The Official Web Site of the WVU Varsity Club

Profile: Mike Sherwood
By John Antonik

National sportswriters dubbed 1968 “the year of the sophomore” in college football.

There was Stanford’s Jim Plunkett in the West and Mississippi’s Archie Manning in the South. In the East, West Virginia University had a pretty good sophomore quarterback named Mike Sherwood who helped bring West Virginia's passing game out from the dark ages.

Sherwood threw for nearly 2,000 yards that season and established a WVU record by passing for 416 yards at Pitt. That mark stood for 30 years before finally being surpassed in 1998. A strong argument could be made that Sherwood’s game against Pitt is the most remarkable single-game performance in the history of Mountaineer football.

At the time his passing total was nearly 100 yards more than the school record of 320 produced by Allen McCune against Pitt in 1965, and exceeded starting quarterback Tom Digon’s entire season total of 323 yards in 1967. And while today a 400-yard game isn’t considered a big deal in college football, in 1968 it was among the rarest of feats.

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The origins of the forward pass are nearly as old as the game itself, but it didn’t really become an effective weapon in college football until the mid-1930s when Davey O’Brien passed TCU to the 1938 national championship. Horned Frogs coach Butch Meyer’s wide open offense was aided by the Southwest’s mild autumn climate.

Teams in the Midwest and Northeast preferred to advance the football by way of the ground. As is the case with any successful style, utilizing a punishing ground game became the popular method of offense in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s.

Nevada’s Stan Heath was the first quarterback in NCAA history to pass for more than 2,000 yards in 1948 and there wasn’t another 2,000-yard passer until Baylor’s Don Trull threw for 2,157 yards 15 years later in 1963.

Incidentally, 1948 was also the year West Virginia University had its first 1,000-yard passer when Jimmy Walthall threw for 1,222 yards and 13 touchdowns.

Bowling Green starting quarterback Don Nehlen attempted a grand total of 119 passes his junior and senior seasons in 1956-57. “We didn’t do a lot of fancy stuff,” Nehlen remembered. “I never threw more than eight, 10, 12 times a game. We had one pass play where both tight ends hooked and the halfback would run to the flat and go down to the sideline. It was either called deep left or deep right. That was it.

“Most of the time we just got the ball, lined up and ‘pow!’”

One of the most successful coaches of that era, Ohio State’s Woody Hayes, had a great distaste for the forward pass. “Three things happen when you pass and two of them ain’t good,” he said.

Hayes practiced what he preached. From 1951 until he was fired in 1978 for punching a Clemson player, his teams won three national titles and finished 18 times ranked in the top 20 despite only having seven different quarterbacks throw for more than 1,000 yards in a season.

His most effective passer was John Borton, who completed 115-of-196 aerials for 1,555 yards in 1952. The Buckeyes won six games that year and finished third in the Big Ten. A year later Borton suffered a season-ending injury during the third game of the year and Hayes came away from that campaign a strong believer in the running game. In 1954, Hayes had his first national title. “The pass is a weapon of surprise – don’t overuse it,” Hayes once said.

Syracuse coach Ben Schwartzwalder’s 1959 national championship team relied on a powerful rushing attack that produced 313.6 yards per game. “He had very little success throwing the football but he did have a string of great tailbacks there,” recalled former West Virginia coach Gene Corum. “It was almost like a single wing offense and when he did throw there was usually someone open.”

Running, blocking and tackling were the three essentials of the game. It was a macho thing to maul your opponent. Hayes’ philosophy was simple: “I will pound you and pound you until you quit.”

The rules at the time were also restrictive to the passing game and it wasn’t until 1959 that college football added a “wild card” substitution rule permitting each team to send in one player whenever the clock stopped. This gave the game a greater scope for specialization and made it easier for coaches to pass along instructions to their quarterbacks.

By 1965 substitutions were completely liberalized, meaning a coach could send in a player anytime he wished up until the time the ball was put into play. This effectively ended the two-way player and paved the way for the specialized modern game we enjoy today.

What grew out of those changes were vastly different formations -- the wing T, slot T and flanker T sets replacing the full-deck T and split T formations.

It was during the 1965 season that Tulsa had the nation’s first 3,000-yard passer when Billy Guy Anderson threw for 3,464 yards to go along with 30 touchdowns. Anderson's favorite target, flanker Howard Twilley, led the country in receptions that year.

