Friends of Coal Bowl
August 31, 2006 08:13 AM | General
August 31, 2006
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| Rich Rodriguez |
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia renews its football series with Marshall after a nine-year hiatus this Saturday when the No. 5-rated Mountaineers take on the Thundering Herd at Milan Puskar Stadium. The seven-game series has been named the Friends of Coal Bowl and is sponsored by the West Virginia Coal Association. A traveling trophy made by West Virginia artisans will be presented to each game’s winner.
West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez believes the winner of this year’s Friends of Coal Bowl trophy will be the team that can hold onto the football. Tropical Storm Ernesto was expected to reach Morgantown by this weekend, possibly complicating matters. But recent computer models have the system moving through the Eastern portion of the state by Friday.
“We’ve got some wet-ball work,” said Rodriguez. “You can’t predict the weather and we’ve got to prepare for that but it’s the same for both teams.”
Marshall comes into the game looking to build upon last year’s 4-7 record under Coach Mark Snyder, now in his second season. The former Ohio State defensive coordinator took over the Thundering Herd job late last spring and had little time to put in his system. Things should be much more settled for Snyder now with a full year under his belt.
This fall the coach will rely on junior running back Ahmad Bradshaw, a one-time Virginia recruit who led the Herd with 997 yards rushing and nine touchdowns last season. The Bluefield, Va., resident was also Marshall’s top pass catcher with 56 receptions for 381 yards and a touchdown.
“I think it starts with Bradshaw,” Rodriguez said. “He’s a great back and he makes a lot of people miss. He always gets positive yards.”
Making Bradshaw a tougher proposition to tackle is the versatility of junior quarterback Bernie Morris, an athletic dual threat under center. Morris split time last year with Jimmy Skinner and finished the season completing 114 of 216 pass attempts for 1,121 yards and six touchdowns. Morris was the team’s second-leading rusher gaining 256 yards and scoring four times.
“Morris is a guy that reminds us a lot of our quarterbacks,” Rodriguez said. “He can run; we expect them to run some option and we expect some quarterback runs and things that we do.
“He’s an accurate guy and he’s obviously a more confident guy in his third year in the system,” Rodriguez said.
A recent suspension of Hiram Moore has forced Snyder to juggle his wide receiver rotation. The starting receivers listed on Marshall’s two-deep released last weekend include Marcus Fitzgerald, Matt Morris and Emanuel Spann.
Fitzgerald, the younger brother of former Pitt standout Larry Fitzgerald, caught 41 passes for 448 yards and two touchdowns in 10 games last year. Spann, who sat out last year with a knee injury, caught 27 passes for 233 yards as a freshman in 2004. He is from Westlake High School in Atlanta – the same school that produced WVU standout defensive back Pacman Jones.
Up front, Marshall has a big and experienced offensive line led by 315-pound senior left tackle Seth Cook, who started all 11 games last year. Senior center Doug Legursky is being touted as an all-Conference USA candidate.
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| The Friends of Coal Bowl Trophy that will be presented to the winner of each game.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks photo |
“At times they do a lot of things that we do (offensively),” said Rodriguez. “They also have the ability to get into the I-back. They use a lot of two tight end situations and their second tight end plays the role of a fullback and they can move him from one side to the other to create an I formation out of a two-tight look. It’s a little different than a lot of teams in our league.”
Rodriguez says Snyder’s offensive system is predicated on balance.
“They’ve thrown the ball in the first quarter and the fourth quarter, ahead or behind,” Rodriguez said. “They strive for balance and the confidence they have in Morris will show that.”
Defensively, Rodriguez says Marshall will come after teams.
“They’ve been pretty aggressive,” he said. “They will blitz at times and they will challenge you in man coverage.”
Marshall’s two starting corners aren’t real big -- senior Jeremy Frazier standing 5-feet-10 inches and sophomore corner James Johnson standing 5-11 -- but they are often asked to play tough coverage at the line of scrimmage.
“They will get right into your face and force you to execute, particularly in short yardage situations,” Rodriguez said. “On first downs their defensive backs will get up and challenge you with press coverage and force your quarterbacks and receivers to execute some.”
Expected to team up with Frazier and Johnson in the secondary are senior strong safety Curtis Keyes and junior free safety Geremy Rodamer, a Morgantown native.
Up front the Herd will start 6-foot-6-inch 326-pound senior Chris Terrell and 6-4, 281-pound junior Byron Tinker at defensive tackles. Albert McClellan and Shavar Greer flank them on the outside.
The linebacking corps is led by 5-11, 215-pound senior Dennis Thornton, last year’s leading tackler with 104 stops and 10 tackles for losses.
Marshall surrendered just 340.3 yards per game last season and has its top three tacklers from that defense returning this year.
“They can out number you in the box and force you to throw and we expect them to load it up and make us pitch and catch and execute the passing game,” Rodriguez said.
The Thundering Herd has some experience playing nationally ranked teams since making the move to I-A status. Marshall is 2-8 against ranked teams since 1999, beating No. 25 BYU in 1999 and No. 6 Kansas State in 2003.
However, Marshall is 0-3 against Top 5 teams.
Game time is 3:30 pm and no tickets remain. ESPN Regional (Dave Sims, John Congemi and Mark Martin) will televise the contest.
