'A magical night': Remembering WVU's 2003 upset over Virginia Tech

As night begins to fall on a Wednesday night in Morgantown, a caravan of buses rumbles down Don Nehlen Drive.

Grant Wiley is settled into his seat, mentally preparing himself for the events of the next few hours. Taking care of business, which means coming out with a statement win, is the only thing on his mind.

Today is Oct. 22, 2003. The Black Diamond Trophy is on the line as West Virginia hosts Virginia Tech, a Big East rival and, currently, the third-ranked team in the nation.

Three weeks earlier, unranked West Virginia took second-ranked Miami to the final minute before losing on a late field goal. The loss was the team’s fourth in their last five games, and their third in a row. The Mountaineers bounced back against Rutgers the following week, but the team is still far from satisfied.

“We just knew we were gonna beat their ass,” Wiley said. “We were fed up with losing.”

Veteran coach Frank Beamer led the Hokies into Morgantown rolling off of six consecutive wins. He brought no lack of talent with him as, on offense, starting running back Kevin Jones was a Heisman Trophy contender. Starting wide receiver Ernest Wilford would go on to find a home in the NFL, as would cornerback and kick returner DeAngelo Hall, a future top 10 draft choice.

West Virginia countered with the likes of running back Quincy Wilson, who had rushed for more than 600 yards at that point in the season, and Wiley, who was one of the most feared linebackers in the Big East. Wiley also had a critical fourth-quarter stop against the Hokies the year before, leading to a WVU win.

But, as the buses approached Mountaineer Field, the Mountaineers’ home-field advantage became increasingly apparent — another wrinkle in the game.

“Being a night game — it’s hard to explain — but to see the whole blue lot just packed, it was like ‘Yeah, they’re in trouble,’” Wilson said. “The guys had all day to tailgate and we knew it was going to be a huge, huge crowd in there. Once you get into the stadium, watching warmups and you see the student section there early, we just knew it was going to be a magical night.”

History, combined with a big crowd, Morgantown’s reputation and, well, alcohol, meant that the city could be in for one unforgettable night.

“A lot of the guys were like “If we win this game,” Wilson said, “Morgantown is going to be in trouble.”

The Hokies opened with the ball, ready to extract vengeance over the prior year’s upset. Relying primarily on Jones and running the football, Virginia Tech entered Mountaineers’ territory before WVU cornerback Brian King stepped in front of a Bryan Randall pass, forcing a takeaway on the first drive of the game.

On the responding drive, the Mountaineers continued to embrace where they found success: the run game.

“My mindset always was to try to wear the defense down,” Wilson said. “I was 225 pounds, and my first couple of carries I was just trying to slam in there. It’s actually kind of funny, the first carry, it only went for a yard, but I literally just ran over this guy and the whole crowd, even the announcers, were going crazy, and that kind of set the tone. Even though it was a 1-yard run, it’s just like ‘Oh yeah, it’s going to be one of those games where they’re in trouble,’ and we pretty much took off after that.”

Establishing the run paid off. After entering the Virginia Tech red zone, a 7-yard rush by running back Kay-Jay Harris put the Mountaineers on the board first. Virginia Tech attempted to respond, but a bad pitch by Randall on an option play resulted in a loose ball. West Virginia defensive back Mike Lorello fell on it, the team’s second takeaway in as many drives.

Taking over at the Hokies’ 36-yard line, it took the Mountaineers three plays to add another touchdown. Wilson took a handoff from five yards out and found paydirt, marking his third straight game with a rushing touchdown.

The score also gave the Mountaineers a 14-0 lead. Virginia Tech would not respond until late in the second quarter when linebacker Vegas Robinson forced a Wilson fumble. The ball was picked up and returned a total of 82 yards to put the Hokies on the board, the lone bright spot in a demoralizing half that featured two turnovers, a punt and a missed field goal.

“We knew we were more physical than them, way more physical than them, especially that Wednesday night.,” Wiley said. “They didn’t want to play. We could see it in their eyes after the second quarter, and then coming out in the third quarter and just continuing to drum them. We could feel it from them that they didn’t have the heart or the wherewithal to come back from this pounding, cause they were getting lit up.”

In the third quarter, Marshall connected with wide receiver Travis Garvin for a 93-yard touchdown to further widen the gap. Two drives later, Marshall kept the ball and ran to his right, finding the end zone before Hall shoved him to the ground. West Virginia’s lead ballooned to 24-7 while Hall was flagged for a personal foul on the play.

“This is where we truly started to realize their frustration was setting in,” Marshall said. “Pedal to the metal, I’m gone, and he just rocked me like five yards in. I landed probably in the back of the end zone. I kid you not, I was probably in the air for about five yards. Boom, he hit me — I kind of just relaxed, I wasn’t expecting it — but I jumped up and by the time I got to my feet and regained my senses, Quincy was already over there in his face. Chris Henry was already over there in his face.

