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The West Virginia Mountaineers Inaugural 'Coal Rush'

By West Virginia University

October 14^th, 2024

The West Virginia Mountaineers unveiled the team's long-awaited black uniforms on Saturday during the inaugural Coal Rush at Milan Puskar Stadium.

The Mountaineers were a win away from the perfect debut, falling 28-16 to the No. 11 Iowa State Cyclones, but the West Virginia miners celebrated, the university's Mine Rescue Team, the drone show at half time, the mine gear-inspired uniforms — and the stadium lighting to highlight the design of the uniforms — all provided reason to cheer on the debut of the Coal Rush.

Our photography team of Brian Persinger, Krissy Kleiner and me, Matt Sunday, were on-hand to cover the Coal Rush from as many angles as we could to highlight and document the memorable evening.

Our goal here will be to highlight the unique qualities of the Coal Rush, talk about particular images and some of the gear used to create them, show off some of our favorite game action, and to help to set the atmosphere and overall scene of the game — both for those who couldn't be there and for those who would like to see it from a different perspective.

That coverage started with Kleiner documenting a particularly unique Mountaineer Mantrip.

The Mountaineer Mantrip is a tradition built on the coal industry's rich West Virginian history and is named after the shuttle that transports miners underground to start their trip.

Fans have lined the pathway to the stadium from the WVU Medical Center since the start of the 2011 season, but Saturday's trip felt particularly special as Leer miners joined the Mountaineer Mantrip, finishing the journey with a touch, or a kiss, to the chunk of coal at the journey's finish before entering the stadium with the team.

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Beyond the Coal

Inside the stadium, players walk the field in their arrival gear, get loose inside of the weight room, run through their individual routines and eventually take the field for warmups in full uniform.

From a photography standpoint, this is a chance for us to collect images of faces, of personalities, of anything that makes a particular player or coach unique. From a photography department standpoint, a lot of our photography needs involving athletics tend to be more about the person under the helmet rather than the athlete who takes over when the chinstrap clicks into place.

One such athlete is Garrett Greene, starting quarterback and a WVU student who will have no shortage of said images in our archives. I lucked into what is probably my favorite shot from the Coal Rush, with the help of Greene (and an unknowing assistant), as he made his way to the field.

I use the term "luck" quite literally in this case. Was I set up and waiting for the quarterbacks to take the field from the stadium's home tunnel? Yes, I manufactured that "luck." Was I expecting a videographer to light Greene with an LED panel atop their camera as he walked through the darkness? Absolutely not. That "unknowing assistant" helped make me my favorite image of the day, and something we'd otherwise only be able to shoot in a studio setting with control of the light on the subject.

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Initially waiting for Greene to emerge from the darkness, the plan shifted from capturing that pre-imagined image to the good fortune as the reflective surfaces of his uniform were illuminated by the LED panel and half of his face glowed in the darkness.

A perfect storm of sorts, and the image I'll personally print for my University desk to remember this inaugural Coal Rush.

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Lights Out and Away We Go

Depending on what browser you're viewing this story in, you may see a different header image atop of this page. The majority will see a looping video of miners following the team out of the locker room, through the band and onto the field.

Others will see a static image of the team running onto the field through the pulsing pyrotechnics and smoke as they're announced to the crowd.

This wasn't the first game under Milan Puskar Stadium's new LED lights, but it was the first time the stadium wore mostly black and helped to illuminate the Coal Rush with thousands of flashlights on the back of mobile devices.

Persinger is credited with shooting that wonderful clip of the miners leaping to touch the T.E.A.M. sign on the way to the field, turning to each other to cheer on the moment and follow in the literal footsteps of Pat White as he and his daughter trotted onto the field in front of them.

We met ahead of the game to discuss what we'd need to cover this event in the best way our department could. For me, at least, that meant asking Persinger to put his skill and passion with the Steadicam to use to create a memorable clip to lead this story before he turned to photography.

Boy, did he deliver.

Let's take a look at each of those in full-width. The still photo was one I was already planning on making to kick off the game, but received a request for it as well. So, if I wasn't already locked into that idea, it was destined to be anyway.

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The biggest roar from the crowd didn't come from Jahiem White's opening score, but instead when Leer miners were honored during the second time out of the first quarter. That cheer faced competition only from the one that came for WVU's Mine Rescue Team, and then the one for White's touchdown.

The miners who ran out with the team were joined by dozens of others as they took the field in the protective gear that inspired the Coal Rush uniforms as well as helmets made unique by each of their owners.

The next recognition took place when the Mine Rescue Team took the field including alternate Mountaineer mascot Justin Waybright. The four-time national, two-time international championship team prepares and challenges students to tackle a variety of mine emergencies and challenges and is made up of students pursuing a career in mining as well as those who are passionate about their safety.

