ITG 71 - WVU's History vs. AP Top 25 Teams
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00 [MUSIC]
00:04 You are in the gun with Skylar Callahan and the signal caller Jed Drenning.
00:08 Football season is almost here.
00:11 West Virginia is in fall camp.
00:13 There's a lot to be excited about.
00:14 We're gonna not try to dampen that party a little bit when we get into the realness
00:19 of these numbers today.
00:21 That is going to be the history of West Virginia football against AP top 25 teams.
00:27 Jed's got a lot of really good stuff.
00:29 He dug up some good numbers on that.
00:30 But before we get to that, a word from BetOnline.
00:33 BetOnline is your number one source for all your betting needs.
00:36 Get the latest odds, lines, and matchup reports for baseball, boxing, golf, and more.
00:40 BetOnline continues to be the fastest and easiest way to place your wagers,
00:44 including live betting and your favorite casino and
00:46 card games available to play right from your phone.
00:49 Head to the website or use your mobile device to sign up today and
00:52 get in on the action.
00:53 Remember to use the promo code BLEAV, B-L-E-A-V, for
00:57 your 50% welcome bonus on your first deposit.
01:00 BetOnline, where the game starts.
01:02 And Jed, where we're gonna start today is just the history of the AP top 25 and
01:08 West Virginia's records throughout the years, their streaks,
01:13 some cool little nuggets that you dug up for us.
01:15 What do you got for us?
01:17 >> Well, let's start with this.
01:17 What is the AP?
01:20 What's its history look like?
01:22 How long has it been around?
01:24 Really, college football took a turn in the mid 1930s with the Associated Press
01:29 coming together to represent the sports writer's view of who
01:34 the top teams in college football were.
01:37 Because before that, it really was the Wild West.
01:40 You had all this craziness with schools claiming national championships and
01:44 other schools- >> They still do.
01:46 >> They still do, yeah.
01:48 But it was much more mainstream back then.
01:50 Like the last team, Georgia's trying to three-peat this year, okay?
01:54 They've won back-to-back national championships.
01:58 And if they are able to three-peat, the last time that happened was Minnesota,
02:04 right before this took place, because there was a three-way tie in 1935 with
02:10 Minnesota and some others.
02:11 So it will be the first time in the Associated Press era,
02:15 the AP poll era since 1936 that anybody has three-peated.
02:19 Let's hope that doesn't happen.
02:21 But at any rate, that's what you're looking at.
02:24 So it all started in 1936 when they started to formulate these things.
02:29 So you might be asking yourself, it started in 1936,
02:33 when did West Virginia first face a ranked team in that poll?
02:38 And the answer is 1941.
02:40 The Mountaineers lost at the Polo Grounds by a score of 27 to nothing,
02:44 to a Fordham Rams team that actually went on to win the Sugar Bowl.
02:49 You can kind of, if you see a pattern emerging here about how the game has
02:52 changed in the course of the last century, please stop me.
02:55 But now Fordham, don't knock Fordham, it's Vince Lombardi's alma mater here.
03:00 So, and my former boss, his daughter attends Fordham right now, so good school.
03:05 But good football school back in that era, in the early days of the AP.
03:09 So that was West Virginia's first game against an AP-ranked opponent.
03:13 So when did West Virginia's first victory against an AP-ranked opponent take place?
03:18 >> It makes me a lot more happy to talk about this.
03:21 In 1952, go ahead.
03:24 >> You said 1952?
03:26 >> Yeah, 1952, so Fred Lewis.
03:30 >> Yeah, golly, I have no idea, Princeton maybe?
03:37 >> It's gonna make you a lot happier than beating Princeton.
03:39 >> Is it a big time school now still?
03:43 >> It depends if you ask them or not.
03:46 >> Central Florida then?
03:47 No, I'm just kidding.
03:48 >> I don't know.
03:50 >> They in 1952, they went on the road and
03:54 beat the 18th ranked Pitt Panthers, 16 to nothing.
