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West Virginia Hearts Syracuse Yet Again

Who knew West Virginia Hearts Syracuse would turn into a series more popular than the Bring It On franchise. After gushing about the best players ever to face their Mountaineers (here and here), now they're heralding the great minds to line up across the sideline from them. It's the twenty best coaches ever to face West Virginia. One Orange coach made the cut.


17. Ben Schwartzwalder (11-8 vs. West Virginia)
A 146-pound center at West Virginia University, Ben Schwartzwalder later was among the first paratroopers on Normandy Beach on D-Day in 1944. Therefore it’s only natural that Schwartzwalder’s Syracuse teams were considered among the toughest in college football. Bobby Bowden once recalled a savage beating the Mountaineers took from Syracuse in 1967, "I believe it was (Larry) Csonka’s last year and they just beat us to death," Bowden said. "They knocked our quarterback out; we had running backs knocked out with broken jaws. That was the meanest bunch of guys we ever saw." Schwartzwalder went 11-8 against WVU with the majority of his losses coming at the conclusion of his fabulous 24-year coaching career.

I doubt you'll argue much with the omission of Greg Robinson.

See you back here next week for The Twenty Greatest Kickers Ever To Face West Virginia (fingers crossed for Olindo!), The Thirty Best Pieces Of Contraband Thrown At An Opponent At West Virginia and The Forty Greatest Furniture Burns Outside Mountaineer Field.