A Look Back at the 1990 football season

[bbwvfan]

Can any of the old farts on this board rewind back that far?

WVU was only 2 years removed from The Perfect Season. Our Hall of Fame head coach was entering year 11 at WVU, and his 11th campaign ended 4-7.

How did this occur? What excuses can anyone come up…. I mean explanations to justify such an embarrassing drop?

WVU had played for the NC just two years before. It had a Heisman trophy finalist in '88 and '89. WVU had been nationally ranked in '88 and '89, and placed 15 players in the NFL draft after those two seasons.

Anyone…

 

[WVUDAD]

Can any of the old farts on this board rewind back that far?

WVU was only 2 years removed from The Perfect Season. Our Hall of Fame head coach was entering year 11 at WVU, and his 11th campaign ended 4-7.

How did this occur? What excuses can anyone come up…. I mean explanations to justify such an embarrassing drop?

WVU had played for the NC just two years before. It had a Heisman trophy finalist in '88 and '89. WVU had been nationally ranked in '88 and '89, and placed 15 players in the NFL draft after those two seasons.

Anyone…

I don't remember exactly what happened, but there were definite QB issues that year, and Nehlen always seemed to have his recruiting classes screwed up, like all the linemen were either freshmen or seniors. Whatever happened, 4-7 that year brought out the "Nehlen must go" banners behind planes circling the stadium!!!

 

[DCWV4life]

This was DN second 4-7 season and he went 15-16 over the next three years, should have canned him who knows maybe we wouldhave gone undefeated in 93 with another coach in charge!

Trivia (to which i do not know the answer) Is this the only WVU season where we did not win a home game?

 

[bbwvfan]

DAD,


You are right.


Greg Jones was the QB. He had transferred to WVU from Miami where he played his Fr. year. He played sparingly behind Major. And, was the starting QB his Sr. season. He completed 121 of 247 passing attempts. He had 7 TD's and 9 INT's on the season.


The defense struggled... for a Nehlen defense that year too. Nehlen was forced to play a lot of young, inexperienced kids in 1990... kids not ready for play.


Don Nehlen was in rebuilding mode in 1990. How could that happen?

 

[wvu_man]

Was Adrian Murrell running the ball back then? I remember going to a home game vs VT around that time but I think that was in 1991 and I was only 8 yrs old. It was our first season in the BE and Studstill was the QB.

 

[WVUDAD]

1960 WVU did not win ANY games

 

[bbwvfan]

Was Adrian Murrell running the ball back then? I remember going to a home game vs VT around that time but I think that was in 1991 and I was only 8 yrs old. It was our first season in the BE and Studstill was the QB.

Yeah, he was on the 1990 team, but he didn't make his impact until the next two years.

 

[bbwvfan]

So, DAD... why do you think WVU struggled in 1990? Who was responsible for the quality of players who were placed on the field? Why didn't he have a quality QB to replace Major Harris?


Nehlen said he was in rebuilding mode in 1990. What happened with his program a few years later?

 

[WVUDAD]

So, DAD... why do you think WVU struggled in 1990? Who was responsible for the quality of players who were placed on the field? Why didn't he have a quality QB to replace Major Harris?


Nehlen said he was in rebuilding mode in 1990. What happened with his program a few years later?

BB, quit trying to pick at me, did you read my last post? Nehlen had recruiting issues, of getting a BUNCH of good players one year and few the next three, look at his time of being our coach, 1986, 1990, 1995, 1999 were ALL his worst seasons, I can not speak for his reasons for how he recruited, I just see the results.

 

[bbwvfan]

DAD just sees the results.


So, an inexperienced QB... and a bunch of young players on defense and offense received a majority of the playing time in 1990. And, the team struggled. Not a stellar group of opponents either.


Yet, you want to jump all over Dana and how this year's team struggled. Dana's team went up against much better competition last year, than anything Don faced in 1990.