04:01 And the players famously in a photo that you could Google and
04:04 you'd find it in ten seconds, yanked Pappy Lewis into the shower and
04:07 threw soap all over him, a fully clothed, by the way, Pappy Lewis.
04:10 I don't even wanna think about that.
04:11 >> [LAUGH] >> So yeah,
04:13 fun moment there when you're looking through West Virginia football history.
04:17 So that's kind of the history of it, how the Associated Press poll started,
04:21 when West Virginia first started playing some of these teams.
04:25 Now we had a host of these teams that we played early on,
04:27 it just took until 1952 for us to beat one of them.
04:31 Now if you wanna go on and look how West Virginia has fared all time versus
04:36 the top 25, I would direct you to this.
04:39 I'll give you the record or at least the record as I've counted.
04:42 I need Dramamine and I'm going half blind each time I get into this list.
04:46 But if you want the full comprehensive record, you can go to wvusports.com.
04:51 Mike Montoro does a meticulous job of tracking all this.
04:54 And at wvusports.com under the football column,
04:57 when you go to the football section of the website,
04:59 you'll see a record book supplement over the drop down to the far right.
05:03 And one of the things that it explores is West Virginia's all time individual games
05:07 against the Associated Press top 25 teams.
05:10 It talks about West Virginia, how they fared, when they were ranked in the top 25.
05:13 So there's some interesting areas of that record book supplement that you can kind
05:17 of comb through when you're bored one day.
05:19 But I've gone through and looked at it and
05:22 the numbers always come up relatively the same, sometimes not exactly the same.
05:28 So here's where I land in my wildly unofficial,
05:31 only Mike Montoro has official numbers with any of these things.
05:34 I have West Virginia all time against AP top 25 teams
05:41 with 50 wins, 127 losses and two ties,
05:46 which would put them at a winning percentage of 28.5% all time.
05:50 Now that's again counting the early era before we got up and running,
05:53 got some things cooking.
05:55 So that gives you some perspective in terms of what you're up against all time
05:59 when you're facing these ranked team, but it's always a challenge.
06:02 It's always a challenge.
06:04 And what we did, Scott,
06:05 there was we went through and looked at it a couple different ways.
06:08 You can track this by looking at head coaches, how they did,
06:11 by looking at quarterbacks, how they did, by looking at top ten or
06:14 excuse me, ten win seasons.
06:16 And what was the path like to these ten win season for
06:19 these teams against ranked opponents.
06:20 So the next thing I wanna take a look at is streaks.
06:24 So how has West Virginia done all time in terms of their longest
06:28 winning streak against top 25 competition and their longest losing streak?
06:33 So I'd hit their losing streak first, get out of the way.
06:37 They've lost 11 consecutive games against top 25 teams in a row.
06:41 Now that might be over the span of multiple seasons.
06:43 In fact, it was, and it's happened twice.
06:46 It happened from 1977 to 1981.
06:50 They lost 11 straight against top 25 and it happened from 1989 to 1992.
06:56 They lost 11 straight.
06:57 So their longest winning streak all time against top 25 teams.
07:02 It too has happened twice.
07:05 Twice the Mountaineers have won four consecutive games against top 25 teams.
07:10 And that's their record, winning streak of four.
07:13 It happened in 2007, from 2007 to 2008.
07:17 And it happened again in 2011 into 2012.
07:20 So those are the two times that that happened.
07:22 So that's another way to stack it up and kind of look at it.
07:26 Now if you wanna move on from that, if you wanna look at West Virginia's all time
07:30 record versus top 10 competition and versus top five competition.
07:35 Now, bear in mind, this is against the absolute best of the best.
07:39 More often than not, the Blue Bloods at their best.
07:42 So don't be discouraged by this because I like instead to look at,
07:46 the row numbers are discouraging, of course they are.
07:48 But I like instead to think back very fondly like you and
07:51 I ripped off the five wins against top five teams just in a brief conversation
07:55 off the air.
07:56 So all time, not so well against the top 10 as you might expect.
08:00 10 and 70, a 12.5% win percentage against the top 10.
