Don Nehlen
Sport(s)	Football
Biographical details
Born	(1936-01-01) January 1, 1936 (age 76) Mansfield, Ohio
Playing career
1955–1957	Bowling Green
Position(s)	Quarterback
Coaching career (HC unless noted)
1963 1967 1968–1976 1977–1979 1980–2000	Cincinnati (assistant) Bowling Green (assistant) Bowling Green Michigan (QB) West Virginia
Head coaching record
Overall	202–128–8
Bowls	4–9
Statistics College Football Data Warehouse
Accomplishments and honors
Championships 1 Big East (1993)
Awards Walter Camp Coach of the Year Award (1988) Bobby Dodd Coach of the Year Award (1988) AFCA Coach of the Year (1988) Big East Coach of Year (1993) Kodak Coach of the Year (1993) Woody Hayes Trophy (1993)
College Football Hall of Fame Inducted in 2005 (profile)

Don Nehlen (born January 1, 1936) is a former American football player and coach. He was head football coach at Bowling Green State University (1968–1976) and at West Virginia University (1980–2000). Nehlen retired from coaching college football in 2001 with a career record of 202–128–8 and as the 17th winningest coach in college football history. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2005 and has served as a president of the American Football Coaches Association.

Nehlen played quarterback at Bowling Green (1955–1957) and led the team to a Mid-American Conference championship in 1956. He began his coaching career in 1958 at Mansfield Senior High School and then served as head coach at Canton South High School and Canton McKinley High School. Nelsen was later an assistant coach at the University of Cincinnati, Bowling Green, and the University of Michigan.

Since his retirement from coaching, Nehlen has been a spokesman for the coal industry. He has been urged to run as a Republican for several political offices, but has declined to do so.^{[citation needed]} He is a supporter of the FBI's childhood fingerprint identification campaign.^{[citation needed]} Nehlen received the 2002 Distinguished West Virginian Award from the West Virginia Broadcasters Association.^[1] In 2006, Nehlen published a book called Don Nehlen's Tales from the West Virginia Sideline, an autobiographical account recalling his 21-year tenure as the head football coach at West Virginia.

At West Virginia[link]

Nehlen served as the quarterbacks coach at the University of Michigan under Bo Schembechler from 1977 to 1979 before taking the head coaching job at West Virginia. Nehlen became West Virginia's 29th head football coach on December 7, 1979, replacing Frank Cignetti, who had posted four straight losing seasons.

Nehlen first hired Gary Tranquill as the offensive coach. In an effort to emulate the Michigan defense, Nehlen hired Dennis Brown away from the Wolverines. Nehlen hired a number of coaches he worked with at Bowling Green. Nehlen also retained Donnie Young, Cignetti's former assistant head coach, as his recruiting coach. Tranquill left West Virginia after three seasons to become head coach at Navy, taking graduate assistant Steve Dunlap with him. Dunlap later returned to serve as West Virginia's defensive coach. One of Nehlen's most famed assistants was Doc Holliday, who served the assistant head coach and recruiting coach for almost 20 years before leaving for North Carolina State University. Holliday was sent to Florida every year to find recruits and found many talented players there, including linebacker Steve Grant. When Nehlen arrived at West Virginia, he introduced the Mountaineers' first "home and away uniforms" and a new helmet logo, "The Flying WV," which became the official logo of West Virginia athletics and, eventually, the university itself.

In 1980, Nehlen's first season at West Virginia, the Mountaineers went 6–6. In 1981, led by quarterback and future WVU athletic director Oliver Luck, West Virginia went 9–3 and upset the Florida Gators in the Peach Bowl, 26–6. In 1982, led by quarterback Jeff Hostetler (who ended up marrying Nehlen's daughter, Vicky), West Virginia started the season with an upset over the #9 Oklahoma Sooners. In 1984, Nehlen's squad posted wins against Boston College, led by eventual Heisman Trophy winner, Doug Flutie, and over Penn State for the Mountaineers' first defeat of the Nittany Lions since 1955.

The 1987 season marked the beginning of the Major Harris era at West Virginia. In Harris' sophomore season, 1988, the Mountaineers went undefeated in the regular season and faced top-ranked Notre Dame in the Fiesta Bowl. Harris was injured on the third play of the game and West Virginia lost, 34–21. Notre Dame was crowned as national champions.

In 1993, Nehlen led West Virginia to another undefeated regular season and a Big East Conference title, but the Florida Gators exacted revenge in the Sugar Bowl, winning 41–7. Nehlen's 1994 team started the season with a 1–4 record, but rebounded to qualify for the Carquest Bowl, where they lost to South Carolina, 24–21.

In 1998, West Virginia featured a number of future NFL players including Marc Bulger, Amos Zereoue, Anthony Becht, Gary Stills, Barrett Green, Solomon Page and John Thornton, to form what Nehlen called "his best West Virginia...squad."^{[citation needed]} The Mountaineers opened the season with a home loss to Ohio State, but finished the season with an 8–4 record, losing in the Insight Bowl to Missouri, 34–31.

Following a loss to Syracuse in 2000, Nehlen announced that the season would be his final one as head coach. On December 28, he coached his final game against Ole Miss in the Music City Bowl. After winning three of their first four bowl games, Nehlen's West Virginia teams had lost seven straight postseason contents, but his final squad, led by the offensive attack of quarterback Brad Lewis, tailback Avon Cobourne, wide receiver Antonio Brown, and fullback Wes Ours, handled the Rebels, 49–38.

