WVU Football’s Loss to Unranked Texas Tech Worst Since 1965

With the football team sitting at 3-4, things have hit a new low for West Virginia. One that the program hasn’t seen in almost 60 years.

That includes losing to unranked Texas Tech 48-10, the worst loss to an unranked opponent for West Virginia since 1965 when they lost 44-6 to Penn State.

Texas Tech 48, West Virginia 10

That's WVU's worst loss to an unranked team since losing 44-6 at Penn State in 1965

— Matt Brown (@MattBrownCFB) October 22, 2022

That 1965 season for Penn State was also the last under head coach Rip Engle. So to put some context in how long ago that was when college football’s all-time winningest head coach Joe Paterno started his head coaching career, won 409 games across 45 seasons, was dismissed due to a disgusting scandal, and passed away.

Oh and Penn State is on their second head coach since then.

To find a worst deficit, you’d need to go even further back to show. You’d have to go to 1950 when West Virginia lost 40-0 to Maryland. Maryland had a good team that year though and finished 7-2-1 behind future Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Jack Scarbath. Penn State was 5-5 in the year they defeated West Virginia by 38 points.

The loss also makes it more difficult for the team to make a bowl game this season, which would mean two bowl ineligible years in a three year span.

The last time WVU missed out on being bowl eligible twice in a three year span was the turn of the century when Rich Rodriguez started his career off 3-8 just two years removed from a 4-7 season by Don Nehlan’s squad.

If there’s any good news to pull from today’s loss in a historical context, it’s far from West Virginia’s worst loss in program history. That honor belongs to the lone time they played Michigan in 1904 when they lost 130-0.