08:07 Now all time against the top five, it's relatively the same against the top five
08:12 as it is the top 10 from a percentage standpoint, 5 and 42 for a win percentage
08:18 of 10.6.
08:18 Now, let's put this in perspective.
08:20 West Virginia is going to open the season on the road at number seven, Penn State.
08:26 The Associated Press poll just came out a handful of days ago for
08:30 the 2023 season going into the season, the preseason poll.
08:33 That's kind of the unofficial kickoff to the poll season.
08:36 Penn State landed as expected, everybody was kind of expecting them somewhere
08:39 between six and eight.
08:40 With the strong finish they had last year with everything they have returning.
08:43 Again, we'll do a very deep dive into Penn State here in the coming weeks as we
08:47 approach that game and other episodes of the podcast.
08:49 But so let's again, lend some perspective.
08:52 Penn State is ranked number seven.
08:54 This will be, let's define the parameters here, a true road game.
08:59 And what we mean by true road game is regular season game at the other
09:03 team's campus, not a neutral site venue, not a bowl game.
09:07 So we're not talking about playing Georgia an hour and a half from Athens in
09:11 the Sugar Bowl in Atlanta.
09:13 That's not technically a home game for Georgia.
09:15 It's technically a neutral site game.
09:17 We're not talking about playing Oklahoma,
09:18 who is ranked number three in the country, in the Fiesta Bowl in Arizona.
09:22 That's not a true road game.
09:23 That's a neutral site game.
09:25 So in true road games alone, Skyler, I gave you the cheat sheet.
09:30 What is the highest ranked team?
09:33 West Virginia has been playing football since 1891.
09:36 The AP has been pulling teams since 1936 or ranking them.
09:40 What is the highest ranked team that West Virginia and
09:43 its long and rich history has beaten in a true road game?
09:47 Not bowl, not neutral site, true road game.
09:50 >> I have terrible memory and I know you just told me this too.
09:53 I know Baylor's on there, Virginia Tech, Boston.
09:55 >> No, that's not a road game.
09:56 >> No, you're kidding.
09:58 >> It's just only road games, true road games, not all games.
10:02 Cuz we're at Penn State for the opener.
10:03 >> I am drawing a major blank.
10:11 >> Okay, so- >> You just told me, which is very upsetting.
10:15 >> We've beaten the number nine team in the country on the road in a true road
10:19 game twice.
10:21 Mountaineer fans of course remember the 1982 opener at Norman.
10:25 Now the one they might not remember is 1954, October of 1954,
10:31 on the road in 19 to 14 win at number nine ranked Penn State in Happy Valley.
10:37 Another one by Fred Wyant.
10:38 Fred Wyant, who famously knocked off the Nittany Lions three straight times
10:43 as the Mountaineers quarterback.
10:44 So two times in our history, we've gone on the road and
10:48 stunned a top ten team in those games.
10:51 The highest ranked ever being number nine.
10:53 So if West Virginia can author the upset as the three touchdown underdog in
10:58 Happy Valley in this opener, we quite literally would be making history.
11:03 We have never in our history in a true road game beat a team ranked higher
11:07 than number nine, Penn State will be ranked number seven.
11:10 Skyler, I'm a guy that likes to live in hope.
11:13 Okay, so let's work on that script over the course of the next couple weeks
11:18 as that Penn State game approaches, okay?
11:21 So that's what we're up against.
11:23 That's the challenge if you choose to accept it.
11:26 Now as this gets more interesting, another way to stratify this is when you
11:31 look at West Virginia all time versus top 25 teams by head coach.
11:35 So what I did was I only included head coaches that won at least two games.
11:40 So two games or more against ranked.
11:43 If you don't have two wins against top 25, you're not gonna be on the list.
11:47 So here is how the list stacks up.
11:52 Stu is sitting there with two wins at two and two.
11:56 So hats off to the late Bill Stewart, not this night.
12:04 So two and two, a 50% win percentage.
12:06 Neil Brown is on the list with three wins over top 25 teams.
12:10 Neil's three and 12 with a win percentage of 20%.
12:13 Art Lewis had five wins against the top 25.
