The 2020 West Virginia Mountaineers football team represented

West Virginia University West Virginia University (WVU) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Morgantown, West Virginia. Its other campuses are those of the West Virginia University Institute of Technology in Beckley, Potomac State Coll ...

during the

2020 NCAA Division I FBS football season The 2020 NCAA Division I FBS football season was the 151st season of college football games in the United States. Organized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at its highest level of competition, the Football Bowl Subdivisio ...

. The Mountaineers played their home games at the

Mountaineer Field at Milan Puskar Stadium Mountaineer Field at Milan Puskar Stadium is an American football stadium in Morgantown, West Virginia, on the campus of West Virginia University. It opened in 1980 and serves as the home field for the West Virginia Mountaineers football team. Th ...

, in Morgantown, West Virginia, and competed in the

Big 12 Conference The Big 12 Conference is a college athletic conference headquartered in Irving, Texas, USA. It consists of ten full-member universities. It is a member of Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) for all sports. Its ...

. They were led by second-year head coach

Neal Brown Neal Brown (born March 11, 1980) is an American college football coach and former player. He is the head football coach at West Virginia University. Brown was previously the head coach at Troy University from 2015 to 2018. Brown also previousl ...

Previous season

The Mountaineers finished the 2019 season with a 5–7 record, 3–6 in Big 12 play, failing to earn bowl eligibility.

Offseason

Coaching changes

Offensive coordinator Matt Moore was promoted to assistant head coach, and was replaced in his role as offensive coordinator by Penn State wide receivers coach

Gerad Parker Gerad Michael Parker (born January 4, 1981) is an American football coach and former wide receiver. He is the tight ends coach at Notre Dame. He was previously the offensive coordinator at West Virginia University. Parker played college footba ...

. Parker also replaced Xavier Dye, who departed for South Florida, as wide receivers coach. Additionally, the Mountaineers hired Jeff Koonz from Ole Miss to serve as inside linebackers and special team coach and later became co-defensive coordinator. On July 22, Defensive coordinator

Vic Koenning Victor Emanuel Koenning Jr. (born February 26, 1960) is a former professional American football player, and current defensive coordinator at Louisiana–Monroe. He was the interim head coach at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 20 ...

parted ways with

West Virginia West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the B ...

after allegations of mistreatment by West Virginia players. To replace him, they promoted three defensive coaches to become co-defensive coordinators: Jordan Lesley, Jahmile Addae, and Jeff Koonz. They also moved linebackers coach Dontae Wright to safeties coach along with promoting analyst

Jeff Casteel Jeffrey Allen Casteel (born February 1, 1962) is an American football coach. He was the defensive coordinator for Nevada Wolf Pack football, Nevada Wolf Pack. Early life and education Casteel was raised in Paden City, West Virginia, Paden City, W ...

to outside linebackers coach.

Preseason

Big 12 media days

The Big 12 media days were held on July 21–22, 2020 in a virtual format due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

Big 12 media poll

Schedule

Spring game

The West Virginia football spring "Blue-Gold game" was canceled due to COVID-19.

Regular season

West Virginia released its 2020 schedule on October 21, 2019. The 2020 schedule originally consisted of 7 home games, 4 away games, and 1 neutral-site game in the regular season. The Mountaineers were to host two non-conference games against Eastern Kentucky and Maryland, and play a non-conference neutral site game against Florida State in the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game in Mercedes-Benz Stadium in

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

. West Virginia was to host Kansas State, TCU, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Baylor; and travel to Texas Tech, Texas, Oklahoma State, and Iowa State in regular-season conference play. The Mountaineers' games against

Florida State Florida State University (FSU) is a public university, public research university in Tallahassee, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida. Founded in 1851, it is located on the oldest continuous site of higher e ...

, scheduled for September 5, and

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

, scheduled for September 19, were canceled due to the

. :Schedule Source:

Coaching staff

Game summaries

vs. Eastern Kentucky

at Oklahoma State

vs. Baylor

vs. Kansas

at Texas Tech

vs. Kansas State (Homecoming)

at Texas

vs. TCU

vs. Oklahoma

at Iowa State

Rankings

Players drafted into the NFL

References

{{West Virginia Mountaineers football navbox

West Virginia Mountaineers football seasons Liberty Bowl champion seasons

West Virginia Mountaineers football The West Virginia Mountaineers football team represents West Virginia University (also referred to as "WVU" or "West Virginia") in the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of college football. West Virginia plays its home games at Milan Puskar ...