Hmm. Better than their record? I’ll say Dana’s 2014 team. Played a hell of a schedule that year including Bama, TCU, and Baylor who all finished top 10. Beat Baylor to keep them out of the playoffs. Had a 9 point lead in the 4th on TCU and ended up losing on a FG at the gun. Was down 7 with the ball deep in Bama territory in the 4th and a bad shotgun snap completely sabotaged the drive and the game. Lost by 10. Since Saban has been there that’s still the only OOC neutral site game I can remember a team being competitive with Bama.
A late season concussion to Clint Trickett kinda put the nail in the coffin on a promising season. WVU was 6-2 and ranked in the top 20 going into that TCU game. If they had held on they would have been in first place and controlled their own destiny.
Instead, Trickett suffered a concussion in that game and played with a cloudy head down the stretch. He looked out of it the next week in a loss to Texas and then suffered a season and career ending concussion the next week against K St. A 6-2 start turned into a 7-6 finish, but that team was better than that record. At full strength they played with and beat some of the best teams in the country.