2016 West Virginia Mountaineers football team

The 2016 West Virginia Mountaineers football team represented West Virginia University in the 2016 NCAA Division I FBS football season. The Mountaineers played as members of the Big 12 Conference (Big 12) and were led by head coach Dana Holgorsen, in his sixth year. West Virginia played its home games at Mountaineer Field at Milan Puskar Stadium in Morgantown, West Virginia. 2016 was the 125th season of West Virginia football. They finished the season 10–3, 7–2 in Big 12 play to finished in a tie for second place. They received an invitation to the Russell Athletic Bowl where they lost to Miami.^[1]

2016 West Virginia Mountaineers football
Russell Athletic Bowl, L 14–31 vs. Miami (FL)
Conference	Big 12 Conference
Ranking
Coaches	No. 17
AP	No. 18
Record	10–3 (7–2 Big 12)
Head coach	Dana Holgorsen (6th season)
Offensive scheme	Spread
Defensive coordinator	Tony Gibson (3rd season)
Base defense	3–3–5
Home stadium	Mountaineer Field at Milan Puskar Stadium
Seasons ← 2015 2017 →

2016 Big 12 Conference football standings

v t e	Conf							Overall
Team		W		L					W		L
No. 5 Oklahoma $		9	–	0					11	–	2
No. 11 Oklahoma State		7	–	2					10	–	3
No. 18 West Virginia		7	–	2					10	–	3
Kansas State		6	–	3					9	–	4
TCU		4	–	5					6	–	7
Baylor		3	–	6					7	–	6
Texas		3	–	6					5	–	7
Texas Tech		3	–	6					5	–	7
Iowa State		2	–	7					3	–	9
Kansas		1	–	8					2	–	10
$ – Conference champion Rankings from AP Poll

Preseason

Big 12 media poll

The 2016 Big 12 media days were held July 18–19, 2016 in Dallas, Texas. In the Big 12 preseason media poll, West Virginia was predicted to finish seventh in the standings.^[2]

Big 12 media poll
Predicted finish	Team	Votes (1st place)
1	Oklahoma	258 (24)
2	TCU	222 (2)
3	Oklahoma State	202
4	Baylor	156
5	Texas	151
6	Texas Tech	141
7	West Virginia	126
8	Kansas State	88
9	Iowa State	59
10	Kansas	27

Schedule

West Virginia announced its 2016 football schedule on November 24, 2015. The 2016 schedule consists of 7 home, 4 away, and 1 neutral site game in the regular season. The Mountaineers will host Big 12 foes Baylor, Kansas, Kansas State, Oklahoma, and TCU, and will travel to Iowa State, Oklahoma State, Texas, and Texas Tech.^[3]

The team will play three non–conference games, two home games against the Missouri Tigers from the Southeastern Conference (SEC) and Youngstown State Penguins from the Missouri Valley Football Conference, and one neutral site game which is against the BYU Cougars at FedExField in Landover, Maryland.

Date	Time	Opponent	Rank	Site	TV	Result	Attendance
September 3	Noon	Missouri*		Mountaineer Field Morgantown, WV (Gold Rush)	FS1	W 26–11	60,125
September 10	2:00 p.m.	No. 20 (FCS) Youngstown State*		Mountaineer Field Morgantown, WV	RTPT	W 38–21	56,261
September 24	3:30 p.m.	vs. BYU*		FedExField Landover, MD	ESPN2	W 35–32	38,207
October 1	3:30 p.m.	Kansas State		Mountaineer Field Morgantown, WV (Stripe the Stadium)	ESPNU	W 17–16	61,701
October 15	Noon	at Texas Tech	No. 20	Jones AT&T Stadium Lubbock, TX	FS1	W 48–17	54,111
October 22	3:30 p.m.	TCU	No. 12	Mountaineer Field Morgantown, WV	ABC	W 34–10	61,780
October 29	Noon	at Oklahoma State	No. 10	Boone Pickens Stadium Stillwater, OK	FOX	L 20–37	59,584
November 5	7:00 p.m.	Kansas	No. 20	Mountaineer Field Morgantown, WV	ESPN2	W 48–21	56,343
November 12	Noon	at Texas	No. 16	Darrell K Royal–Texas Memorial Stadium Austin, TX	FS1	W 24–20	96,367
November 19	8:00 p.m.	No. 9 Oklahoma	No. 14	Mountaineer Field Morgantown, WV (True Blue)	ABC	L 28–56	57,645
November 26	3:30 p.m.	at Iowa State	No. 18	Jack Trice Stadium Ames, IA	FS1	W 49–19	51,365
December 3	3:30 p.m.	Baylor	No. 16	Mountaineer Field Morgantown, WV	FS1	W 24–21	49,229
December 28	5:30 p.m.	vs. Miami (FL)*	No. 16	Camping World Stadium Orlando, FL (Russell Athletic Bowl)	ESPN	L 14–31	48,625
*Non-conference game Homecoming Rankings from AP Poll and CFP Rankings after November 1 released prior to game All times are in Eastern time

