In late September Fred Crolius, the 1902 football coach, who was put in charge of the Western University's athletics, hired Arthur “Texas” Mosse from Warrensburg Teachers College in Warrensburg, Missouri as permanent physical instructor (i.e. football coach and other duties as assigned).
Attendance was so bad that the administration ceded the home field for the final two games to the visitors so they would not have to pay rent for the stadium grounds.
The November Courant criticized the university's lack of investment into a sports program befitting a school the size of WUP.
A training table for the athletes and class schedules that allowed practice time were strongly suggested.
They suggested a five dollar rise in tuition to go directly to the Athletic Association to be used for football only until it was making money.
The Alumni Association met on December 16 and presented the plan to the students of the engineering and collegiate departments.
[19] In its first season under head coach Arthur Mosse, the team compiled a 1–8–1 record and was outscored by a total of 262 to 25.
[20] On October 3 the WUP eleven traveled to Morgantown, West Virginia for the Backyard Brawl.
WUP halfback Illtid Page recovered and raced the length of the field for a touchdown.
Charles Castro and Paul Martin each scored two touchdowns to lead West Virginia to a 24–6 victory.
[2][21] On October 10 with six new starters in the lineup, Coach Mosse and the WUP contingent arrived in Beaver Falls, Pa. to take on the Geneva College football juggernaut .
[3] Heavy rains flooded the Colosseum grounds on October 17 and Coach Mosse was forced to cancel the home opener with Grove City College.
Manchester fullback Elson recovered the first fumble and plunged into the end zone on the next play for the first score.
A few plays later end L. Broderick picked up Leidenroth's second miscue and dashed forty yards for the second Manchester touchdown.
The WUP offense finally scored on a fifteen-yard dash by John Edwards early in the second half.
[5][22] On October 21 another tuneup prior to the State College game was played against the Bellevue Outing Club.
On the next play the defense tackled quarterback Shaw of Bellevue in the end zone for a safety.
WUP lost to State College for the sixth straight time and was outscored 173–4 in the series.
[23] On October 31, the undefeated and unscored upon Geneva Covenanters arrived at the Colosseum to play the rematch with the WUP eleven.
The game was late starting because Coach Mosse had difficulty finding eleven men to play.
From there the backs were able to advance the ball in short plunges and end runs to the thirteen yard line of the Wolverines as time ran out.
In the first half the WUP offense fumbled on more than one possession allowing the Pioneers to easily score thirty-four unanswered points.
Late in the game, the WUP defense blocked a punt and recovered the ball on Marietta's fifteen yard line.