“That just gave me the feeling like ‘We’re in control. We have it bagged up, let’s just do what we have to do and get off this field,’” Marshall said. “That was another moment in that game where I said ‘They’re frustrated, they’re done. They’re just making stupid mistakes, stupid penalties. As long as we keep doing what we’re doing, we’re okay.”

The teams traded punts in the fourth quarter, with West Virginia holding the Hokies to only 17 yards of offense. Once the clock struck zero — cementing the 28-7 upset win — the stadium evolved into chaos.

Thousands of attendees rushed the field, jumping from Mountaineer Field’s high retaining walls to the field below. Security guards assembled to protect the stadium’s goal posts, which were being threatened by those gathered on the turf.

“We were down on the field celebrating,” Wiley said, “and then all of a sudden I was drinking pepper spray, and then realized it was probably not a good idea to be down there anymore. We ran back into the locker room and we were just laughing our asses off.”

“It took at least 10 or 15 minutes to get the field cleared off and all players and personnel, administration, everyone inside,” Marshall said. “For the next five minutes, once we’re all inside, everyone’s coughing, people trying to grab water (and) towels. You see guys hunched over at garbage cans just coughing. I don’t know how that was possible, but the pepper spray made its way in. At that point, coach Rod gained control, everyone’s laughing and just having a good time. Finally, he’s like ‘Guys, we did it. I told you,’ and then the whole game ball situation goes out. It was amazing, something I’ll never ever forget.”

A few minutes away in Morgantown’s Sunnyside neighborhood, hell had broken loose. The area was the location of one of Morgantown’s more well-known party scenes and, as people began to congregate, the postgame celebratory fires began to ignite.

Mark Carvasos, then a captain with the Morgantown Fire Department, usually slept during Mountaineer games in anticipation of what the night would hold.

“Virginia Tech was one of the worst nights we had,” Caravasos said. “I was captain on the engine company that night. I know we ran over 120 documented calls that night and, if my memory serves me correctly, I think we had closer to 150 fires because the police department was going around putting out fires that we weren’t being notified of. There were just so many fires going on that we were driving past fires that were in the street to go to fires that were threatening houses or structures. It was crazy, just crazy, and dangerous.

“You would get on the radio and ask the dispatcher ‘What’s next?’ or ‘What’s open?’ and you’d give them your location,” Caravasos added. “You had so many fires backed up that they wouldn’t even turn around and go through the process of alerting us through our protocols. It came back to ‘We’re clear here, what’s next?’ and you would just go down the board until you had somebody extinguish a fire. In the meantime, the 911 dispatchers have to turn around and get information from people who are calling and trying to prioritize where to send us. You skip the fire in the middle of the street to go to the fire that was on the porch at the house because somebody walked up and set a couch on fire on a porch. We had several incidents like that.”

“We just beat the No. 3 team, you know Morgantown is just going absolutely ham right now because that’s what we do,” Marshall said. “I think a lot of guys didn’t even go home. Shower at the stadium, throw your sweatsuit back on and, boom, we’re just out. I didn’t even go downtown just because I knew how crazy it was gonna be. I ended up somewhere else and it was just an all-night event. So memorable, just classic Morgantown.”

Wiley ended up at The Back Door, a bar located on High Street, while Wilson and Marshall hit up house parties near the Evansdale campus.

“Q and I definitely pulled an all-nighter, and I know that for a fact he was with me,” Marshall said. “It was house party here, house party there … I remember my eyes did not close until about 4:30. The sun might even have been coming up, it might’ve been even later than that. It was a good night, though.”

West Virginia’s win over Virginia Tech brought the Mountaineers to 3-4 on the season. They claimed victory in their remaining five games of the regular season before falling to Maryland in the Gator Bowl.

Virginia Tech lost three of its last five games and punched a ticket to the Insight Bowl, where the Hokies were defeated by Cal. They would finish the season unranked before starting the 2004 season as a member of the ACC.

On campus, at least five students were expelled for their roles in the chaos.

As West Virginia gears up to host Virginia Tech on Saturday, what was once a strong hatred or respect of the other program appears to be gone. Having played yearly from 1973-2005, the two teams have only met once since then.

The 2003 matchup was the last time the two schools met as members of the same conference. Discussions on realignment have since made their way back to the mainstream, leaving many to wonder if yearly intraconference games between the Mountaineers and the Hokies could soon return in a way it had been before.

“Anyone will tell you,” Wiley said. “it’s more fun to lace up against Virginia Tech, Pitt or even Boston College for that matter, with the history between the schools, than it is to play some team you have no history with or tradition with.”

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