WVU Football Owns Thursday Night Home Games

The Mountaineers are looking to improve a 9-1 record of home wins on Thursdays. The saga continues tomorrow under the lights.

In the mid-2000s, as conference realignment concerns rose and, subsequently, television contracts were renegotiated, Thursday night suddenly rose like a phoenix from the ashes to become a viable College Game Day opportunity.

As it's been, Friday Night Lights used to usher in a weekend full of games. High school ball on Friday. College on Saturday. Professional football on Sunday. Rinse. Repeat.

In 1970, the NFL began bookending weekends with Monday match-ups, but Thursday's property remained untapped potential.

Then, in 1992, ESPN swooped in and cemented its rights to ESPN College Football Thursday Primetime. Pre-dating that move, though, were the West Virginia Mountaineers.

Nov. 22, 1990, the Mountaineers (4-6), coached by Don Nehlen, cracked open Thursdays with a 29-10 loss to South Carolina (5-5) at Williams-Brice Stadium. Thus began West Virginia's rocky relationship with Thursday road games.

The team didn't play another Thursday game until four seasons later. Nehlen's 15th season at the helm saw a pair of Big East Thursday games: a road loss to No. 14 Virginia Tech (34-6) and a home victory over No. 22 Syracuse (13-0). To this day, that Syracuse victory is the lone ranked team West Virginia has beaten on a Thursday.

It seemed as though the Mountaineers were being set up for a program record devoid of Thursday night positivity.

So... six seasons of conventional Saturday games passed.

The turn of the century saw WVU appear twice in Thursday match-ups: the program's first road win over Temple, 29-24; and another road loss to No. 3 Virginia Tech, 48-20.

2001 and 2003, under head coach Rich Rodriguez, the Mountaineers faced home field Miami teams, ranked No. 1 and 2 respectively, and lost both. 2001 became a grisly 45-3 shellacking, while 2003 was a significantly closer 22-20. Regardless, Thursday night road games remained the enemy of the gold and blue.

2003 began a string of annual Thursday games that ran until WVU and the Big East Conference parted ways. On a positive note, Milan Puskar Stadium began hosting Mountaineer weeknight victories.

2004 alternated Thursday outcomes. A 27-16 win over Syracuse was met by a 16-13 loss to Pitt. 2005 hosted a Backyard Brawl rematch at Milan Puskar; No. 11 West Virginia added a 45-13 W to its eventual 11-1 (7-0) season under Rodriguez, and the weeknight winning continued.

March 2005 saw ESPNU programming launch, and suddenly, college football exposure exploded. The next season, WVU leapt to three Thursday night games, but handled the shifting weekly game plans with ease. No. 10 West Virginia bookended a loss at No. 5 Louisville (44-34) with victories over Maryland (45-24) and a second consecutive Backyard Brawl victory, this time on the road, 45-27.

It wasn't until 2007 that West Virginia collected a clean sweep of its Thursday schedule. The No. 4 Mountaineers beat the Terrapins for the second straight season (31-14) at then-Chevy Chase Bank Field at Byrd Stadium. Then-No. 7 West Virginia also doubled down on wins with a victory over Louisville 38-31, en route to an 11-2 record.

Following that reprieve, the Mountaineers fell back into a home win - road loss stupor. Under head coach Bill Stewart, WVU conceded an overtime road game to Colorado (17-14), but beat Auburn in 34-17 Gold Rush fashion.

West Virginia would strike back at the Buffaloes in 2009. At Milan Puskar Stadium, WVU beat Colorado 35-24 in front of a full house.

2010 and 2011 swapped its Thursday bouts with Colorado for the warmth of South Florida. West Virginia swept the USF Bulls at home 20-6 in 2010 and recorded the program's fourth Thursday road victory, 30-27, at Raymond James Stadium in 2011.

With a record of 12-8 on Thursdays, the Mountaineers took a three-season break from weeknight appearances. Once conference realignment hit the Mountain State, Thursday night games seemed to nearly evaporate from the schedule.

Since 2014, West Virginia has only played six Thursday night games, two of which have been against the Baylor Bears. Additionally, ranked Big 12 conference members have been the most frequently-played opponents since the switch, and WVU hasn't fared nearly as well.

2014 and 2015 both saw one Thursday game apiece; No. 12 Kansas State came into Milan Puskar Stadium and stole a 26-20 victory from the Mountaineers' nearly flawless home Thursday record. 2015 then saw the program continuing its statistical probability with a handed road loss to No. 3 TCU, 40-10.

2016 and 2017 maintained conventional Saturday games, and the mystique of Thursday primetime games moved to other victims.

That is until 2018, during head coach Dana Holgorsen's final season. In beat-down fashion, the No. 13 Mountaineers sent the Baylor Bears packing to the tune of a 58-14 home victory. Nearly a full crowd sat in attendance to see the 5-1 Mountaineers and Bears face off, and Mountaineer fans had cause for celebration.

Then, Holgorsen left. Head coach Neal Brown took over the program, and immediately struggled. The Thursday tides changed, and Baylor entered the 2019 meeting ranked No. 12. McLane Stadium played host, and the Mountaineers boarded the plane back to Morgantown with the season's fifth loss, 17-14.

In 2022, this Thursday means more. It's not just a chance to rewrite the season's wrongs. It's a chance to continue improving on a 9-1 record of home Thursday games. It's a chance to maintain a winning record against the Bears, and remain undefeated against the program at Milan Puskar Stadium.

"It's a night game," Brown said. "It's a Thursday night game. There's been some classic games here in the history of West Virginia football playing in primetime tv on Thursday night, so we hope to add to that."

The Mountaineers sit at 34-33 all time on Thursdays, and tomorrow's primetime showing has implications that transcend records and stat sheets.

The game kicks off at 7 p.m. at Milan Puskar Stadium. It's also being broadcast on FS1.

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