The following year in 1966, college football passed the 25-million mark in spectators. Although the college game was becoming more wide open and exciting, most coaches still viewed the passing game as gimmicky and unpredictable.

“Back then passing was geared a lot on your running offense in that you had a lot of play action passes,” said Corum, whose quarterback Allen McCune had three of the school’s top five passing games in 1964-65.

In other words, coaches either passed for a big play or passed out of desperation.

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It was in 1966 that West Virginia University athletic director Red Brown selected 32-year-old Georgia Tech defensive coordinator Jim Carlen as the man to lead his football program.

Carlen’s coaching philosophy was a product of the times: run the ball, play great defense and control the clock. But he was also shrewd enough to realize that it wasn’t possible to pound a square peg into a round hole.

Because he didn’t have a bunch of hulking brutes walking around campus like there were at Penn State, Carlen was going to have to find someone who knew the throwing game.

That man turned out to be Florida State assistant coach Bobby Bowden, who Carlen didn’t know very well at the time. Bowden’s first play call in 1966 resulted in a 70-yard touchdown pass to John Mallory.

“He would do unconventional things,” recalled WVU star running back Garrett Ford. “On third-and-seven from our own five-yard line, he’d run a reverse.”

Despite Bowden’s unpredictability, the 1966 and 1967 seasons were exercises in futility. West Virginia won just three games in Carlen’s first season and had an 8-9-3 two-year record. But the program was improving and by 1968, with an outstanding group of sophomores now ready for action, West Virginia was equipped to fully take on Bowden’s personality.

Although Tom Digon was returning for his senior season, the West Virginia coaching staff decided to start sophomore Mike Sherwood instead.

Sherwood was a more accurate passer and had the ability to elude the rush and throw on the run. He wasn’t the biggest quarterback in the game standing just 5-11 and weighing less than 190 pounds, but he rarely got rattled.

His nickname was an original one: “Cool Hand Mike” after the Paul Newman character “Cool Hand Luke.”

“I’ve seen him get smashed by 240-pound linemen and I’ve seen him throw a long touchdown pass in the last minute of the game,” said Bowden. “The expression on his face was the same both times – he just doesn’t get excited.”

Sherwood first became interested in football at an early age when his older brother Russ began tossing the oval in their backyard in Bellaire, Ohio. Sherwood’s dad Edward, known as “Pie”, went to WVU and wanted to play for the Mountaineers but was injured in preseason camp at Jackson’s Mill in 1937.

Mike passed for 1,215 yards as a senior at Bellaire and considered scholarship offers from Marshall, Ohio University, Purdue and Indiana before picking West Virginia. “At first I never really wanted to attend WVU,” he once said, “but the coaching staff impressed me and changed my mind quickly. I knew I could help them and they could help me.”

In 1967 as a freshman, Sherwood guided the WVU frosh to two big victories over Penn State and Virginia Tech and completed almost 50 percent of his passes for 464 yards and two touchdowns.

That, and his performance in the Charleston spring game, was enough to warrant him the starting quarterback job as a sophomore in 1968.

Sherwood’s first college game was far from conservative. He passed 22 times, completing 13, for 195 yards and a touchdown against Richmond. West Virginia won the game 17-0 although Carlen wasn’t very happy with the team’s performance. “We had an over abundance of penalties, we fumbled too much, and we were overly aggressive,” the coach growled after the game. “We expected the sophomore to make mistakes and they did.”

Although Sherwood threw two interceptions against the Spiders, he showed that he could handle just about everything Bowden was putting on his plate. Now it was time for Pitt.

Despite coming off a miserable 1-9 season in 1967, Pitt was still considered a formidable football opponent with some very capable players. Standout linebacker Ralph Cindrich led an eight-man defensive front employed by Coach Dave Hart, a Connellsville, Pa., native who spent several years as an assistant at Kentucky before taking over the Panther program in 1966.

Hart won only two games his first two seasons primarily because Pitt was overscheduled. The Panthers’ nine losses in 1967 were to UCLA, Illinois, West Virginia, Miami (Fla.), Navy, Syracuse, Notre Dame, Army and Penn State.

The 1967 Pitt-West Virginia game in Morgantown was not a pretty one for the Panthers. Pitt mustered just two first downs, completed four-of-19 passes and lost 21 yards rushing in a 15-0 West Virginia shutout victory. All 15 West Virginia points came by way of Ken Juskowich field goals.

To make matters worse for Hart, Pitt started off the 1968 season by getting drilled at UCLA, 63-7. If Hart had any chance whatsoever of saving his job he had to win the West Virginia game.

