MORGANTOWN — Among the most unlikely — if not THE most unlikely program to be ranked in the top 30 college programs year after year — is West Virginia.

Certainly, the Mountaineers face an uphill battle every year, and this year that begins  Saturday against Coastal Carolina, is no different.

How do they do it?

One man believes he knows. He’s Jonathon Holifield, a former player and a pretty good running back out of the Detroit area who led the Mountaineers in rushing in 1985 and missed by 8 yards leading them in rushing the next year. Holifield gained 1,628 rushing yards during his career.

Holifield credits it to “the genius of Don Nehlen” and his ability to understand exactly what kind of player a Mountaineer had to be.

“That guy has a Mountaineer chip on his shoulder and when he plays with that chip he generally does well,” Holifield said.

First, let’s understand just what West Virginia is up against each year as it goes out and scours the nation for players.

“It’s a geographically disadvantaged state,” Holifield noted, pointing out that the county he came from in Michigan had 2 million people, almost 200,000 more than the entire state of West Virginia. “It’s a small state that may produce two, three, maybe four Division 1-A players in a year.”

 Isn’t Nebraska a small state, too, and hasn’t it had even more success?

“Nebraska is a small state, but there’s a distinction,” Holifield said. “Nebraska is not surrounded by Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky, Virginia and Maryland, all with big time programs.”

While there are those who would tell you that West Virginia has benefitted by being able to recruit players from those neighboring states, they have not been able to wrestle away the likes of Michael Vicks or Terrell Pryor, the top of the heap prospects.

“If you are from Pennsylvania, you want to go to Pitt or Penn State. If you are from Ohio you want to go to Penn State,” Holifield said.

Nehlen understood that almost immediately when he came from the University of Michigan, where he was a Bo Schembechler assistant, to West Virginia.

“He knew he wasn’t going to consistently get the blue chip guy. Instead, he discovered a way, a kind of player he could get to build a program around,” Holifield said.

And what is the profile of that player that has carried over through the years?

“For eight of 10 high producers at WVU, from Nehlen to this day, West Virginia was their second choice,” Holifield said.

 He believes that is the most important factor in the equation of winning at WVU. Why?

“What do they do?” Holifield asked, then answered his own question. “They play with a chip on their shoulder. West Virginia University is a program that plays with a chip on its shoulder. When that chip is there, they do well.

“We had it in the ‘80s, they did in the ‘90s, and they certainly have had it under the last two coaches. When they lose the chip, we don’t do so well.”

He noted there was an undefeated regular season and national championship game in 1988, another unbeaten regular season in 1993, a near national championship appearance in 2006.

Perhaps the revelation hit Nehlen with Jeff Hostetler, the quarterback who transferred in from Penn State, helped Nehlen get his program going, went on to win a Super Bowl as a professional and stole away Nehlen’s daughter as a wife, to boot.

Holifield knows of what he speaks.

“I fit the West Virginia profile. I was a walk-on,” Holifield said. “Michigan and Michigan State didn’t want me. Eastern and Western and all the MAC schools didn’t want me.”

Nehlen took him and helped nuture him into a player, much because he had something to prove.

He had that Mountaineer chip on his shoulder.

Some people made a big deal about how Rich Rodriguez, when he was WVU coach, changed the type of player who was recruited. That may be true in the physical assets he demanded, but think of the players who blossomed under Rodriguez.

Pat White was the quarterback who no one wanted as a quarterback, a player who committed to LSU first. Steve Slaton committed to Maryland before being released from that commitment. Owen Schmitt was a player who could find no college to take him, winding up a Division III school in Wisconsin.

Over the years, WVU has had a number of Florida recruits who have excelled, but how many of them wanted first to go to Miami, Florida or Florida State?

Now, as this season begins, Bill Stewart’s job is to make sure that chip is on his Mountaineers’ shoulders if he hopes to push the program up one more notch and put it where it was under Rodriguez.

E-mail Bob Hertzel at bhertzel@hotmail.com.