Nehlen completed his tenure at West Virginia with a record of 149–93–4. His 149 victories are the most in school history. With the Mountaineers, Nehlen coached 15 first team All-Americans, 82 All-Big East Conference honorees, and 80 future NFL players. In 1988, Nehlen was recognized with three national coaching awards, the Walter Camp Coach of the Year Award, the Bobby Dodd Coach of the Year Award, and the AFCA Coach of the Year. In 1993, he was named the Big East Coach of Year. Nehlen was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2005.

Head coaching record[link]

See also[link]

• List of college football coaches with 200 wins
• List of presidents of the American Football Coaches Association
• Legends Poll

References[link]

External links[link]

• Don Nehlen on Facebook
• Don Nehle at the College Football Hall of Fame
• Don Nehle at the College Football Data Warehouse

Darryl Victor Talley (born July 10, 1960) is a former American college and professional football player who was a linebacker in the National Football League (NFL) for fourteen seasons during the 1980s and 1990s. He played college football for West Virginia University, and was recognized as an All-American. Talley played professionally for the Buffalo Bills, Atlanta Falcons and Minnesota Vikings of the NFL, and played in four Super Bowls with the Bills.

College career[link]

Talley played college football at West Virginia University. Many scouts were pushed away from him, because he played fullback and linebacker in high school, never settling on either position. He also missed his last seven high school games with a broken ankle.

He was a starter from 1979 to 1982 and led the Mountaineers to the 1981 Peach Bowl and the 1982 Gator Bowl. Against Pitt, he intercepted Dan Marino to set up a Mountaineer field goal and blocked a punt and returned it for a touchdown. As a senior in 1982, he was selected as West Virginia's third-ever consensus All-American. He started the season off with a win over Oklahoma and was named WVU's season MVP and was named All-American. He also played in the 1983 Hula Bowl.

Legacy[link]

Talley's five tackles-for-a-loss against Penn State stand as a single-game record and his personal-best 15 tackles against Boston College won Sports Illustrated Player of the Week honors. For his career, he had 282 unassisted tackles (first all-time), 202 assisted tackles (second), 28 tackles-for-loss (second) and 19 sacks (fourth). During his four year career, he recorded a school record of 484 career tackles; which has been passed by Grant Wiley.^[2]

Talley was named to the 2008 College Football Hall of Fame ballot for nominees for induction, and was inducted in 2011^[3] He is also a member of the West Virginia University Sports Hall of Fame.^[3]

Professional career[link]

Talley played in the National Football League for 14 seasons and played in four Super Bowls. He never missed a game in his 12-years with the Buffalo Bills. Jim Kelly, the Bills' Hall of Fame quarterback considers Talley his most underrated teammate and believes that Talley should also be enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.^[4]

Buffalo Bills[link]

Talley was selected in the second round of the 1983 NFL Draft by the Bills and played in Buffalo for 12 seasons. He is the Bills' all-time leading tackler with 1,137, and also recorded 38.5 sacks, 12 interceptions for 189 return yards and 2 touchdowns, and 14 fumble recoveries for 76 return yards. He averaged 120 tackles, 3.5 sacks and 6.2 takeaways per season and his mark of 188 regular season games played ranks fifth-most in team history.

While with the Bills, Talley had multiple nicknames on the field as "The Duke of Awesome", "Spider-Man", and "The Hammer". His cheering section at Rich Stadium was known as the "Talley-Whackers". On November 4, 1990, playing against the Cleveland Browns in his hometown, Talley returned an interception for his first career touchdown.^[5] After the season, he received the Ed Block Courage Award.^[1]

In 2003 Talley became the 20th member on the Wall of Fame in Ralph Wilson Stadium.

Later career[link]

Talley left the Bills to play with the Falcons in the 1995 campaign and then with the Vikings. He left Atlanta on a less than stellar note when it was discovered that he played his last game in Atlanta with a loaded U-Haul truck in the parking lot. He had it so he could go home to spend the holiday with his family once the game was over. He ended his career after the 1996 season and won the Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Distinguished Service Award in 2000.

Personal life[link]

On June 2, 2008 Talley commented that former Bills kicker Scott Norwood should be inducted onto the Bills' Wall of Fame. He stated;

"One thing I wish people would take a look at is out of all the things that we accomplished we wouldn't have done a lot of them without Scott Norwood". He continued on, "Everybody seems to have forgotten Scott. If you look back in the early days we won a lot of games with special teams and him kicking field goals. So I think there's somewhere up there (the Wall) for Scott to be, but nobody wants to acknowledge him because he missed a kick. But as I recall, I missed some tackles in that game, Bruce missed some. Thurman dropped some balls and Jim threw interceptions, but nobody realizes that here is a guy that made major contributions to what this organization was about. It just irks me that people have forgotten him." [sic]^[6]

He now lives in Orlando, Florida with his wife and two kids.

Talley is the brother of Cleveland Brown John Talley, and is the cousin of New York Yankee Derek Jeter

On April 25, 2009, it was announced at the Bills Season Ticket Holder Draft Day Party at Ralph Wilson Stadium, that fans had voted 26 members to the Bills 50th Season All-Time Team, which was presented by Tops Friendly Markets. The all-star team included the following, including Talley; quarterback Jim Kelly, running back Thurman Thomas, wide receivers Andre Reed, Eric Moulds and James Lofton, tight end Pete Metzelaars, and offensive linemen Joe DeLamielleure, Kent Hull, Billy Shaw, Ruben Brown and Jim Ritcher. The defensive players chosen by the fans were; defensive linemen Bruce Smith, Fred Smerlas and Tom Sestak, linebackers Talley, Mike Stratton, Cornelius Bennett and Shane Conlan, cornerbacks Butch Byrd and Nate Odomes and safeties George Saimes and Henry Jones. The special teams' players selected by the fans were kicker Steve Christie, punter Brian Moorman and special teamer Steve Tasker.^[7]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Buffalo Bills Wall of Fame bio