Jim Carlen was in no position to sympathize with Dave Hart. He had his own troubles and another one popped up right before the team boarded the bus to leave for Pitt Stadium.

Sherwood had overslept and arrived late. Carlen, a strict disciplinarian, could have made an example out of his young quarterback and kept him out of the game. Instead, he decided to play him. “I was just glad I started because he told me that he wasn’t going to let me play,” said Sherwood.

West Virginia’s plan of attack was revealed on the game’s very first possession. With the football resting at midfield after a Jim Braxton 27-yard kick return, Sherwood fired a 13-yard strike to Bob Zambo to the Pitt 38. Another 13-yard pass to Zambo moved the ball to the Pitt 25. Sherwood tried a third pass that was complete to Braxton, but the play was waved off due to an illegal procedure penalty. Three plays, three passes.

A Sherwood pass to Oscar Patrick moved the ball to the Pitt 14 and a nine-yard aerial to Wayne Porter pushed the football to the Panther goal line. Sherwood sneaked in for the touchdown.

West Virginia marched 51 yards in seven plays with all but 11 yards coming through the air. Yes, Bobby Bowden was on a roll. “We just kept throwing,” Sherwood said.

By halftime, Sherwood had completed 17-of-20 passes for 238 yards and a touchdown to give West Virginia a 14-7 lead. Sherwood’s unusual halftime passing total was already getting the attention of press box fact checkers. In addition to Allen McCune’s 320-yard passing effort against Pitt in 1965, he also had a 296-yard performance against William & Mary in 1965 and a 245-yard afternoon against Syracuse in 1964.

Richard Longfellow passed for 254 yards against Boston University in 1958 and Jimmy Walthall threw for 245 yards against Waynesburg back in 1948.

That was it.

Sherwood was already more than halfway to the record by halftime.

On the other sideline, Pitt’s Dave Havern was also having a good day. He completed eight-of-11 first-half passes for 163 yards that included a 68-yard touchdown to split end Skip Orszulak.

Bowden knew West Virginia couldn’t afford to sit on the ball.

Midway through the third quarter, West Virginia took over possession of the football at its own 20. Bowden called a short hitch pass to Patrick. Sherwood put the ball between the two eights in Patrick’s jersey, the split end made a quick move to the outside, and then raced 65 yards before he was finally tackled at the Panther 15. That pass play put Sherwood over the 300 yard mark.

Two more completions of 10 yards each moved Sherwood past McCune’s record as the third quarter expired with West Virginia holding on to a 17-7 lead.

West Virginia’s big break in the game came at the start of the fourth quarter when defensive back Mike Slater intercepted a Havern pass and returned it 11 yards to the Pitt 25. Three short passes by Sherwood move the ball to the Panther goal line before his second quarterback sneak made it 24-7, West Virginia.

Sherwood’s passing total was now 346 yards with a little more than 13 minutes left in the game.

Pitt answered West Virginia’s touchdown with a TD of its own with 9:15 left when Havern scored on a three-yard quarterback keeper. The two-point conversion was good, making the score West Virginia 24, Pitt 15.

The Mountaineers were the recipients of good field position when Tom Kucer recovered an onside kick attempt at the West Virginia 47. Bowden called five straight passes of which Sherwood completed two, moving the football to the Pitt 11. Sherwood’s sixth pass of the drive resulted in a 12-yard touchdown to Zambo to make the score a more comfortable, 31-15.

That TD pass gave him 401 yards for the game, and another 15-yard pass to Zambo during WVU’s final drive put his final total at 416 yards. Sherwood was replaced during the drive by Digon, who completed both of his passes for 19 yards on the way to WVU’s final score.

Sherwood’s final passing numbers were 27-of-37 for 416 yards and two touchdowns. Havern finished the afternoon completing 16-of-29 passes for 264 yards and a touchdown. The two quarterbacks combined to throw for 680 yards, or 521 yards more than the two teams combined to throw in 1967.

A reporter asked Carlen after the game if he was aware that Sherwood was nearing the school’s passing record. “No,” Carlen bluntly replied. “We just play football. We don’t have time to worry about records when we are on the field.”

“What I remember most about that game,” added Sherwood, who earned AP “back of the week” honors for that game, “was getting a couple of long gains off of short throws to Oscar Patrick and Bobby Gresham. A good chunk of yardage came on those two plays right there.”

