page_title: West Virginia Mountaineers football
section_title: End of independence (1991–1997)
hierarchical_section_title: West Virginia Mountaineers football / History / End of independence (1991–1997)
caption_attribution_description: English: Cote Ivoire born American football player and restaurant owner Amos Zereoue in Zereoue's Restaurant, New York City.
context_page_description: The West Virginia Mountaineers football team represents West Virginia University in the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision of college football. West Virginia plays its home games on Mountaineer Field at Milan Puskar Stadium on the campus of West Virginia University in Morgantown, West Virginia. The Mountaineers compete in the Big 12 Conference.
  With a 752–495–45 record as of the conclusion of the 2018 season, WVU ranks 14th in victories among NCAA FBS programs, and has the most victories among those programs that never claimed nor won a national championship. West Virginia was originally classified as a College Division school in the 1937 season, and joined the University Division, forerunner of Division I, in 1939. It has been a member of Division I FBS since 1978. The Mountaineers have registered 82 winning seasons in their history, including one unbeaten season in 1922 and nine seasons with at least ten wins. The Mountaineers have won or shared a total of 15 conference championships, including eight Southern Conference titles and seven Big East Conference titles.
context_section_description: West Virginia entered the 1991 season as new members of the Big East in what became a 20-year affiliation with the conference. After finishes of 6–5 in 1991 and 5–4–2 in 1992, the Mountaineers returned to ranks of the college football elite in the 1993 season. For the second time in six seasons, West Virginia produced an undefeated, 11-win regular season in 1993.  The Mountaineers engineered several close victories, beginning with a 36–34 upset of No. 17 Louisville at home in Morgantown. In its final two regular season games, WVU twice erased 4th quarter deficits to defeat No. 4 Miami and No. 11 Boston College. Despite finishing the regular season undefeated and ranked No. 2 in the Coaches Poll and No. 3 in the AP Poll, West Virginia was not selected to play in the Orange Bowl for a possible national championship. The Bowl Coalition system, designed to place the top two ranked teams in a bowl to determine the National Champion, slotted the Mountaineers at No. 3 behind 11–1 Florida State. The Seminoles were selected to play No. 1 Nebraska in the Orange Bowl for the national championship, while West Virginia settled for a Sugar Bowl berth against SEC Champion Florida.  The Gators routed the Mountaineers 41–7, denying West Virginia its perfect season.  WVU finished the season at 11–1, ranked No. 6 in the Coaches Poll and No. 7 in the AP Poll.  Robert Walker amassed a then-school record 1,250 rushing yards, along with 11 touchdowns on the season.
  The 1993 season was WVU's final season with double-digit victories during Nehlen's tenure as subsequent Mountaineer teams failed to recapture that level of success.  After posting a 7–6 record in 1994 and a 5–6 mark in 1995, the 1996 Mountaineers showed promise of returning the program to national prominence.  West Virginia began the 1996 season with a 7–0 record, only to lose three of its final four regular season games en route to an 8–3 record and a 20–13 defeat in the Gator Bowl at the hands of No. 12 North Carolina to finish 8–4. The Mountaineers put together another strong start in 1997, taking a 7–2 record into the final two weeks of the season.  Once again, the Mountaineers faltered as they lost 21–14 at Notre Dame and 41–38 in triple overtime to a 5–5 Pitt team to finish the regular season at 7–4.  The late season collapse culminated in another bowl game defeat, this time to Georgia Tech in the Carquest Bowl. Despite the disappointing conclusion to the season, quarterback Marc Bulger emerged as a capable leader throwing for 2,465 yards and 14 touchdowns. Running back Amos Zereoué shattered Robert Walker's rushing record with 1,589 yards, and his 18 rushing touchdowns are the second most in a single season at WVU.
caption: Amos Zereoué, WVU's fourth all-time leading rusher (4,086 yards).
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