, Oliver luck) that was left by Cignetti. It's no coincidence Nehlens best years were his first 4 at WVU for this reason.
What motivates someone to tear down every accomplishment of WVU football that cannot be ascribed to Dana Holgorsen?
It certainly can't be motivated by support for WVU and yet the losder keeps denying he has a homoerotic infatuation with Holgorsen.
I don't believe him. Maybe it's still on the subconscious level. Let it out twinkie, you'll be a happier person when you embrace your true self.
It certainly can't be motivated by support for WVU and yet the losder keeps denying he has a homoerotic infatuation with Holgorsen.
I don't believe him. Maybe it's still on the subconscious level. Let it out twinkie, you'll be a happier person when you embrace your true self.
Its not surprising that you would come up with an excuse to dishonor Nehlens accomplishments. considering your love for Holgorson who hasn't accomplished anything with his own recruits but i leave you with this Classic Holgorson
I wonder if Holgorson High fived charlie Weiss after the Wvu Kansas game in 2013?
you might want to check, I think it's now 2015. And we beat Kansas the last 2 years. 49-0 this year.
Nehlen established that Oklahoma could be beaten in 1982 you might want to tell Holgorson that before where in the big 12 now excuse comes out. Nehlen's 1st five years where by far superior too Holgorson and he had follow in the foot steps of frank Cig but im sure you will find an excuse for Dana its as certain as death and taxes
established Oklahoma could be beaten? They weren't considered unbeatable. Lol. They finished 8-4. It was an upset. It happens.
Wvu's win over Oklahoma in 1982 was remarkable considering where Wvu was a few years earlier but I doubt you would understand this considering your continued disrespect for or hall of fame coach. Nehlen was far superior to Holgorson in his prime but the majority of the Mountie nation is still waiting to see if Holgorson will even have a prime 5 years into his tenure
nehlen was not superior to Holgorsen in his prime or anytime. Holgorsen is winning more against top competition than Nehlen did. Our win against Baylor last year is more impressive than that 1982 Oklahoma win
so a win against a team that finished 11-2 in a BCS bowl isn't better than an 8-4 team? Ok lol
no but wins against ranked schools like Texas, Oklahoma state and Baylor I will lol
This thread is yet more proof that ThePunish-EER is not a WVU fan...
Holgorsen's prime was leeching off a few decent head coaches...
So a down Texas equals the the down PSU, leaving our "signature wins" the losses to OSU and Baylor in your mind.
You're not clueless, you're nuts!
a down Texas? They finished in the top 25 when we beat them our 1st year in the big 12. We beat an 11-2 Baylor team last year. We beat a top 15-20 Oklahoma state team 2 years ago. Maybe you're nuts lol
Come on now Punish-eer tell the truth. You do this because you need attention in your life, right?
Just because some of us don't feel compelled to criticize Holgersen with virtually every post, doesn't mean we don't hold the achievements of Nehlen, Rodriquez, and yes, Stewart in high regard. You and Colorado are both broken records. Pitiful, just pitiful.
Funny, but there seems that there were just as many Nehlen haters back then as there are Holgorsen haters today. I guess after 20 years they were finally successful at getting Don to resign - gives hope to our low information fans on our idiot board. Stupid never goes away, it is always recycled.
"We had great, great, great success early and built a little bit of a monster," Nehlen said. "Then, all of a sudden, you're pretty much of a bum because you can't keep it at that level all the time."
That's why airplane banners over Mountaineer Field two years ago called for Nehlen to be fired, why a fan held up a sign in the stands that read, "Terry Bowden, call home, 1-800-HELP-WVU."
http://old.post-gazette.com/sports/pitt/20001122cook4.asp
This kind of post makes me want to revert to name-calling but I won't. You're just plain ABSURD with that remark about not being superior to DH. You come off as some fairly young individual who doesn't know $hit or certainly doesn't appreciate certain things for the past.
Yeah, upsets happen but when you beat a #9 OU on the road handing them their first opening game loss in about 20 years right after you've knocked off Florida by 3 TD's as an overwhelming dog, I would say there's more to those games than just upsets.
And this expression of "his players" or "the other coaches players" is getting old. I don't take credit away from DH for going 10-3 and an Orange Bowl win with Stew's players. They were DH's players because he had to coach them and also won a lot of close games down the stretch. He gets credit for that. But you're ridiculous in the way you downgrade Don so I wouldn't get carried away with being taken seriously by anyone when you rant on Nehlen.
He won a lot of big games and to shut Flutie out in the second half when they were #4 and undefeated was miraculous and a hell of an achievement.
What I don't understand is why you incessantly compare DH's five years to Nehlen's 21. Who do you think you're fooling? Let's see DH beat the Baylor's of this world for 21 years then come back with an argument. Until then, it's all just bull$hit. Because for every nice win DH has had so far he's had SEVERAL embarrassing losses in just FIVE years.
