Every Couch Fire Starts with a Spark

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On a cold night in November 2002, the West Virginia Mountaineers rolled into Blacksburg, Virginia, to take on the Virginia Tech Hokies on national television. Virginia Tech was right in the middle of its golden era of football under Frank Beamer. The Hokies had played for the national championship just three years earlier and entered the game ranked No. 12 in the country.

West Virginia was in its second year under head coach Rich Rodriguez. Year one under Rodriguez had been a disaster. The Mountaineers went 3-8, a season that still stands as the worst in the modern era of WVU football. One of those losses came against Virginia Tech, a 35-0 beatdown in Morgantown.

But something was beginning to change in year two. Rodriguez and his team had won four of their last five games and entered Blacksburg with a 7-3 record, the second-leading rushing offense in the country, and something they hadn’t had much of the year before: momentum.

Late in the fourth quarter, West Virginia found itself clinging to a 21-16 lead.Virginia Tech had a 2nd and goal from the 1 yard line. Three straight runs. Three straight stops. And on fourth down, Grant Wiley made one of the most legendary tackles in West Virginia football history, stopping the Hokies just inches from the goal line. But the Mountaineers weren’t done being tested.

After the offense went 3 and out, West Virginia intentionally took a safety rather than punt out of their own end zone. The Hokies needed only a field goal to tie the game, and they marched all the way down to the WVU 11-yard line.

Twenty-one seconds remained.

2nd and 10.

Virginia Tech quarterback Rod Rutherford scrambled to his left and launched the ball toward the end zone. Into the hands of Brian King.

Game over.

West Virginia had beaten the No. 12 team in the country on the road. For Rich Rodriguez, it was his first road victory over a ranked opponent. For the Mountaineers, it meant a return to the Top 25. But more importantly, it gave an entire fanbase something it desperately needed.

A spark.

That spark would ignite something much bigger. What followed over the next decade was the most dominant stretch of football this program has ever seen.

3 BCS bowl victories
2 Unanimous All-Americans (Only 4 total in WVU history)
6 conference championships
7 seasons finished ranked in the Top 25, including three in the Top 10

One night in Blacksburg didn’t create all of that, but if I had to pick a single moment where it all started it would be that win against Virginia Tech.

For many of us who were much younger during that golden era of West Virginia football, those memories have never really gone away. We remember what it felt like to believe that our team could beat anyone in the country. We remember seeing West Virginia in the national championship conversation. We remember hearing our players mentioned in the Heisman race.

And now, many of us have kids of our own. To them, the stories we tell about what West Virginia football used to be must sound almost like fairy tales. The comebacks. The championships. The bowl wins. The nights when Morgantown felt like the center of the college football world. They didn’t experience it. But maybe they can. Because here we are again.

Rich Rodriguez is in his second year as the head coach of West Virginia. His first season was rough. And now, once again, the Mountaineers are heading on the road to face a ranked Virginia team.

Sound familiar?

This fan base needs to be awoken from this long stretch of irrelevancy. Maybe all it needs is a spark. A moment that makes a kid watching from the stands believe that West Virginia football can be special again.

That we can come back from 24-7 down in the 4th to win in triple overtime.

That we can fake a punt and beat the SEC champs in their backyard.

That a runaway beer truck can outrun a Sooner.

That we can hang 70 points on Clemson in the Orange Bowl.

That sometimes, against all odds, the Mountaineers find a way.

We need that spark again.

We need something that makes us believe. Something that makes the next generation understand why we love this team so much. Something that makes them want to put on the Flying WV with the same pride we carried. Something that makes a couch fear game day in Morgantown again. 

That fire doesn’t have to start with a perfect season. Sometimes, it starts with one game.

One goal line stand.

One interception.

One underdog win on a cold November night.

Twenty-four years ago, that spark came in Blacksburg.

If the glory days are going to return, they have to start somewhere.

Why not now?

Why not in Charlotte?

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