WVU football: 5 Mountaineers who you’d want to be quarantined with
By Phil Poling
4. Quincy Wilson, Running Back (1999-2003)
One of the most memorable WVU football plays of all-time was recorded by Quincy Wilson in 2003. As a senior, the visiting Mountaineers traveled to Miami to take on the No. 2 Hurricanes; they were still considered, “The U”. All he did was catch a simple screen pass from quarterback Rasheed Marshall, but the play is known as “The Run” for a reason.
He juked inside of future five-time Pro Bowler Vince Wilfork before even getting back to the line of scrimmage. Then he shrugged off a diving tackle from Thomas Carroll and another from future two-time Pro Bowler Sean Taylor. A stutter-step and burst left forced future 11-year veteran D.J. Williams and the NFL’s 2004 Rookie of the Year and three-time Pro Bowler Jonathan Vilma to take bad angles and thus missing the would-be tackle. Then, he got vertical with the football and buried future two-time Pro Bowler Brandon Meriweather with a nasty truck stick before scampering into the endzone.
Did I mention this score, on 3rd down and 13, put the Mountaineers up by one point with just two minutes left in the game? Against a team who’d won 25 straight games? It was a huge play in a crucial moment on the road. And Wilson delivered.
The outcome of the game, of course, didn’t go in WVU’s favor thanks to an absurd 4th-down catch on the following drive by future Pro Bowler Kellen Winslow, Jr. But Wilson’s Herculean effort that day etched a memory for West Virginia fans that’ll never be forgotten. I would’ve listened to him talk about that single play for an entire week any number of years ago. But during a quarantine? Sign me up.