12:17 He was five and 11, win percentage 31%.
12:20 Dana on the list with 10 wins, 10 and 21, had a win percentage 32%.
12:26 Coach Rod, our guest not too awful long ago right here in the gun,
12:30 settled in and we talked to him.
12:32 Rich Rodriguez against ranked teams, number two all time in West Virginia's history.
12:37 Dana's number three with 10 wins against ranked teams.
12:40 Rich is number two with 11.
12:42 Rich was 11 and 12, nearly 500, just under 500, a winning percentage of roughly 48%.
12:48 Don Nealon, the all time winner at West Virginia in terms of head coaches with
12:53 the most top 25 wins.
12:54 Coach Nealon won 15 games against top 25 competition.
12:59 His all time record was 15, 40 and two for a win percentage of 28%.
13:04 So that kind of puts Don Nealon won 28% of his games against top 25 teams.
13:09 So that's kind of on par with what the program at large has won all time.
13:14 So it's some interesting perspective.
13:17 And if it feels like a win against the top 25 team is a big deal,
13:20 that's because it is, it's not easy to do, it doesn't happen that often.
13:25 So that's kind of what this conversation steers people towards.
13:29 So that's how the coaches have landed in terms of their record.
13:33 Again, not official but close to it.
13:35 I mean, it's not Mike Montoro counting this,
13:37 it's Jed Drennan counting it by virtual Mike Montoro's numbers.
13:41 No, I trust his numbers, but I don't trust my eyes.
13:43 So it's pretty close to what you're looking at here.
13:45 >> So what you're saying is West Virginia is well overdue for
13:49 a top ten win on the road is what you're telling me.
13:51 >> I like the way you're talking.
13:52 I love the way you're talking.
13:54 That's what we wanna steer towards as we wind this thing down, right?
13:58 So I need to come up and catch my breath, give you time to get a read in here.
14:02 But I really like the normal day.
14:04 >> Yeah, so I will do that right now actually.
14:07 So this episode of ITG is of course brought to you by our friends at Tooth and
14:11 Fore.
14:11 We all know cars cost less in grafting.
14:14 And Jed, I think the thing that really people don't really account for
14:19 is when you talk about all these seasons where they had ten plus wins.
14:22 And that's really the benchmark for a really good season in college football.
14:26 It used to be maybe like eight or nine.
14:28 But I think really since everyone's been going to 12 games,
14:32 do you hit ten or more, that's qualified for a great year.
14:36 And West Virginia, they haven't done it all that often.
14:40 Their most recent one was in 2016.
14:42 But when you factor in the path that it took to get them there,
14:47 there's a lot of different avenues.
14:49 And some of these seasons, they weren't playing very quality opponents.
14:55 And even in that 2016 season, they only had one of them, that was against Oklahoma.
14:58 So dive into that for me.
15:00 How do these ten plus win teams fare against top 25 opponents?
15:06 >> But you know me, Skyler, I love a walk down history lane.
15:10 >> Yeah.
15:11 >> Let's take a quick walk down history lane.
15:14 Let's jump back first to the first ten win season West Virginia ever had,
15:17 Clarence Spears, 1922.
15:19 Why don't we claim our national championship, right?
15:22 10-0-1 was West Virginia's record in 1922.
15:25 But as we alluded to when the show kicked off, there was no Associated Press poll
15:29 in 1922.
15:30 It didn't start till 1936.
15:32 So you'll see on the graphic, we have an NA, it doesn't apply here.
15:36 Jump ahead all the way, West Virginia's next ten win season.
15:40 These things, especially in the early days of the program,
15:42 did not come along often.
15:43 You weren't playing nearly as many games.
15:45 So fast forward to 1969 with Jim Carlin.
15:49 Jim Carlin's 10-1 team that won the Peach Bowl,
15:54 famously installed the option offense on short notice.
15:58 And opposition didn't see it coming.
15:59 Here you go, you got a 14-3 victory in the mud and the rain.
16:03 So Jim Carlin parlays this 10-1 season into the Texas Tech job.
