Sixth Poll Finish in Last Seven Years

By John Antonik for WVUsports.com
January 10, 2012 11:42 AM

Dana Holgorsen

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – For the sixth time in the last seven years the West Virginia Mountaineers have finished a football season in the national rankings.

West Virginia ended the 2011 campaign ranked 17th in the nation by the Associated Press and 18th in the USA Today/ESPN coaches’ poll, both polls announced earlier this morning.

The Mountaineers culminated the 2011 campaign in resounding fashion by routing Clemson 70-33 in the 2012 Discover Orange Bowl in Miami Gardens, Fla., producing the program’s eighth 10-plus-win season in school history and its fourth since 2005.

All but two of them have come in the last 23 years.

Overall, this year marked the 19th time in school history the Mountaineers have ended a season in at least one of the two major polls. Eighteen times West Virginia has finished the season ranked by the Associated Press, nine times by the United Press International and six times it has finished the year in the current USA Today coaches’ poll.

West Virginia will have several key offensive players returning in 2012 from this year’s Orange Bowl team, including record-setting quarterback Geno Smith, wide receivers Tavon Austin, Stedman Bailey and Ivan McCartney, and running backs Dustin Garrison and Shawne Alston.

West Virginia’s AP poll finishes
1953, 10
1954, 12
1955, 19
1969, 17
1970, 20
1981, 17
1982, 19
1983, 16
1988, 5
1989, 21
1993, 7
2002, 25
2005, 5
2006, 10
2007, 6
2008, 23
2009, 25
2011, 17

West Virginia’s UPI poll finishes
1953, 13
1955, 17
1969, 18
1970, 17
1981, 18
1982, 19
1983, 16
1984, 18
1988, 5

West Virginia’s USA Today/ESPN Coaches’ poll finishes
1993, 6
2007, 7
2006, 10
2007, 6
2009, 22
2011, 18

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