Discover the best records of WVU Football

With football season just around the corner, we look back at the legends who built the foundation for West Virginia’s football program.

Records rush

Avon Cobourne begins our look into the record books, as he holds records in three rushing categories. The WVU Sports Hall of Famer is the all-time leader in rushing yards (5,164), rushes (1,050) and 100-yard rushing games (28).

While Cobourne also rushed for 42 touchdowns in gold and blue, that is good for only third in WVU history, with Pat White rushing for 47 and Steve Slaton holding the record with 50 rushing touchdowns. Slaton also holds the record for total touchdowns, with 55.

White is also the second leading rusher in program history, but does hold the record for most yards per rush attempt (6.5497). In terms of the longest rush in program history, Pat Randolph ran for 96 yards against Northern Illinois in 1986.

While he doesn’t hold any records, Noel Devine is in the Top 6 in every rushing category. There is one current Mountaineer in the Top 10 of a category. C.J. Donaldson’s 82-yard touchdown run against Towson in 2022 is the 7th-longest rush in Mountaineers history.

Records passing

One name is choking the record books when it comes to passing stats, with Geno Smith holding seven different records. He leads the Mountaineers all-time in pass attempts (1,465), pass completions (988), passing yards (11,662), passing touchdowns (98), times sacked (77), total plays (1,711), and total yards (12,003). Smith isn’t far behind in any other category than passing interceptions, where his 21 are tied for 21st all-time.

Dan Kendra threw the most interceptions in a Mountaineer uniform with 47 in his collegiate career. While Geno Smith is tied for 4th for the longest pass throw in WVU history, the record belongs to Ben Williams Jr. Williams was forced to start against Penn State due to injuries in 1973 and threw a 96-yard touchdown pass to Danny Buggs. It was also the first time an African-American started at quarterback for West Virginia.

The final passing record is for the most 300-yard passing games. While Geno Smith completed 17 of those games during his time in Morgantown, that would only be good enough for second place. Will Grier holds the record with 19 games.

Receipt of data

Of the four receiving records kept, they are shared between two WVU Sports Hall of Famers. Tavon Austin holds the records for receptions (288) and receiving yards (3,413), and Stedman Bailey holds the most receiving touchdowns (41) and 100-yard receiving games (14).

Bailey is slightly more dominant in the record books, ranking second in no category. Austin’s 29 receiving touchdowns rank him third in West Virginia history, while David Sills caught 35 touchdowns. Bailey is also closing in on Danny Buggs’ 96-yard record for longest reception, as previously noted.

Defensive records

Steve Newberry holds the interception record for the Mountaineers with 20, but Tom Pridemore made the most of it with 15 interceptions. Pridemore holds the record for most interception yards with 398 and also has the longest interception in WVU history with 100 yards. The record for most passes broken up is held by Brian King with 51. Three players have three pick-sixes with the Mountaineers, Charles Donaldson, Aaron Beasley and Vann Washington.

Grant Wiley forced the most fumbles of any player in blue and gold, with nine. Jeff Macerelli’s six fumble recoveries put him atop the record books, but it took just one fumble recovery in the Orange Bowl for Darwin Cook to find his name in the history books. His 99-yard scoop and score against Clemson in 2012 is the longest fumble recovery and most fumble recovery yards in West Virginia history. Only one player has multiple fumble recovery touchdowns, with Karl Joseph having two.

Moving on to tackling, Darryl Talley holds the records for most tackles (484) and tackle assists (202). Not far behind in both categories is Grant Wiley, who holds the record for most solo tackles (288). Dante Stills holds three different West Virginia records, with the all-time leading marks in tackles for loss (52.5), tackles for loss yards (250) and sack yards (177). Stills is high in the sack record books, but that’s still Canute Curtis with his 34.5 collegiate sacks.

Special Teams Records

The special teams record books are full of special players. Tavon Austin dominates the kickoff return records, with the most returns (97), the most yards from kickoff returns (2,407) and tied with Shawn Terry (4) for the most kickoff return touchdowns. They are also two of six Mountaineers to have made 100 big ones off a kickoff return. The other four players are Kenny Marbury, Nate Terry, Mario Alford and Shelton Gibson.

Steve Superick had the most punts (266) and punting yards (10,892) in school history. The longest punt was by Todd Sauerbrun, who threw the ball 90 yards against Nebraska in 1994. Willie Drewrey had the most punts in Mountaineer history (108) and returned them for a record 1,196 yards. John Mallory’s 7 punt return touchdowns are the most for West Virginia, and Danny Buggs holds the record for longest punt return with 95.

Finally, two kickers hold three different records for the Mountaineers. Paul Woodside went 74-92 on field goals during his West Virginia career, both records for most field goals attempted and made. Woodside also holds the record for the longest field goal, with a 55-yard kick against Louisville in 1984. Pat McAfee went 210-212 on PATs, both records for most attempted and made. Additionally, McAfee holds the all-time record for most points in West Virginia history with 384.

All statistics are from wvustats.com.