MORGANTOWN — In the midst of an era where collegiate athletes seem to find extra years of eligibility to play just one final season — a fifth, sixth or even seventh year perhaps on Saturday afternoon when Arizona comes to Milan Puskar Stadium to face the defensively starved West Virginia at high noon — defensive coordinator Zac Alley could find some relief by looking into the 2026 Hall of Fame class that will go through its official induction ceremony prior to the game and trade a plaque for a uniform and at least one spot on the roster.

While the class is headlined by former men's basketball coach John Beilein, who is credited with saving the program in the wake of Gale Catlett's departure and the weeklong acceptance and then resignation by Dan Dakich, the representative from the WVU football team could not be a better choice that one-time linebacker Dennis Fowlkes, who will be honored 44 years after his final game along with Kadeisha Buchanan (women's soccer, 2013-2016). Bria Holmes (women's basketball, 2013-2016). Alex Kasich (men's cross country and indoor/outdoor track and field, 1972-1976), and Ashley Lawrence (women's soccer, 2013-2016) and Craig Turnbull (wrestling, 1979-2014).

What better fit could there be for what would become the greatest era of Mountaineers defensive football than Fowlkes, who joined Hall of Famer Darryl Talley at linebacker to begin the Don Nehlen age of hard-nosed, no-nonsense WVU football and usher in the monument to the game of football that is Mountaineer Field.

Fowlkes, who was recruited out of Columbus, Ohio, by perhaps the greatest college coach ever, Nick Saban, who would win seven national championships at LSU and Alabama, was the chief recruiter assigned on bringing Fowlkes to Morgantown by Frank Cignetti Jr. in Cignetti's final season as head coach and who, despite a losing record as he battled cancer over several seasons, left Nehlen a budding talent base headed by the two linebackers.

While Talley earned All-American honors, Fowlkes was twice All-East as they led WVU to a 24-12 record in Nehlen's first three seasons with spots in the Peach and Gator Bowl; Fowlkes is still No. 3 on the Mountaineers' list of tackles with 459 solo stops and 279 unassisted.

It is fitting that Fowlkes will be inducted at Mountaineer Field, as he was a starter there for the first game played in 1980, a victory over Cincinnati in which he pulled off the first interception in the spanking new stadium that was ushered in to replace old Mountaineer Field downtown on the river in ceremonies that included John Denver flying in live by helicopter to sing "Take Me Home, Country Roads."

Fowlkes career with West Virginias began when Ohio State, his hometown school that had seen him develop into one of the nation's top prep linebackers, opted not to recruit him under Woody Hayes, turning loose a national recruitment battle for his services, Saban turned his recruitment into a crusade.

"He was at my house almost every week," Fowlkes remembered from his home in Columbus on Tuesday night. "He said, 'You are our No. 1 guy; we really want you.' And he was up against some stiff competition."

Indeed, Michigan was after him, SMU, Wisconsin, Iowa State with Earl Bruce were after him, but the stiffest challenge probably came from SMU, whom he describes as "the first NIL team ever," a decision which wound up putting them on a long probation.

SMU brought in that 1979 season its famed Pony Express backfield of Eric Dickerson and Craig James and nearly landed Fowlkes, were it not for his brother who was a coach in Texas at the time.

"I was definitely thinking about going to SMU," Fowlkes said. "My oldest brother and Frank Cignetti persuaded me not to go there," Fowlkes said. "My brother was coaching in Texas then and he told me, 'Man, they might be put on probation' and meanwhile Saban was there every week.

"I liked the way he recruited; didn't give me a lot of bull, just told me straight up that I was their guy. When I went into my senior year, I was looking for a team where their starting linebackers were leaving them because I wanted to compete for a job right away."

West Virginia fit that requirement, plus it had a 1980 trip to Hawaii for a week with a game planned and the new stadium opening up in 1980.

Add the young Saban's persuasive manner and West Virginia won him over.