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Bolstered by Sherwood’s performance against Pitt, Bowden continued to call on his arm for the remainder of the ’68 season. Sherwood completed 20-of-43 passes for 243 yards against Virginia Tech and he passed for 223 yards against Villanova.

He finished the 1968 season ranked 14^th in the nation with 151 completions (passing leaders back then were based on completions). Sherwood was 11^th in the nation with an average of 199.8 yards per game and he was 16^th in total offense.

Sherwood’s offensive totals exceeded those produced by Notre Dame’s Terry Hanratty, Plunkett and Manning.

By the end of his sophomore ’68 season, Sherwood was already third on West Virginia’s all-time passing list. His average-per-game passing total was 42.1 yards higher than the national average of 157.7 that season.

West Virginia finished the 1968 campaign with a 7-3 record. Bowden proved that you could win with a sophisticated passing offense in the Northeast. “We were throwing five-man patterns with hot reads and a lot of things like that,” Sherwood remembered. “The basis of our passing game was the three-step drop, throwing the quick hitches, the quick outs and the curl.”

Despite the success West Virginia enjoyed in 1968, Jim Carlen wasn’t comfortable throwing the football 25 times per game. He had several quality running backs in the program and he instructed Bowden to learn the Houston triple option, Veer-T offense.

In 1969, Bowden explained the Houston Veer to the less informed observer this way: “What it ultimately means is that we won’t be relying on one boy (Sherwood) like we did last year.”

West Virginia’s one-year flirtation with a sophisticated passing attack was over.

“At that point I just think they felt that passing was the best way for us to win,” said Sherwood. “The option was becoming popular then and they decided to use it. That was more to Coach Carlen’s liking.”

Although Sherwood eventually broke all of McCune’s passing records, his total passing figures were pale in comparison to what they could have been. If he were to have maintained his 1968 passing figures throughout the course of his career, he would have finished with almost 6,400 yards -- a remarkable total for that period.

To this day, Sherwood believes the West Virginia coaches made the right choice by changing the offense. “You can’t argue with winning and we won,” Sherwood said. “There’s a lot of ways to skin a cat and everyone does what they feel comfortable with.”

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West Virginia’s first 2,000-yard passer came in 1972 when Bernie Galiffa threw for 2,496 yards to lead the Mountaineers to an 8-4 record and a spot in the Peach Bowl.

West Virginia finished the 1972 season ranked sixth nationally in passing, averaging 227.8 yards per game and eighth in total offense with an average of 411.9 yards per contest. Galiffa was sixth in the nation in total offense and 15^th in passing.

Nine years later in 1981 during Don Nehlen’s tenure, Oliver Luck became the second WVU quarterback to pass for more than 2,000 yards. Jeff Hostetler did it in 1983 and Major Harris passed for more than 2,000 yards in 1989.

It wasn’t until Marc Bulger’s junior season in 1998 that West Virginia returned to the wide open passing style similar to Bowden’s offenses of 1968 under Sherwood and 1972 under Galiffa.

The 1998 season was also the year Sherwood’s 30-year single-game passing record was finally surpassed. Bulger threw for 429 yards in a 34-31 loss to Missouri in the Insight.com Bowl. West Virginia trailed 24-3 at halftime and threw on nearly every play in the second half. Bulger completed 22-of-30 second-half passes for 306 yards and four touchdowns. It took Bulger 11 more passes to break Sherwood’s record.

Bulger finished the 1998 season with 3,607 yards and 31 touchdowns, averaging 300.6 yards per game.

West Virginia is probably headed toward another offensive renaissance with current head coach Rich Rodriguez at the helm. While Rodriguez was offensive coordinator at Tulane in 1998, quarterback Shaun King led the nation in passing efficiency with 183.3 points. King completed 223-of-328 passes for 3,232 yards and 36 touchdowns.

Bowden, meanwhile, revolutionized the passing game at Florida State, winning a national championship in 1993 and becoming the only coach in NCAA Division I-A history to post 13 straight 10-win seasons from 1987-2000.

As for Sherwood, his size didn’t afford him a shot at the pros, but he did manage to parlay his knowledge of the passing game on to youngsters back in his hometown of Bellaire, Ohio. He is currently an assistant coach on John Magistro’s staff.

Recalling his 1968 season, Sherwood said: “It was a time when just a few teams were starting to throw the ball.”

Actually, there were fewer teams throwing the ball than most of us ever realized.

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