16:07 So he leaves West Virginia, goes to Texas Tech.
16:10 Now that season, they played one ranked team, and that was it.
16:15 And that was the one loss they suffered.
16:17 So didn't play many back in those days.
16:21 And in that circumstance, didn't even make the most of the one they did play.
16:24 Of course, that was a pretty good, if I remember right,
16:25 a pretty good Penn State team.
16:27 Fast forward from that, from 1969 all the way up to the one we all remember,
16:33 at least to folks my age, 1988, Major Harris.
16:36 Now Don Nealon's regular season was unbeaten at 11-0, only loss.
16:40 He only blemished on that record that year was the loss
16:42 in the National Championship to the Fighting Irish.
16:45 West Virginia was 11-1 that year and 2-1 against ranked teams.
16:51 The only loss against a ranked team being number one, Notre Dame.
16:54 We had the early season win at Pitt blew their doors off.
16:58 Pitt kind of stumbled down the stretch.
16:59 But the bigger win was the season finale to clinch the unbeaten 11-0 perfect
17:04 regular season against a very good Syracuse team that was in town.
17:07 And we beat them 31-9.
17:09 So that was win number two.
17:10 So that year, 2-1 against top 25 competition, we finished 11-1.
17:15 Let's jump forward to 1993.
17:18 And again, these start to become games that a lot of fans of my generation
17:22 certainly are going to remember.
17:24 1993, 11-1, the only blemish being the loss to Florida in the Sugar Bowl.
17:28 West Virginia that year faced four top 25 opponents.
17:31 And Don Nealon's Mountaineers were 3-1 against those opponents.
17:35 Of course, the two that people remember right off the top, famously number
17:39 four Miami and Morgantown.
17:40 A week later, Ed Hill on the catch in the end zone from stud
17:44 to come from behind in the final seconds and beat Boston College.
17:47 Those are the two people remember.
17:49 But we had three.
17:50 So we were 3-1 that year, the only loss against a ranked team being two,
17:54 Florida in the bowl game.
17:56 Now fast forward up to 2005, the 11-1 Mountaineers
18:01 that won the Sugar Bowl against Georgia,
18:02 the only loss to Virginia Tech and Morgantown.
18:05 West Virginia played two ranked opponents that year,
18:07 and they were 2-0.
18:08 Virginia Tech wasn't ranked.
18:10 So they were 2-0, made the most of those opportunities to go 11-1.
18:14 To 2006, we had three straight years with the 11-1 seasons.
18:18 And we're going to talk about all those here.
18:20 2006, I wish Owen was here for this.
18:22 Owen's missing some fun with this one, right?
18:24 11-2 in 2006 to finish the season, including a bowl win over Georgia Tech.
18:29 1-1 against ranked competitions.
18:32 We only played two of them that year.
18:34 Now 2007, West Virginia, of course, 11-1, including the Fiesta Bowl
18:39 win under Stu that year.
18:42 11-1 under Rich, 11-2 over-- excuse me, 10-1 under Rich, 11-2 over--
18:47 10-2, let me get my math right.
18:49 10-2 under Rich, 11-2 overall with the win in the Fiesta Bowl that
18:53 was credited to Stu.
18:54 So overall against ranked teams that year, West Virginia--
18:58 and this is the standard here.
19:00 This is the standard by which we strive.
19:02 4-1 against ranked teams, including the Fiesta Bowl win,
19:06 against number three ranked Oklahoma.
19:08 So that was a banner year for West Virginia against ranked competition.
19:12 Not only did we go 11-2, but we made some hay along the way
19:16 against some pretty stiff Big East competition
19:18 that was well-respected around the country by the voters.
19:22 Jump ahead to 2011, Dana's first year, of course,
19:26 blew the doors off Clemson in the Orange Bowl, 70-33.
19:30 West Virginia finished 10-3.
19:32 We were 2-1 against ranked teams, of course, one
19:35 of those wins being against Clemson.