Then, after a year, Nehlen came in and everything changed.

"Nehlen came in with new ideas," Fowlkes said. "He came in and changed the uniforms and that sparked us. Instead of wearing the outline of the state on our helmets, he went to the Flying WV. He motivated us and he kept us all together and I was happy he did because when a new coach comes in a lot of players leave."

Some things never change.

The 1982 schedule, Fowlkes' junior year featured a trip to Oklahoma in which the Mountaineers announced to the world they were for real.

"That game changed everything for us," Fowlkes said. "Nehlen used that; we were the underdog. It was all in the papers. All we read was how bad it was going to be. It was supposed to be hot and we were going wither in the heat there."

That was in 1982, Nehlen having begun putting his team together. The Mountaineers had gone to Oklahoma four years earlier and, as the No. 3 team in the country, buried Cignetti's 1978 team, 52-10, with the starters taken out at halftime and sitting there, shoulder pads off, laughing at the dog tired Mountaineers.

Nehlen says that didn't happen. He played up the underdog role, had built up the team and had a transfer quarterback from Penn State named Jeff Hostetler, who would go on to win a Super Bowl with the New Giants and become coach Nehlen's son-in-law. With Talley and Fowlkes leading the defense and Hostetler throwing for 321 yards and four touchdowns, WVU pulled off the upset, 41-27, and showed they were ready for prime time.

"They got two quick scores on us but we rallied our troops, got a little cussed out by coaches and that got the defense riled up and we started playing ball," Fowlkes said.

Morgantown was a different town than it is today.

"Morgantown was great." Fowlkes said and the new stadium was a huge draw for recruits. "It had everything. It was state of the art then and even now, every time you go there, there's something new."

Not that he didn't have memories from the old Mountaineer Field, starting as a freshman and getting an interception of a Dan Marino pass in a game the Mountaineers lost, 24-17.

Being a football player under Nehlen in those days was a lot tougher than it is today with all the rules for safety now involved.

"It's different now. There's days in camp you can't even hit. We hit every day in camp," Fowlkes said. "We had three-a-day practices. Coach Nehlen was always working on our physical and mental games. You had to be smart and physically tough."

As WVU established itself on the national scene with a number of big time victories, including the Oklahoma upset win and stunning Florida in the Gator Bowl, you ask Fowlkes about his biggest memories and he comes up with a surprising answer.

"Let's go with my freshman year playing against Penn State," he said, referring to the 1979 game at Penn State when he really found out what big time college football was all about.

The Nittany Lions won that game, 31-6, the 25th straight win over WVU.

"They had Curt Warner, Booker Moore, Matt Suey, all those guys were bigger than me at the time. I think it was the first average 300-pound line in college or pro in 1979," he said. "They beat us. I think we rode down on the bus and I said to Darryl, 'We got to do something about this. We got to get in the weight room tomorrow."

Talley, he said, enjoyed working with weights. He didn't always feel that way, but on that Sunday morning after being outmuscled by Penn State, they both were in the weight room.

"That really turned both us on, saying 'We got to get better, we got to get stronger,'" Fowlkes said. "If you ever looked in that old Mountaineer Field weight room, it was pathetic."

The new weight room in the new stadium offers up the necessary ingredients and, in 1984, two years after Fowlkes left for a four-year NFL career with the Minnesota Vikings, WVU beat Penn State 'FINALLY,' as the scoreboard read.

He put that up there with the 1981 Peach Bowl 26-6 win over a heavily favored Florida team in which the Mountaineers held the Gators to minus-31 rushing yards for the game. Coach Charlie Pell was so embarrassed by the game that rather than allowing them to watch the film of it, he had the film burned.

"They thought they was going to beat us bad," Fowlkes said. "They thought they were playing a bunch of kindergartners."

Those were the seeds that were laid for two undefeated regular seasons for Nehlen and a near national championship.

Source: Yahoo Sports