They’ve thrown oranges and golf balls and even a whiskey bottle.

Once, they chucked a 55-gallon plastic trash can from the upper deck. And it was full.

Rioters? Maniacs? Hooligans? Nope, West Virginia’s football fans.

When they lose, they can be mean. When they win, they can be vicious.

And they’ll welcome the Syracuse football team to Mountaineer Stadium in Morgantown, W.Va., Saturday at noon, as the Orangemen (1-5, 0-2 Big East) meet the Mountaineers (4-2, 1-0) — and 63,500 of their craziest supporters.

“They’re different,” former SU head coach Dick MacPherson said. “They get tanked up.”

A noon start probably benefits the Orangemen, MacPherson said, because Mountaineer fans won’t have as much time to tailgate.

“Nobody,” he said, “starts that early.”

But if anybody did, it would be West Virginia fans.

After all, they’ve earned a rowdy reputation over the years.

Ten years ago last night, in a game MacPherson pinpoints as the genesis of the SU-WVU rivalry, Syracuse quarterback Marvin Graves became the object of Morgantown’s ire.

That Saturday, Syracuse was on its own 18-yard line, down, 17-14, with 3:39 left.

Graves ran an option right toward the sideline when WVU’s Tommy Orr slammed him out of bounds.

Graves leaped up and chucked the ball at Orr’s neck. The West Virginia faithful yelped in protest as a skirmish broke out along the sideline.

Three players were ejected. But not Graves, who threw a 17-yard touchdown pass with 51 seconds left to give SU a 20-17 win.

After the game, fans hurled trash at Graves, who, according to reports, deftly nabbed a flying Coke can and took a sip.

Two years later, after a 13-0 WVU win, the Morgantown fans tossed more trash, hitting SU head coach Paul Pasqualoni in the back with an orange, according to a published story.

“I’ve never been hit by an orange,” SU wide receivers coach Dennis Goldman said. “But I’ve heard people say that (fans throw them).”

In 1996, after a loss to Miami, a West Virginia fan tossed a full trash can from the upper deck, knocking over Hurricanes’ assistant Randy Shannon.

Three golf balls and a whiskey bottle hurdled through the air at a 1998 game against Maryland.

“College football in West Virginia means more than college football does in Central New York,” MacPherson said, “because it’s like Oklahoma. It’s all they have.”

Syracuse is 2-2 in Morgantown since Graves sparked the powder keg in 1992. But this year more than ever before, the Orangemen are relying on their trip to WVU.

Syracuse, shouldering its worst start since 1986, has a defense that hasn’t prevented the big play and an offense that’s stalled in the fourth quarter.

“We have to compete and play as hard as we can every game,” SU receiver David Tyree said. “And we haven’t done that.”

“I still believe,” Pasqualoni said, “that we have a chance to win every game that we’re in. We’re not going to say, ‘Wait until next year.’ ”

On Saturday, the Orangemen will have to contend with WVU’s Big East leading, 300-yards-per-game running attack, led by conference rushing leader Avon Cobourne (149 yards per game).

Then there’s the fans, who might get a late tailgating start but certainly won’t lack ferocity.

“I think the excitement of West Virginia football left with Don Nehlen (who retired as WVU’s head coach in 2000),” MacPherson said. “Now, they’ve got to regenerate it. Now, they smell blood.”

Published on October 17, 2002 at 12:00 pm