Countdown to Kickoff
September 01, 2006 02:35 PM | General
September 1, 2006
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia opens the 2006 season by facing the Marshall Thundering Herd in the Friends of Coal Bowl on Saturday, Sept. 2, at Mountaineer Field at Milan Puskar Stadium (60,000) in Morgantown.
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| West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez and Marshall coach Mark Snyder pose with the Friends of Coal Bowl trophy.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks photo |
The game will be televised by ESPN Regional (Dave Sims, John Congemi and Mark Martin) with kickoff set for 3:30 pm. Stations carrying the Friends of Coal Bowl in West Virginia markets are: WCHS, WOAY, WTOV, WTAP, WTAE, WJAL and WVFX.
No tickets remain for the game. FanFest, presented by Coca Cola, will be Friday evening, Sept. 1, in front of the Mountainlair. FanFest will include an appearance by the football team and brief remarks from WVU coach Rich Rodriguez with free refreshments and giveaways.
Here is Saturday’s Countdown to Kickoff:
10 – TEN returning players on West Virginia’s defense had at least 22 tackles last year led by linebacker Kevin McLee’s 78 tackles.
9 – The Mountaineers have NINE starters returning on offense from last year’s 11-1 season and victory over Georgia in the Nokia Sugar Bowl.
8 – West Virginia’s offense had EIGHT scoring drives last year lasting 1:35 or less. Twice, West Virginia had scoring drives that lasted less than one minute.
7 – Marshall’s SEVEN-loss season in 2005 snapped a string of 21 consecutive non-losing seasons dating back to a 4-7 record in 1983. It was the fourth-longest consecutive non-losing streak in college football, trailing only Michigan (37), Florida State (28) and Florida (25).
6 – In its last SIX games of 2005, the West Virginia ground attack produced 25 rushing touchdowns.
5 – West Virginia has won all FIVE games in a sporadic series with Marshall that was first played in 1911. The scores of the games: 17-15 (1911), 20-0 (1914), 92-6 (1915), 81-0 (1923) and 42-31 (1997).
4 – West Virginia has lost only FOUR of its last 29 regular season games. Coach Rich Rodriguez also has produced the best FOUR-YEAR coaching mark in school history, going 36-14 since 2002.
3 – The Mountaineers head into this season having won outright or a share of the last THREE Big East titles.
2 – Marshall has TWO victories against nationally ranked teams since its move up from I-AA status. The Herd downed No. 25 BYU 31-3 on Dec. 27, 1999 and outlasted No. 6 Kansas State, 27-20 in Manhattan on Sept. 20, 2003.
1 – West Virginia has 30 players heading into this year with at least ONE game worth of starting experience, led by senior center Dan Mozes with 36 career starts.
Enjoy Saturday’s game and be sure to stop back afterward for complete post-game coverage, highlights, podcasts and official statistics.
