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W. Va.'s Nehlen To Retire

November 4, 2000 / 5:31 PM EST / CBS/AP

Don Nehlen, who has spent 21 seasons as West Virginia's football coach, retired Saturday following a 31-27 loss to Syracuse.

His retirement takes effect at the end of the season. Nehlen is one win shy of becoming the fifth active coach with 200 career victories.

"I just thought it was time for me to get on down the pike," the 64-year-old coach said. "I want to check around to see if there's still something else to do. I don't even know how to keep score in a bowling game."

Nehlen had not hinted that he would be moving on. The dean of Big East coaches has a 199-127-4 record at WVU.

"I've said when I retire that you'd be the first to know. Well, you're the first to know," Nehlen said. "I told my staff yesterday. I told my team about 10 minutes ago. It was a pretty tough time to drop that bomb on them."

Nehlen's voice quivered but never broke during his 10-minute talk. He was flanked by his wife, Merry Ann; his two children, their spouses and his grandchildren. Nehlen's daughter, Vicky, is married to former NFL quarterback Jeff Hostetler, a WVU alumnus.

West Virginia's players were stunned following the double-whammy of Nehlen's announcement and the loss to Syracuse on R.J. Anderson's 13-yard TD toss to Malik Campbell with 10 seconds left.

"I thought I had heard him wrong at first in the locker room, but it was true," said offensive lineman Rick Gilliam. "It's just too much."

News spread quickly to the Syracuse locker room. Coach Paul Pasqualoni called Nehlen "a great coach and man."

"They're going to miss him. I don't know what it's like in West Virginia, but everywhere else, Don Nehlen is known in the same category as coach Bowden and coach Paterno," Pasqualoni said.

Nehlen discussed his retirement with Athletic Director Ed Pastilong two weeks ago and Pastilong asked him to hold off so Pastilong could think about the move.

Pastilong said the reason the announcement was made this weekend was to get a jump on other coaching vacancies that occur this time of year. He said a national search would begin immediately.

Nehlen said he would like to help name his successor. He said he would prefer that one of his assistant coaches take over.

"I've had great fun here. It's time for somebody else," Nehlen said. "This job is about 80-85 hours a week, about 10-and-a-half months out of the year. So we'll let some younger guy do it."

That younger guy probably isn't Hostetler, who has three young sons and has said he's not interested in coaching.

One of Nehlen's legacies has been his eight consecutive bowl losses. One of them was to eventual national champion Notre Dame in the Sugar Bowl after he 1988 season. That was one of two undefeated regular seasons for Nehlen; the other came in 1993.

The Mountaineers (4-4, 2-2 Big East) will need to win two of their last three games in order to give him the chance to break the bowl futility streak.

West Virginia plays on the road next week at Rutgers, returns home to play East Carolina and finishes the season at Pittsburgh.

Nehlen has a 146-92-4 record at West Virginia. He was 55-35-4 in nine seasons at Bowling Green.