Why have you been of the opinion that Dana can't coach when he showed what he could do with Stewart's recruits and lead them to a 10 win season and BCS bowl win. He has to rebuild the team, just like Don had to rebuild his team several times... as you noted. Don struggled with rebuilding, but you won't give Dana a pass when he has struggled with rebuilding.


What gives?

 

[Mac_Bridger]

DAD just sees the results.


So, an inexperienced QB... and a bunch of young players on defense and offense received a majority of the playing time in 1990. And, the team struggled. Not a stellar group of opponents either.


Yet, you want to jump all over Dana and how this year's team struggled. Dana's team went up against much better competition last year, than anything Don faced in 1990.


Why have you been of the opinion that Dana can't coach when he showed what he could do with Stewart's recruits and lead them to a 10 win season and BCS bowl win. He has to rebuild the team, just like Don had to rebuild his team several times... as you noted. Don struggled with rebuilding, but you won't give Dana a pass when he has struggled with rebuilding.


What gives?

Nehlen always ran in 4/5 year cycles. 88, 93, 98 were great teams. (98 team destroyed by injury) The answer is very simple, recruiting. Nehlen was able to use those great teams to recruit talent that came to fruition 4 or 5 years later. WVU had very little history of success before Nehlen. When he got here there was NOTHING.

 

[WVUDAD]

DAD just sees the results.


So, an inexperienced QB... and a bunch of young players on defense and offense received a majority of the playing time in 1990. And, the team struggled. Not a stellar group of opponents either.


Yet, you want to jump all over Dana and how this year's team struggled. Dana's team went up against much better competition last year, than anything Don faced in 1990.


Why have you been of the opinion that Dana can't coach when he showed what he could do with Stewart's recruits and lead them to a 10 win season and BCS bowl win. He has to rebuild the team, just like Don had to rebuild his team several times... as you noted. Don struggled with rebuilding, but you won't give Dana a pass when he has struggled with rebuilding.


What gives?

Nehlen had a proven track record of being able to get guys and coach them, I have not seen that with Holgorsen YET, I have seen less effort and worse play at the end of the season than during the rest of it. Even in Nehlen's worst years, you saw improvement through the year.

 

[WVUDAD]

DAD just sees the results.


So, an inexperienced QB... and a bunch of young players on defense and offense received a majority of the playing time in 1990. And, the team struggled. Not a stellar group of opponents either.


Yet, you want to jump all over Dana and how this year's team struggled. Dana's team went up against much better competition last year, than anything Don faced in 1990.


Why have you been of the opinion that Dana can't coach when he showed what he could do with Stewart's recruits and lead them to a 10 win season and BCS bowl win. He has to rebuild the team, just like Don had to rebuild his team several times... as you noted. Don struggled with rebuilding, but you won't give Dana a pass when he has struggled with rebuilding.


What gives?

Are not the results what we are after?????

 

[bbwvfan]

Nehlen always ran in 4/5 year cycles. 88, 93, 98 were great teams. (98 team destroyed by injury) The answer is very simple, recruiting. Nehlen was able to use those great teams to recruit talent that came to fruition 4 or 5 years later. WVU had very little history of success before Nehlen. When he got here there was NOTHING.

Mac,

I totally agree with you. Recruiting was the problem, and like both you and DAD have cited, it affected his teams frequently.

In 1990, WVU did not beat a team that won over 3 games their entire season. It ended the season with blowout losses to SU and USCe. It lost to a BC club that only had 4 wins in their season.

And, this was just two years removed from playing in the NC against ND.

But, DAD comes on here putting out all of this crap about Dana, and how his team is getting worse each season, getting worse on offense each season. Does he forget our past?

We have been witness to this multiple times with Coach Nehlen. Get your guys, coach them up, and watch what they do when they have become upperclassmen. Sometimes... magic occurs.

