MORGANTOWN — You walk into a grocery store to buy a pack of gum and the person in front of you has a full cart, won’t let you skip ahead and then their debit card won’t register on the swipe machine.
If that doesn’t tick you off, then your frustration tolerance is to be commended and maybe the rest of this column won’t exactly be your cup of tea.
The idea was simple: Who or what makes a WVU fan fly off the handle the most?
We’d like to tell you that an extensive study was applied to this subject, but that just wouldn’t be our style.
Instead, the question was posed to fellow sports writers here at The Dominion Post, as well as to some accomplished WVU beat writers around the state and a top 10 was born.
Here’s the interesting part, though, a few of the answers are quite obvious and need little explanation, but most of them have branches that branch off into other similar branches.
When it comes to who or what WVU fans love to hate, it’s not exactly a black and white topic.
Take ESPN for example. People in West Virginia obviously watch the network, which makes one wonder how anyone could actually rationalize that WVU fans hate ESPN.
The anger comes in numerous miniature bunches. The game commentators always talk more about WVU’s opponent than the Mountaineers. That’s a strong belief among WVU fans.
Whenever the WVU-Kansas men’s basketball game is stuck on ESPN+ rather than ESPN2, that’s a big pet peeve.
But yet ESPN is still very much a regular part of our personal TV time.
So, without further delay here are the top 10 ideas we came up with that WVU fans love to hate.
1. Pitt
This one was so obvious, but let’s talk about it.
Whether it’s 13-9, Dan Marino, Larry Fitzgerald or Dave Wannstedt, the school in Pennsylvania is just hated by WVU fans.
But here’s the question: Why is it just the school WVU fans hate and not the city itself?
Does that make WVU’s hatred for the Panthers unique?
Michigan fans hate Ohio State, but I also seriously doubt people in Ann Arbor go out of their way to visit the city of Columbus unless absolutely necessary.
Miami fans do not vacation in Tallahassee, Fla. Chapel Hill, N.C. residents don’t rub a lot of elbows with the residents of Durham, N.C.
Yet so many WVU fans love the Pittsburgh Steelers, travel to several Pittsburgh Pirates games over the summer and do a lot of shopping in the city of Pittsburgh.
Does anyone else think it’s weird to have a likeness for a city except for the one small part where the rival campus is located?
2. ESPN
There are some other branches to discuss here.
Let the WVU football team start 5-0 this season, but then check out the reaction on social media when all College GameDay discusses is Alabama and Georgia.
“ESPN hates West Virginia” has actually trended on social media in the past.
One interesting topic that came up was WVU fans absolutely hate noon kickoffs. It’s not always ESPN setting the time for WVU kickoffs, but the network always gets the blame.
The other perception is ESPN and its analysts favor the Big Ten and the SEC over the Big 12. That one may not be that far off base.
3. Dan Dakich
This one is pure hatred.
Quick review: Dakich was hired in 2002 as WVU’s men’s basketball coach.
After assessing the program, he left after eight days and went back to Bowling Green.
He later became an assistant coach at Indiana and eventually ventured into radio broadcasting.
His radio broadcasting time has been, in some small part, twisting the knife into the back of WVU and its fans.
He’s taken numerous shots at former WVU men’s hoops coach Bob Huggins, claimed that former WVU President David Hardesty threatened him and boasted he would have had WVU at an elite level had he remained at the school.
He once tweeted: “Watching hoops thinking how badly me resigning from WVU destroyed that program ….
Bless their little hearts.”
A Dakich sighting in Morgantown … I don’t even want to venture a guess as to what would happen.
4. Marshall
OK, this one has real branches, because the feeling here is WVU fans don’t truly hate Marshall.
At least not anywhere near the same level they hate Pitt.
What WVU really hates about Marshall is when the Mountaineers lose to the Thundering Herd in anything.
What WVU fans really hate is Marshall’s constant yapping about the two schools being on the same level.
Remember when former Marshall men’s hoops coach Dan Dan D’Antoni accused Huggins of being too scared to play the Thundering Herd?
That’s the thing, it’s a rivalry where one side is pushing way more harder than the other side.
Do Marshall fans hate WVU? Likely so, but there are only certain aspects of Marshall that WVU fans can’t stand.
Not sure you can call that all-the-way pure hatred.
5. The NCAA men’s basketball selection committee
This is the all-time conspiracy theory on the list that goes back further than just the Mountaineers being snubbed from the tournament in 2025.
That snubbing led to an announcement of an “investigation” from West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey.
There’s more, like when WVU won the 2010 Big East tournament. The Mountaineers not only weren’t awarded a No. 1 seed, they got stuck in the same bracket with a loaded Kentucky team.
So, yeah, there’s not a lot of love right now for the committee from WVU fans.
6. Virginia Tech
Just the Black Diamond rivalry itself sort of fits the bill here.
But, there’s also Michael and Marcus Vick, who in their own ways forever ticked off WVU faithful.
Michael did it with a last-second drive that led to the third-ranked Hokies’ 22-20 victory inside Milan Puskar Stadium that kept WVU from pulling off a monumental upset.
Marcus went as far as flipping the bird to WVU fans after getting run out of bounds during Virginia Tech’s 34-17 win in 2005.
7. Jamie Dixon
The former Pitt men’s basketball coach is now a foe in the Big 12 as TCU’s head coach.
There is truly no other opposing coach than Dixon that WVU fans love to hate, but there is also a good story of compassion in that relationship.
Dixon’s sister, Maggie, died of a heart condition in 2006, and Dixon has told the story of how he received many heartfelt letters of support from WVU fans.
“When my sister passed away 18 years ago, my two parents in California said, ‘Jamie, why are so many of these notes, and emails, and letters that we got from West Virginia?”” Dixon said last season. “So, people of West Virginia made two people in California going through a hard time feel a little bit better. So, that’s what I remember about West Virginia.”
Dixon is 20-17 all-time coaching against the Mountaineers.
8. The ACC
Maybe time does not heal all wounds, because WVU fans still hate the Atlantic Coast Conference.
The whole reason WVU competes in the Big 12 right now is because of the ACC’s raid of the Big East in 2004.
The ACC took Miami and Virginia Tech first, and then later went after Boston College, Pitt and Syracuse.
Not for one second did the ACC consider adding WVU, which also plays a role towards the hatred against the ACC.
9. Kansas/Bill Self
To be truly honest, Kansas men’s basketball coach Bill Self is pretty much hated by everyone in the Big 12.
It’s not because he is a bad guy. It has more to do with his success and the perception of how much help he gets from the refs in order to reach that success.
Self is 21-8 all-time against WVU. Remember Feb. 17, 2018? No. 13 Kansas attempted 35 free throws, while WVU was awarded only two. Huggins got ejected and Kansas won, 77-69.
That’s the No. 1 example of why WVU fans can’t stand the Jayhawks.
10. Darian DeVries
Honestly, if Rich Rodriguez had not decided to return to WVU to be its football coach, would DeVries have made this list?
It’s debatable, but there is no doubt DeVries is not well-liked by WVU fans at the moment.
Not after bolting for Indiana after just one season as WVU’s men’s hoops coach.
Not after never giving WVU athletic director Wren Baker a chance to make a counter offer.
And certainly not after he never officially told his players he was leaving.
