Nehlen made WVU a respected program. Any team playing WVU knew it would be a physical game. Just solid, old school. Used fullbacks, tightends - along with good mix of RBs and WRs. He ran a clean program and generally had a winning record... averaged 7-4, but also had two 11-0 regular seasons. He had a couple of 4-7 sseasons... but those were after graduating a lot of talent and was recognized as rebuilding years.
However, by the end of his career his coaching seemed a bit stale - and the criticism became "7-4, but Rutgers, Temple, and a nobody in the opener - meant Nehlen was going 4-4 against the Syracuses, BC, VaTechs, and Miamis.
I *think* I remember planes flying banners against him at the end... telling him to resign.
The other criticism was he couldn't win bowl games. He lost 8 in a row.
Strangely though, he was 3-1 in his first 4 bowl games - with 2 being upset wins. The 26-6 win over Florida was considered a huge upset.