Why does anyone want to throw a coach to the curb when he has had to deal with rebuilding a team? WVU was one of the youngest teams in FBS last season. If a hall of fame coach has trouble doing it, why would you use a different measuring stick with a young coach and staff?

 

[WVUDAD]

Mac,

I totally agree with you. Recruiting was the problem, and like both you and DAD have cited, it affected his teams frequently.

In 1990, WVU did not beat a team that won over 3 games their entire season. It ended the season with blowout losses to SU and USCe. It lost to a BC club that only had 4 wins in their season.

And, this was just two years removed from playing in the NC against ND.

But, DAD comes on here putting out all of this crap about Dana, and how his team is getting worse each season, getting worse on offense each season. Does he forget our past?

We have been witness to this multiple times with Coach Nehlen. Get your guys, coach them up, and watch what they do when they have become upperclassmen. Sometimes... magic occurs.

Why does anyone want to throw a coach to the curb when he has had to deal with rebuilding a team? WVU was one of the youngest teams in FBS last season. If a hall of fame coach has trouble doing it, why would you use a different measuring stick with a young coach and staff?

BB, my beef is that I have not seen Holgorsen "coach em up" , I saw Nehlen take the leftovers after sPitt, PSU, OSU, and UM picked Ohio and Pa clean, and turn mostly two star guys into good ballplayers. What I have seen from Holgorsen SO FAR is taking 3 and 4 star kids and turning them into bums. There has been ONE game since Holgorsen became coach that made me think he had things in hand.

 

[bbwvfan]

Nehlen had a proven track record of being able to get guys and coach them, I have not seen that with Holgorsen YET, I have seen less effort and worse play at the end of the season than during the rest of it. Even in Nehlen's worst years, you saw improvement through the year.

Not in 1990 you didn't. Can you tell me how WVU got blown out in their last two games of that season?

 

[bbwvfan]

BB, my beef is that I have not seen Holgorsen "coach em up" , I saw Nehlen take the leftovers after sPitt, PSU, OSU, and UM picked Ohio and Pa clean, and turn mostly two star guys into good ballplayers. What I have seen from Holgorsen SO FAR is taking 3 and 4 star kids and turning them into bums. There has been ONE game since Holgorsen became coach that made me think he had things in hand.

Yes you did. In Dana's first year as HC, you saw big time improvement in the performance of the team from the previous three seasons of Mountaineer football.

 

[WVUDAD]

Yes you did. In Dana's first year as HC, you saw big time improvement in the performance of the team from the previous three seasons of Mountaineer football.

9-4 to 10-3 with 5-2 in the league both years AINT big time improvement, BB. I saw an improved offense, but the same overall results. When Casteel left, I saw a HUGE dropoff as Holgorsen took over as HC for real, as 2011, he was basically the OC, and left Casteel to run the defense.

 

[bbwvfan]

9-4 to 10-3 with 5-2 in the league both years AINT big time improvement, BB. I saw an improved offense, but the same overall results. When Casteel left, I saw a HUGE dropoff as Holgorsen took over as HC for real, as 2011, he was basically the OC, and left Casteel to run the defense.

No shit.

That is why Dana replaced DeForest after only one season. Are you trying to imply that good HC's never make a mistake in their hires?

 

[bbwvfan]

So DAD,

You go on… and on… and on… about the terrible/horrible coaching of Dana. You have seen Dana coach his boys up. You just admitted you saw an improved offense his first year. That offense also improved his second year.

But, I agree with you… results matter.

Now, I have shown you that even a hall of fame coach could not get results when he was forced to play inexperienced kids… to include his QB. Unlike Dana, his 1990 team couldn't even win a game against a team with a winning record.

However, you are convinced Dana cannot coach … despite what you've seen him accomplish… winning a BCS bowl. You are certain he cannot coach because of the drop off the last two years… in results… with young… inexperienced players. Yet we have all witnessed the same drop off with our hall of fame coach.

Can you explain why? Cause you look like a hypocrite.