You live in a fantasy world. DH's in-game coaching is at times a complete joke compared to Nehlen.
Last edited:
I would rather have passion and stand for something than be a broken 8 track cassette tape.
one can only laugh at this type of nonsense. Lol. So now we hold years of service against Dana. He's only done it for 5 years, "let's see him beat the baylors for 21 years" lol. The truth is, Danas Baylor win is better than any Nehlen victory in his entire 21 years. 1984 Boston College at 10-2 is the closest. You brag about beating Oklahoma in 1982. They finished 8-4. One game better than the 7 wins you say isn't good enough for Dana. 1993 Miami finished 9-3. Truth is, in Nehlen 21 years who were all these big wins you are referring to? You can count them mostly on one hand.
You laugh at comparison of years but yet you're the one comparing, which is what is laughable. And my point is not so much BIG wins as in where a team finished but you have to give credit for beating a team at the time of their ranking as well. That's how teams move up in the rankings in the first place. No one holds their votes waiting to see where a team has finished at the end of the season. It works both ways as well.
If you want examples though, there are different kinds of big wins like the string of wins against the eastern teams in 84 with win after win. Three straight 9-win seasons right after four losing seasons. You think that wasn't coaching?
Who cares where Miami/93 ended up. Nehlen beat them when they were 9-1 and #4 in the country with their usual great defense. Their offense was the problem and DN over came that then to go on the road to beat #12 BC the very next week to secure an unbeaten season is nothing to scoff at.
I also look at the great teams he played tough like PSU in 86 when they won the nat'l title but only gave up one TD. And all the times he played Miami he got blown out only one time but was out manned every game but one. And I guess the 3 TD win over Syracuse who was #12 in 88 was nothing as well? Too bad for you because that win put us in the nat'l title game. We lose and it's just the Fiesta Bowl.
I don't see DH playing great teams tough like that as much as he is getting blown out. You scoff at his early 80s wins like OU calling it just an upset then brag about DH's Baylor win as if that wasn't one of those blind squirrel upsets? You're not winning this argument. I'm presenting facts you're just downgrading a HOF coach who is directly responsible for our identity and stature in the college football world and I've been around and it's very respected because of him.
I'm not going to argue with your ignorance anymore. No one said Nehlen didn't underachieve as well like he did for the most part after 93. But Nehlen is in the HOF for a reason and when he retired you had Super Bowl winning coaches like Bill Parcels calling him to congratulate him on his career. That's good enough for me. Let's see people like you be as demanding with yourself as you are with a coach who is in the HOF.
Nehlen took Wvu to 13 bowl games in his career prior to his arrival the program had only gone to 8 bowl games.
nice spin job. Now, how many bowls existed prior to his arrival in 1980?
just like I thought. About as many big wins as you can count on one hand in 21 years. So now we are in moral victories? Nehlen at times played penn state and Miami tough in defeat? Lol. Dana has as well. So you're lying that he hasn't. Look at 2014 with Alabama and others, including beating 11-1 regular season big 12 champ Baylor. Dana has also won a major bowl, the Orange bowl. Nehlen never won a major bowl. He set a bowl loss record. Not just at WVU, but the entire NCAA. He averaged 7 wins, same as Holgorsen. And against weaker competition.
Don Nehlen was a fine coach at WVU. Jack and I both liked him and he made great copy and sound-bite material. A little bit of "aw, shucks" mixed with vast football knowledge.
Some criticized some of the play calling as being too "Big 10-like", a lot of up the middle, but when the right back was in there it was a formidable offensive scheme, used primarily to set up the pass. Don was a bit old-school in that regard.
Some criticized some of the play calling as being too "Big 10-like", a lot of up the middle, but when the right back was in there it was a formidable offensive scheme, used primarily to set up the pass. Don was a bit old-school in that regard.
Why not celebrate the achievements of our players and coaches rather than subject there results to personal agendas. All the coaches mentioned had highs and lows during their coaching tenures but Don Nehlen was the classy face of WVU football for 20 plus years and brought the program into the national picture. Like any coach must do, he played who was scheduled. No coach has control over the opponents won-lost record except for the game they played. Why any mountaineer fan would demean or minimize his or the program's achievements and history makes no sense? You don't hear The top winning programs fans making excuses for most of their national championships because they were won during the days of leather helmets and 5 to 8 game seasons. We might learn something from them.
That game, after the Peach Bowl win over Florida that got the nation's attention, put WVU on the map for good. The best win in Mountaineer history, for that reason.
I was watching closed circuit TV in the Charleston Civic Center and literally falling asleep when we were down 14-0. I had as dramatic a recovery as the Mountaineers.
I was watching closed circuit TV in the Charleston Civic Center and literally falling asleep when we were down 14-0. I had as dramatic a recovery as the Mountaineers.
Similar threads
Latest posts
-
-
-
WVSPORTS.COM West Virginia takes home opener over Ohio, off to best start since 1964- Latest: wesleyshoemaker
