Seniors reflect on their time at WVU

“These past five years have gone by in the blink of an eye,” senior cornerback Terrell Chestnut said.

There were so many twists, especially for this group that will play its final game on Mountaineer Field Saturday against Iowa State.

“It’s been a roller coaster,” fifth-year senior Kyle Rose said. “It’s been sad, it’s been happy, it’s been frustrating, it’s been confused. A lot of emotions go into it. That’s kind of why the game of football is so great. That’s why people love the game so much. It brings out things inside of us that we would never see in regular life.”

To any incoming freshman there is nothing but wide-eyed optimism as you enter college and the fifth-year seniors who came in here were joining a program which had just had an amazing run under Rich Rodriguez and then Bill Stewart.

They came in thinking they could win national championships, to say nothing of Big East championships under the homey, friendly Stewart … but the rug was quickly jerked out from under their feet.

Stewart was dismissed, Dana Holgorsen became head coach and thereE, was, of course, the kind of enthusiasm that there always is when a new man comes in, especially one being touted as an offensive genius. The team had players of superstar qualities … Geno Smith, Tavon Austin, Stedman Bailey.

And that first season they were part of a team that won 10 games, including a 70-33 victory over Clemson in the Orange Bowl.

They seemed to have the world at their feet, especially when they started the next season 5-0 and gained a No. 6 ranking in the polls.

Then everything came apart.

“We are guys who have taken pride in being Mountaineers. We’ve been through thick and thin,” senior linebacker Jared Barber said. “Some of us committed under a different coach. We have gone through four different defensive coordinators. We didn’t care what was going on. We just wanted to be Mountaineers.”

That carried them, this ideology of being a Mountaineer.

“The one thing we never lost sight of was the privilege it is to be a Mountaineer,” Barber said. “That’s what carried us through the tough times.”

“To be a Mountaineer means everything to me because I come from a little place in Florida and there isn’t anything big like that there,” senior safety KJ Dillon said. “When I came here, I got the whole state behind me. There’s all the tradition you’ll ever see. There’s so many fans who love you the way they do.”

The state adopts the players, the players adopt the state.

“They are committed to WVU. They are committed to being a Mountaineer. They are committed to this program,” WVU coach Dana Holgorsen said.

They had to be to stay with it. From that Orange Bowl high there was a 4-8 season that included consecutive defeats to both Kansas and Iowa State, hitting bottom in the conference. They saw TCU, which came into the Big 12 conference with them, soar to the top of the standings while the languished nearer the bottom.

The slipping success on the field was mixed with a rash of serious injuries. Barber went down with a shoulder and then an infection that threatened his career. Chestnut had his shoulder badly injured.

And then came the crusher. Safety Karl Joseph, who had emerged as the leader of the group, a safety heading toward an All-America season and high spot in the NFL draft, tore his ACL in a non-contact drill a third of the way into this senior season, bringing it to a screaming halt.

It was one final blow to a group that proved itself to be resilient in the face of such horrors.

“These guys have been through so much as far as so many position coaches, getting thrown into the Big 12, the injuries and they continued to practice and play hard,” defensive coordinator Tony Gibson said. “It’s going to be a sad day for me and these position coaches, coaching the seniors last game on Mountaineer Field.”

“They are resilient from overcoming some of the injuries that they have overcame,” Holgorsen said. “That was big. They are the inspiration for our whole team right now. They are the backbone. They went through coaching changes and conference transitions, and they have developed the program.

“It’s meant a lot to them. It’s meant a lot to me that they stuck it out, and they never wavered. They have continued to work their tail off each and every day. I am proud of this class.”

“The fiber of our class is that we are tenacious,” Rose said. “We play with a chip on our shoulder, we have an edge to us. No matter what happens to us, we will always fight. If we lose four straight like we did this year, we will always fight in that next game.”

“I knew once I came here I was locked in for good. I knew I’d be a Mountaineer,” Dillon said. “We had the coaching changes. I had a different back coach every year. It was rough, but I was a Mountaineer and I couldn’t see myself starting out somewhere else.”

Through it all they built a bond. As different as they were when they arrived, they all became the same person, a family.

“The guys on my team, I love them all, but my senior guys who came in with me five years ago have put so much blood and sweat and tears and effort into this game, it’s something that creates a bond that’s hard to find somewhere else,” Rose said.

“I love my teammates, I love my brothers. They have helped me through a lot of tough situations.

We came through a lot of tough times including this season and that has just made us stronger.”

And more emotional. The cornerback Ricky Rumph notes that as tough and hard as they are, they still can cry in front of each other.

“I’m not crying all the time, but I’m not afraid to shed a tear or two during those timeless moments when you are singing Country Roads, when the whole stadium is rocking. It’s remarkable and it’s not taken lightly here,” Rose said.

To Rose, that is a memorable moment every time it occurs.

Each of the seniors, of course, have their own most memorable moments at Mountaineer Field.

“My favorite moment would have to be just running out on the field for the first time as a freshman,” Dillon said. “We had Geno Smith, Stedman Bailey, Tavon Austin and I was running out on the field with them. I tried to run out with my brother Karl.

“We got to the end of the tunnel and I Iooked at him and he looked at me. He slapped me and I slapped him back. Right about when I was about to hit him he grabbed my arm and said, ‘Now, don’t be crazy.’ I will always remember that.”

“My favorite moment was definitely carrying the flag out,” said Barber, who led the team out onto the field waving the state flag. “Knowing what that flag means to all the West Virginians and myself, it was something I’ll always remember.”

“No. 1 was my freshman year, the Gold Rush when we played LSU and just running out on the field in a big time game,” senior linebacker Nick Kwiatkoski said. “That and beating Baylor last year.”

Ah, yes, beating Baylor and knocking them out of an unbeaten season and a chance to play for the national championship, that meant a lot to all of them.

“I think everyone says Baylor, and I love it,” Rose said. “It was a great moment. It was a defining moment in our Big 12 history. They had been the defining team in the Big 12. To beat them on our field when they were trying to get to the national championship game was something we as a team we reveled in.”

The seniors will have two more games left after Saturday, the season ending game against Kansas State in Manhattan, Kansas, and whichever bowl they get to use as their farewell game.