Schedule Source:^[4]

Game summaries

Missouri

See also: 2016 Missouri Tigers football team

	1	2	3	4	Total
Tigers	0	3	0	8	11
Mountaineers	10	3	10	3	26

Youngstown State

See also: 2016 Youngstown State Penguins football team

	1	2	3	4	Total
#20 (FCS) Penguins	0	14	0	7	21
Mountaineers	7	7	17	7	38

Vs. BYU

See also: 2016 BYU Cougars football team

	1	2	3	4	Total
Cougars	7	6	6	13	32
Mountaineers	7	14	7	7	35

Kansas State

See also: 2016 Kansas State Wildcats football team

	1	2	3	4	Total
Wildcats	7	6	3	0	16
Mountaineers	0	0	3	14	17

At Texas Tech

See also: 2016 Texas Tech Red Raiders football team

	1	2	3	4	Total
#20 Mountaineers	10	14	3	21	48
Red Raiders	7	0	3	7	17

TCU

See also: 2016 TCU Horned Frogs football team

	1	2	3	4	Total
Horned Frogs	3	7	0	0	10
#12 Mountaineers	14	7	10	3	34

At Oklahoma State

See also: 2016 Oklahoma State Cowboys football team

	1	2	3	4	Total
#10 Mountaineers	3	7	0	10	20
Cowboys	6	14	7	10	37

Kansas

See also: 2016 Kansas Jayhawks football team

	1	2	3	4	Total
Jayhawks	0	0	14	7	21
#14 Mountaineers	10	21	14	3	48

At Texas

See also: 2016 Texas Longhorns football team

	1	2	3	4	Total
#11 Mountaineers	10	7	7	0	24
Longhorns	3	10	7	0	20

Oklahoma

See also: 2016 Oklahoma Sooners football team

	1	2	3	4	Total
#8 Sooners	21	13	7	15	56
#10 Mountaineers	0	7	7	14	28

At Iowa State

See also: 2016 Iowa State Cyclones football team

	1	2	3	4	Total
#19 Mountaineers	14	7	14	14	49
Cyclones	13	3	3	0	19

Baylor

See also: 2016 Baylor Bears football team

	1	2	3	4	Total
Bears	0	14	0	7	21
#14 Mountaineers	3	7	7	7	24

Miami (FL) – Russell Athletic Bowl

See also: 2016 Miami Hurricanes football team and 2016 Russell Athletic Bowl

	1	2	3	4	Total
#14 Mountaineers	7	0	7	0	14
Hurricanes	0	21	10	0	31

Rankings

Further information: 2016 NCAA Division I FBS football rankings

Ranking movements
Legend: ██ Increase in ranking ██ Decrease in ranking
— = Not ranked RV = Received votes

	Week
Poll	Pre	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	Final
AP	—	RV	—	—	RV	22	20	12	10	14	11	10	19	14	14	18
Coaches	—	RV	RV	RV	RV	20	18	13	9	15	10	9	17	13	12	17
CFP	Not released									20	16	14	18	16	16	Not released

References

1. "West Virginia vs. Miami - Game Recap - December 28, 2016 - ESPN". ESPN.com. Retrieved September 7, 2017.
2. "Oklahoma Tops Big 12 Media Preseason Football Poll". big12sports.com. Big 12 Conference. July 14, 2016. Retrieved May 12, 2020.
3. "2016 Football Schedule Released" (Press release). University of West Virginia Department of Athletics. July 11, 2013. Retrieved December 22, 2015.
4. "2016 West Virginia Mountaineers Football Schedule". FB Schedules. Retrieved December 22, 2015.