The 2002 West Virginia Mountaineers football team completed the regular season with a 9–3 record and traveled to the

Continental Tire Bowl The Duke's Mayo Bowl is an annual college football bowl game that has been played at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina, since 2002. Originally commissioned as the Queen City Bowl, it has undergone many name changes due to sp ...

, where they lost to the

Virginia Cavaliers The Virginia Cavaliers, also known as Wahoos or Hoos, are the athletic teams representing the University of Virginia, located in Charlottesville. The Cavaliers compete at the NCAA Division I level ( FBS for football), in the Atlantic Coast C ...

48–22. They finished with a record of 9-4 and a ranking of 25/20. WVU's 9–4 record marked the biggest one-season turnaround in

Big East Conference The Big East Conference (stylized as BIG EAST) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference that competes in National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA NCAA Division I, Division I in 10 men's sports and 12 women's sports. H ...

history, after posting a 3–8 record the previous season.

Schedule

Roster

2002 season

Rasheed Marshall Rasheed Malik Marshall (born July 11, 1981) is an American former professional football player who was a wide receiver in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for West Virginia Mountaineers and was selected by the San ...

was the starting quarterback for the Mountaineers. He led the team with 1616 passing yards and 9 touchdowns. Leading the team in rushing was Avon Cobourne with 1710 net yards. Miquelle Henderson led the team in receiving with 40 receptions for 496 yards. The home opener for the West Virginia Mountaineers was against

Chattanooga Chattanooga ( ) is a city in Hamilton County, Tennessee, United States, and its county seat. It is located along the Tennessee River and borders Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the south. With a population of 181,099 in 2020, it is Tennessee ...

, in which the Mountaineers won handily 56–7. In the second game of the season, WVU played at

Wisconsin Wisconsin ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest of the United States. It borders Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michig ...

, where they lost 34–17. They then traveled to

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ; colloquially nicknamed Cincy) is a city in Hamilton County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. Settled in 1788, the city is located on the northern side of the confluence of the Licking River (Kentucky), Licking and Ohio Ri ...

, where they beat the Bearcats 35–32. They then defeated

East Carolina East Carolina University (ECU) is a public university in Greenville, North Carolina, United States. It is the List of universities in North Carolina by enrollment, fourth largest university in North Carolina and the only one in the state with s ...

by a 37–17 margin at home. They got demolished at home by ACC powerhouse

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It borders the states of Virginia to its south, West Virginia to its west, Pennsylvania to its north, and Delaware to its east ...

17–48. They then traveled to

Rutgers Rutgers University ( ), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a public land-grant research university consisting of three campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's College and was aff ...

, where they won handily 40–0. The next game was a 34–17 home win over

Syracuse Syracuse most commonly refers to: * Syracuse, Sicily, Italy; in the province of Syracuse * Syracuse, New York, USA; in the Syracuse metropolitan area Syracuse may also refer to: Places * Syracuse railway station (disambiguation) Italy * Provi ...

. They played host to the number 1 team in the land, the

Miami Hurricanes The Miami Hurricanes, known informally as The U, UM, or The 'Canes, are the intercollegiate sports teams that represent the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida. The Hurricanes compete in NCAA Division I, Division I of the National Coll ...

, but lost by a 23–40 count. They played at

Temple A temple (from the Latin ) is a place of worship, a building used for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. By convention, the specially built places of worship of some religions are commonly called "temples" in Engli ...

, and blew out the Owls 46–20. A home game against

Boston College Boston College (BC) is a private university, private Catholic Jesuits, Jesuit research university in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1863 by the Society of Jesus, a Catholic Religious order (Catholic), religious order, t ...

resulted in a 24–14 Mountaineer victory. Their next game was against

Virginia Tech The Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, commonly referred to as Virginia Tech (VT), is a Public university, public Land-grant college, land-grant research university with its main campus in Blacksburg, Virginia, United States ...

, where they won 21–18, in Blacksburg. On November 30, they played at archrival Pitt in the

Backyard Brawl The Backyard Brawl is an American college sports rivalry between the University of Pittsburgh Panthers and the West Virginia University Mountaineers. While historically a rivalry between the two schools' football programs, the term "Backyar ...

, and won 24–17. In the Continental Tire Bowl, they lost to the

22–48 to finish the season.

Team players in the NFL

References

{{West Virginia Mountaineers football navbox

West Virginia West Virginia is a mountainous U.S. state, state in the Southern United States, Southern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States.The United States Census Bureau, Census Bureau and the Association of American ...

West Virginia Mountaineers football seasons

West Virginia Mountaineers football The West Virginia Mountaineers football team represents West Virginia University (WVU) in the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of college football. West Virginia plays its home games at Milan Puskar Stadium on the campus of West V ...