The Story Of The 1988 West Virginia University Football Team

In any West Virginia home, the 1988 football season is as a big a legend as Mothman.

The 1988 season began like any other season. The spring game commenced and the training camp opened.

Finally, on September 3, the Mountaineers defeated head coach Don Nehlen's former team, Bowling Green, 62-14.

On September 10, they played Cal-State Fullerton and had another successful game, 45-10.

Next, on September 17, the Mountaineer squad faced the Maryland Terrapins, quickly opening up the game with a 14-0 lead, and didn't let up to win, 45-21.

The first road game of the season was against rival Pittsburgh in the Backyard Brawl. The 1988 Pitt team was no match against a dominate WVU team with Major Harris, Undra Johnson, and head coach Don Nehlen.

The next two games would also be road games against Virginia Tech and East Carolina, respectivly. Virginia Tech lost 22-10 and ECU lost 30-10.

The Mountaineers returned home and defeated Boston College, 59-19, and then rival Penn State, 51-30. The Nittany Lions were coached by Joe Paterno.

On November 5, Cincinatti played host to the Mountaineers and lost, 51-13.

The final regular season road game came to Rutgers and was played at Giants Stadium. The final score of that game was 35-25.

The final regular season of the 1988 season was played at home against the Syracuse Orange. The Mountaineers soundly defeated the Orange, 31-9, capping off the first undefeated-untied regular season in West Virginia University history.

After the game, the team took a victory lap around Mountaineer Field to thank their loyal fans for their support.

The good fortune of the 1988 squad would change however, when the team traveled to Tempe, Arizona to face the Notre Dame Fighting Irish for the National Championship.

On the third play from scrimmage, Major Harris went down with a shoulder injury and would never fully recover.

The Mountaineers suffered their first loss of the 1988 season and went back to Morgantown without a National Championship.

The Mountaineers would return to the national championship game five years later, but would lose to the Florida Gators, 41-7.