19:37 So 2-1, 10-3, and finally, wrapping things up with the season
19:41 that you just talked about, the only other 10-win season to mention,
19:44 2016, 10-2 in the regular season, bowl loss to Miami, 10-3 overall
19:49 against ranked competition.
19:51 Only on that schedule, that was a weak year for the Big 12.
19:54 We took advantage of a weak year.
19:55 Hey, more power to us.
19:57 Wish we'd have more years like that.
19:58 More years like that, right?
20:00 But that year, the only ranked team we faced
20:02 was a Baker Mayfield-led Oklahoma team.
20:06 And we lost that game, so we were 0-1.
20:08 But that kind of gives you some perspective
20:10 in terms of how not all 10-win teams are created equally.
20:13 It's kind of interesting to pop the hood and take a look at the path
20:17 that it took for these teams to get there.
20:18 Well, I think it kind of goes hand-in-hand
20:21 with one of the episodes we just recently recorded
20:24 about scheduling to win, right?
20:26 You talked about that with Matt Rue of Baylor.
20:28 They scheduled themselves into really good seasons
20:31 because they started off the years with Tarleton State,
20:35 McNeese State, and God knows who else, where West Virginia,
20:37 they're playing two power-five opponents out of confidence.
20:40 So that will probably change moving forward,
20:43 understanding what we've heard from Neil and Rent Baker, the new AD.
20:47 So before we jump into maybe the most interesting thing
20:52 here with the quarterbacks, a quick thank you to GoMart here
20:55 to keep you going, make sure you're signing up for your GoMart rewards.
20:59 Jed, I found this fascinating.
21:01 And honestly, I looked at it four or five times
21:04 and didn't even realize the biggest thing on this graph
21:09 that you sent me about the quarterbacks,
21:12 and that is Major Harris being toward the bottom
21:14 but more notably behind Jarrett Dagey,
21:19 who just started here, who everyone was after every single week.
21:23 In terms of top 25 wins, it's nuts.
21:26 Yeah, first of all, as we've stated many times in this episode,
21:32 it's not easy beating ranked teams, okay?
21:33 So it takes a lot to go your way.
21:35 You have to play good football.
21:37 You have to do all these different things.
21:38 You have to have a good team around you.
21:39 You know, whether we like it or not, right, wrong, or indifferent,
21:43 you know, you have quarterbacks often attributed in the NFL,
21:47 it's their playoff record.
21:48 In college, it's their bowl record.
21:49 So you're going to look at quarterbacks as an individual stat,
21:52 and that's just the nature of what we do.
21:54 So looking at this, quarterbacks who started these games,
21:58 again, like the coaches, I took all Mountaineer quarterbacks
22:01 who beat at least two ranked teams,
22:02 won at least two games against top 25 competition.
22:05 So, yeah, Major is on the list.
22:08 He's on the list at, you know, two and seven, really,
22:10 he was two, seven, and one because he had the tie against a ranked team
22:14 that I really don't want to talk about,
22:16 but he had those two big wins against ranked teams in 1988,
22:19 helping us go unbeaten,
22:20 including the massive win against a really good Syracuse team.
22:23 So those were the two that he won,
22:25 but then he didn't win again after that, none in '89.
22:29 So, you know, moving on with the list,
22:31 Chad Johnston knocked off a couple of ranked opponents.
22:33 He was two and five as a starter.
22:35 So, you know, won about 29% of his games.
22:38 Hats off to Dr. Chad Johnston.
22:40 So give him some love here on the podcast.
22:43 Again, not easy to win these games.
22:44 Dan Kendra found a way to go two and five.
22:47 So he chalked up a couple wins against top 25 competition
22:51 during his time here in the 1970s.
22:53 So moving on to Mark Balger,
22:55 people might be surprised that Mark Balger only had two wins.
22:58 For all the prolific things that Mark Balger has done,
23:00 both at the collegiate level and then to the NFL,
23:02 fastest NFL quarterback to ever hit 10,000 yards when he did it,
23:06 extraordinary signal caller by any measure.
23:10 But yeah, he was two and four against ranked competition
23:13 during his time here.
23:14 Had a couple of big ones,
23:15 but that's what his record stood at.