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The Mountaineer

Mountaineer mascot Braden Adkins wore special buckskins of his own for the Coal Rush. He sported black leather in place of the traditional brown. You got a glimpse of it as he reached the coal during the Mountaineer Mantrip, but here are a few images taken by Kleiner that highlight Adkins' unique look.

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The Support

It wasn't just Adkins sporting a new look for the Coal Rush. The cheer and dance teams were both dressed in black with white and bedazzled accents, respectively.

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The Pride

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Most of the way The Pride of West Virginia performed on Saturday was business as usual. The difference? Well, the difference was that a drone show performed above them as they played at halftime.

Miss the show? Here's what it looked like as the drones revealed each of the major designs throughout the band's performance — wrapping up with a playlist of songs as The Pride left the field.

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Garrett Greene

One of the wonderful things about photographing a dual-threat quarterback is that there is never a shortage of action. Even in a low-scoring affair, the quarterback still touches the ball for nearly every offensive snap. The evidence is, quite literally, there to observe as Greene becomes bandaged in the photos while persevering through the wear-and-tear of a quarterback who moves the chains with his legs as well as his arm.

Disclaimer: These next couple of paragraphs are for those who have an interest in photography and/or gear related to photography. You've been warned!

Our team of photographers shoots on Nikon cameras —particularly the Nikon Z9 camera body, and we just acquired the Nikon 400mm f/2.8 Z with a built-in 1.4x teleconverter that turns it into a 560mm f/4 in the flip of a switch. This was a lens I personally demoed when traveling to Louisville, Ky. with the men's soccer program for the College Cup in December, 2023.

I fell in love with it there, and I renewed my vows to it on Saturday.

Greene is the ideal test subject for a new lens like that. Quarterbacks, in general, but because of Greene's eagerness to turn to his legs, it provides the reach, the focus and the accuracy to keep him sharp and looking his best as a play evolves.

This set of images includes a couple where Greene starts to become obstructed when backing up to throw. And, as demonstrated in the case of the image where only his face is visible and sharp, the tracking on the lens is superb. I know we're all anxious to use it around campus, on the various fields of play and anywhere else where we need a bit more reach than normal.

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In The Stands

Not only did fans show up dressing the part in their Johnny Cash best, they were loud, supportive and came equipped with accessories and gear paying homage to the coal industry and in the spirit of the Coal Rush.

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It’s In The Details

The reflective striping on the Coal Rush uniforms is the easiest thing to notice about them. Especially when under the strobing, pulsing, waving movements to the new LED stadium lights during time outs, the details radiate the light that the black around it wants to absorb.

These are unlike any uniform I've ever photographed at a collegiate or professional level, and they only seemed to get more impressive as the scarcity of light increased.

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Additional Action

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The Moment

One of the challenges photographers face when covering athletics comes down to identifying key moments in a game. Sometimes you have the moment. Sometimes you have to point the camera elsewhere and capture something that's representative of what transpired instead of what actually did.

The last action shot shown above was a pressure on Cyclones quarterback Rocco Becht, son of WVU Hall of Famer Anthony Becht, which forced him to throw the ball out of the back of the end zone and avoid taking a sack. That's where my camera was pointed when a turning point in the momentum of the game occurred. It looked as if the WVU defense held and was about to force a field goal that would give the Mountaineers possession back while trailing by a single score. Instead, they were called for a hold, ISU gained a new set of downs, scored a touchdown and went on to win by 12 points.

I captured the pressure that felt like it could be a swing in the Mountaineers' favor and didn't catch the play in the corner of the end zone that resulted in the hold. Because of that, I turned my lens to the players reacting on the field, Head Coach Neal Brown voicing his frustration, and knew that I had made images to represent that moment in the game if it was needed from me.

Below, I've included the follow through on the hit, the reaction from senior T.J. Jackson, who applied the pressure, the reaction from Brown and the reaction from Greene when he felt the Mountaineers deserved a similar call on their final scoring drive.

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Our goal with this platform is to tell visual stories through the eyes of our West Virginia University photographers. Sometimes that means it will be a collection of photos. Other times it will appear like this one with a bit more narrative, experience and storytelling through a mix of words and imagery. The way we use it will continue to evolve, but it will be a steady tie to the what's happening on campus, in the classrooms, around the state and on the field.

Subscribe to content updates with an email address below, or stay tuned to WVU Magazine and the West Virginia University social media channels to stay up to date on when new content is published.

Footnotes

Story by Matt Sunday. Photos by Matt Sunday, Krissy Kleiner. Video by Brian Persinger.

FootNotes

Story by Matt Sunday. Photos by Matt Sunday, Krissy Kleiner. Video by Brian Persinger.

© 2026 West Virginia University

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