WVU has had some down years and below-the-standard teams since getting close to the national championship in the 1993 season … and still couldn’t lose to Rutgers.

West Virginia coach Bill Stewart said Monday that he won’t mention the history – the Mountaineers hold a 29-4-2 advantage in the series – between the schools with his players. Rutgers coach Greg Schiano said there’s no need to on his end, especially the part about the Morgantown futility.

“No, because to these kids, the majority have played there only once and some never,” he said. “Again, last week really doesn’t have an effect on this week. So last year, seven years, however long that streak is, 15 years, it really doesn’t have an effect in my mind.”

But it’s there and it’s not going anywhere until the Knights do something about it. They have been trying to ever since the school’s first trip to West Virginia in 1920.

“The odds have to turn sometime,” senior defensive tackle Pete Tverdov said. “I haven’t been a part of 12 or 13 of those games, so it has nothing to do with me. The ones I have been a part of, except for last year (a 31-3 home loss), they’ve been close games.”

Part of the struggle is that Rutgers was awful for many years and that this quasi-resurgence coincided with a pretty nice run for the Mountaineers. As it is, WVU is 15-0 all-time at home against the Scarlet Knights heading into Saturday’s game and a 14-point favorite to push the streak to 15 years and 16 wins at home.