23:18 Kevin White, Kevin White showed up,
23:21 you know, your honor, Kevin White, okay?
23:24 Two and O, made the most of both his opportunities
23:27 in both those games.
23:28 And the thing about it is, everybody remembers,
23:30 again, from my generation, I should clarify,
23:33 everybody remembers both those games.
23:36 Back to back, they were both massive.
23:37 So, yeah, a lot to be said for that.
23:41 Jarrett Dagey, you hit on it.
23:43 Let's give Jarrett Dagey credit where credit's due.
23:45 Three wins against ranked teams
23:46 while he was the starter at West Virginia,
23:48 three and six overall.
23:50 So Jarrett's on the list with three wins against ranked teams.
23:53 Now moving up to the fours.
23:55 Who had four wins against ranked teams?
23:57 Will Greer, of course, he will forever be associated
24:01 with Gus and the play at DKR.
24:04 That was one of the four, but it wasn't his only.
24:05 He had three others.
24:07 So Will was four and five against ranked competition.
24:09 Geno, a couple remember from Geno, the big win at Texas.
24:13 People are gonna remember the Orange Bowl, obviously.
24:15 So, I mean, that Baylor team,
24:16 that 70 to 63 insane game, that Baylor team was ranked.
24:20 So Geno, four and four all time.
24:23 So won 50% of his games.
24:25 Now start paying attention
24:26 to some of these win percentages there.
24:28 So Fred Wyant, love giving me the late Fred Wyant some love
24:33 'cause he deserved it.
24:34 Four and three as a starter against ranked teams
24:38 under Pappy Lewis back in the 50s, he won 57% of his games.
24:42 Another guy who was four and three
24:44 with four wins over top 25 teams, the Haas.
24:48 Four and three, 57%.
24:50 And again, you start with the Oklahoma game
24:52 and his first ever start in West Virginia
24:56 after transferring from Penn State.
24:58 We know the story about being a linebacker,
24:59 but in the old golden blue, that was his first game.
25:02 And he knocks off the ninth ranked team in the country
25:04 for a top 25 win.
25:05 He went on to capture three more
25:07 and finish four and three against top 25 competition.
25:10 Now, we often remind people on this podcast,
25:12 we are unabashedly a #RespectTo podcast.
25:17 I shared this stat when I first dug it up,
25:20 whenever this was, I did this research months ago,
25:22 but it was in the spring
25:24 that I think I first looked at these things.
25:25 And I shared this stat with him at spring ball
25:29 and he just got a smile on his face,
25:31 just a clear little smile.
25:32 He's a very humble guy.
25:33 Rasheed Marshall, let's break down the numbers,
25:36 five and seven all time, 42% against top 25 competition.
25:41 Rasheed Marshall's five wins are the second most ever
25:46 by a West Virginia quarterback against top 25 competition.
25:50 Rasheed Marshall graduated preceding Pat White
25:55 with more top 25 wins.
25:57 Again, did I mention that was Rasheed Marshall?
25:59 It wasn't Pat White, it was Rasheed Marshall
26:02 with more top 25 wins than any starting quarterback
26:05 in the history of West Virginia
26:07 when he graduated with five and only the great Pat White.
26:12 What else can you say about Pat White?
26:14 The only quarterback ever born to start
26:16 and win four college bowl games.
26:18 And then of course, a fifth,
26:19 if you add the senior bowl where he's the MVP,
26:22 but against top 25 competition at West Virginia,
26:25 he was six and two as a starter.
26:28 Now, actually one was a key part of another win,
26:31 but it didn't count because he didn't start.
26:32 I told Owen, I said, he was six and two,
26:35 but you were actually seven and two.
26:36 So, you know, so Pat didn't start that Louisville game,
26:39 but so six and two all time,
26:41 75% of the time he faced a top 25 team.
26:44 He won, his team won.
26:46 So six wins all time, Pat White leads the list,
26:51 but surprising things on this list,
26:53 Jared Dagey with more all time wins against ranked teams
26:55 than Major Harris or Mark Bulger.
