2002 West Virginia Mountaineers football team

The 2002 West Virginia Mountaineers football team represented West Virginia University as a member of the Big East Conference during the 2002 NCAA Division I-A football season. Led by second-year head coach Rich Rodriguez, the Mountaineers compiled an overall record of 9–4 with a mark of 6–1 in conference play, placing second in the Big East. West Virginia was invited the Continental Tire Bowl, where the Mountaineers lost to Virginia. The team played home games at Mountaineer Field in Morgantown, West Virginia.

West Virginia'ss 9–4 record marked the biggest one-season turnaround in Big East history, after posting a 3–8 record the previous season.

Rasheed Marshall was the starting quarterback for the Mountaineers. He led the team with 1616 passing yards and 9 touchdowns. Leading the team in rushing was Avon Cobourne with 1710 net yards. Miquelle Henderson led the team in receiving with 40 receptions for 496 yards.

The home opener for the West Virginia Mountaineers was against Chattanooga, in which the Mountaineers won handily 56–7. In the second game of the season, WVU played at Wisconsin, where they lost 34–17. They then traveled to Cincinnati, where they beat the Bearcats 35–32.

They then defeated East Carolina by a 37–17 margin at home. They got demolished at home by ACC powerhouse Maryland 17–48. They then traveled to Rutgers, where they won handily 40–0. The next game was a 34–17 home win over Syracuse.

They played host to the number 1 team in the land, the Miami Hurricanes, but lost by a 23–40 count. They played at Temple, and blew out the Owls 46–20. A home game against Boston College resulted in a 24–14 Mountaineer victory. Their next game was against Virginia Tech, where they won 21–18, in Blacksburg.

On November 30, they played at archrival Pitt in the Backyard Brawl, and won 24–17. In the Continental Tire Bowl, they lost to the Virginia Cavaliers 22–48 to finish the season.

2002 West Virginia Mountaineers football team roster
Players			Coaches
Offense Pos. # Name Class WR 85 Dee Alston  Fr C 51 Matt Ameri  Fr WR 21 Phil Braxton Sr RB 22 Avon Cobourne Sr WR 83 Miquelle Henderson So FB 36 Adam King Jr QB 18 Rasheed Marshall So WR 86 John Pennington Jr OT 71 Justin Williams So	Defense Pos. # Name Class LB 32 Ben Collins Sr DB 19 Lance Frazier Jr DB 9 Adam Jones Fr DE 92 Ben Lynch So LB 6 Grant Wiley Jr	Special teams Pos. # Name Class LS 57 Chad Lavender So	Head coach Rich Rodriguez Coordinators/assistant coaches Legend (C) Team captain (S) Suspended (I) Ineligible Injured Redshirt Roster