26:57 So it's a fun way to kind of, you know,
27:01 take a stroll through history as we talked about,
27:04 and that's where the numbers bring you.
27:06 - Yeah, I mean, that's a lot of really cool information.
27:09 I mean, again, just looking at that quarterback list,
27:11 I mean, I would have never thought
27:13 Rasheed Marshall would be number two.
27:14 I really would.
27:15 I mean, great player.
27:17 - Hashtag respect too.
27:18 - Yeah, had a lot of success, hashtag respect,
27:21 but I never would have thought he would have been number two.
27:24 And honestly, I never thought that Will Greer
27:26 knocked off four top 25 teams in two years.
27:30 - Sneaky, sneaky, yeah, kind of sneaky.
27:32 - Yeah, that's kind of a little surprising,
27:34 and Major being way down there with just the two,
27:37 I mean, that's just incredible.
27:39 Mark Bulger too, like you said, so.
27:41 - No, Mark was dinged up and missed significant time.
27:45 I kind of feel that he would have had more than that
27:48 if given the opportunity, but yeah, you're right.
27:51 There's a lot of surprising things on here,
27:53 but it kind of puts things in some context.
27:55 - Well, it's more than me.
27:57 It's not about dissing anybody because every person on here,
28:01 these were all great players.
28:02 - Oh yeah, yeah.
28:03 - So this isn't debating that at all.
28:05 These are all incredible football players,
28:07 and I still stick to the fact that Major Harris
28:10 is one of the most transformational players
28:11 in the history of Western.
28:12 - Way ahead of his time.
28:14 - Even of his era in the college game at large,
28:17 this doesn't change that, but to me,
28:19 it's more of a shout out to the guys
28:20 that you might not recognize,
28:21 more of a shout out to the Kevin Whites of the world
28:23 and things like that.
28:24 But that's what makes it kind of fun
28:26 to look at it like that.
28:27 - And it also just shows you how tough it is
28:29 to be a top 25 team or a top 10 or a top five team.
28:32 I mean, it's hard to do.
28:33 You think the greats in Western history,
28:36 Major Harris, Pat White, Mark Bulger, Jeff Hostetler,
28:39 and none of these guys were able to beat a top,
28:42 what was it, a top five team on the road?
28:45 - Yeah, a top 10 team.
28:46 Only two quarterbacks have ever beaten
28:48 a top 10 team on the road,
28:49 if you want to look at it like that.
28:50 Jeff Hostetler, 1982, Fred Weint, 1954.
28:53 Nobody else has ever done that.
28:55 So somebody's going to be handed that opportunity
28:57 here soon enough.
28:58 - Yes.
28:59 - As a three touchdown underdog,
29:01 as we head to Penn State, again,
29:02 spoken from a guy who likes to live his life in hope.
29:05 (laughing)
29:06 - I think as West Virginians, we all do that.
29:09 So, but I mean, that is a good point though.
29:12 If Nico Marquial does win this job,
29:14 and I don't want to get into a whole deep thing
29:16 here with that, but if Nico Marquial wins the job,
29:19 he's a redshirt freshman.
29:21 He's going to be around for a while.
29:22 So you're going to have many opportunities
29:24 to kind of climb up that leaderboard of wins
29:27 against AP top 25 teams.
29:29 So you'll have-
29:31 - No matter how you stack it,
29:33 whoever starts against Penn State,
29:35 if they make the most of their opportunities,
29:38 they can be back next year.
29:40 - Yeah.
29:41 - You know?
29:42 - Absolutely.
29:43 So one final thank you to Fortis
29:45 for Roof Performance and Financial Security Guarantee.
29:47 Make sure to visit fortis.us.com.
29:51 Owen Schmidt and Wesley Euler,
29:53 they weren't here with us, but that's okay.
29:54 We still have fun here on In the Gun.
29:57 The one thing we ask of you is to be in the air
29:59 and tell in the air about your favorite WVU football podcast.
30:02 For Judge Running, I'm Skylar Callahan,
30:04 and you've been In the Gun.