Marshall Preview
September 24, 2008 09:19 AM | General
September 24, 2008
GAME NOTES | GAME INFORMATION
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Marshall comes to Milan Puskar Stadium for the Friends of Coal Bowl riding a two-game winning streak after a pair of Conference-USA victories against Memphis and Southern Mississippi.
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| Junior safety Quinton Andrews leads the West Virginia defense with 31 tackles.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks photo |
Two weeks ago in Huntington, the Herd held on for a 17-16 victory over Memphis and last week Marshall went on the road to win its first conference road game in two years at Southern Mississippi.
“They have just been outstanding,” said West Virginia coach Bill Stewart of Marshall. “They had a tough loss up at Wisconsin and they have had big wins over Memphis and Southern Miss.”
Marshall (2-1) got a 228-yard, two-touchdown passing performance from quarterback Mark Cann and 112 yards and a touchdown on the ground from Darius Marshall in the 34-27 victory over Southern Miss.
Darius Marshall has carried the football 92 times for 417 yards and four touchdowns and has helped the Herd average 171 yards per game on the ground. Chubb Small (72 yards) and freshman Terrell Edwards (59 yards) give Marshall three quality options at the tailback position.
Marshall’s ability to run the football has opened up the play action pass where Cann has managed to complete 53.5 percent of his pass attempts for 824 yards and five touchdowns.
Cann is coming off his best passing performance of the season against Southern Miss where he completed 16 of 25 without throwing an interception. Cann has only been sacked twice this year.
Marshall has an effective pass catching duo in senior wide receiver Darius Passmore and junior tight end Cody Slate. Passmore shows 26 catches for 473 yards and four touchdowns, averaging an impressive 18.2 yards per catch.
Last weekend the 6-foot-3-inch 188-pounder caught nine passes for 139 yards and a touchdown against Southern Miss. Slate, a 6-foot-4-inch, 220-pound tight end, returned to action against Southern Miss and had four catches for 76 yards and a touchdown. In two games this season Slate has six catches for 98 yards. In last year’s West Virginia-Marshall game in Huntington Slate caught a 42-yard touchdown and finished with five catches for 82 yards. He now shows 1,600 receiving yards and 12 touchdowns for his career.
Marshall’s defense under former Cincinnati coach Rick Minter has been stingy against the run giving up an average of just 118.2 yards per game. Senior linebacker Maurice Kitchens leads the Herd with 30 total tackles, a sack, and interception and 1 ½ tackles for losses. Junior defensive end and 2006 C-USA Player of the Year Albert McClellan has a pair of sacks and two tackles for losses in four games, while defensive back Aaron Johnson is second on the team in tackles with 28 to go with 2 ½ tackles for losses, a pair of pass breakups and a fumble recovery.
In four games this year, Marshall has given up an average of 308.5 yards per game through the air with 368 of that coming against Memphis in a one-point home victory.
Wisconsin passed for 329 yards and had 487 total yards in a 51-14 victory in Madison on Sept. 6.
“These guys will come to Morgantown ready to play,” Stewart said.
West Virginia, meanwhile, is still trying to get its bearings with a new coaching staff. The Mountaineers (1-2) got an outstanding performance from their defense in a 17-14 overtime loss at Colorado last Thursday night.
WVU limited the Buffaloes to just 116 yards of offense in the second half and just three points in overtime. Colorado was just 6 of 15 on third down against a Mountaineer defense that struggled to get off the field on third down in their first two games against Villanova and East Carolina.
“Defensively we were flying around and striking people,” said Stewart. “I was really pleased with the way the defense responded after the Villanova and East Carolina games.”
Senior linebacker Reed Williams was a big boost to the defense logging six tackles and an interception in the loss to Colorado. Williams being back in the middle puts senior Mortty Ivy back at his more natural strong side linebacker position.
“Reed played like a warrior,” Stewart said. “He is an inspirational leader and I just can’t say enough about how that young man plays. Our defense needed him and he jumped in and made play after play.”
Junior safety Quinton Andrews leads the Mountaineers defense with 31 tackles, one pass breakup and one tackle for a loss. Ivy shows 25 tackles, three tackles for loss, one interception and a ½ sack.
Linebacker John Holmes leads West Virginia with three sacks and 3 ½ tackles for losses.
West Virginia’s ground game made a return against the Buffaloes, accumulating 311 yards on 52 carries last Thursday night. Quarterback Pat White led West Virginia with a season-high 148 yards on 19 carries while sophomore Noel Devine showed 133 yards on 26 tries.
“We rushed for over 300 yards against a Big 12 team on the road and that was exciting to see,” Stewart said. “We didn’t push the ball vertically down the field as much as I’d like to but when you’re running the ball as much as we did and trying to get back in the game playing a ball-control game, I thought that was good.”
White scored both of West Virginia’s touchdowns against Colorado and enters this weekend with 308 yards rushing and an average of 6.4 yards per rush. Devine has 274 yards rushing on 47 attempts but is still looking for his first rushing touchdown of the season.
White has completed 46 of 65 pass attempts for 323 yards and five touchdowns. All five TD passes came in the season opener against Villanova. In his last two games against East Carolina and Villanova, White has completed 21 of 32 passes for only 115 yards. His longest pass completion the last two games was only 18 yards to Dorrell Jalloh against Colorado.
Only Alric Arnett is averaging better than 10 yards per catch (15.5) among WVU’s wide receivers. Jock Sanders is the team’s leading receiver with 12 catches for 82 yards and two touchdowns.
The Mountaineers are looking for better results on third down where they are just 12 of 34 (35 percent) in their first three games.
“Third downs are a concern but we will get that worked out - that’s why you practice and that’s why you try and that’s why you go back to the drawing board and try to get the best plays that you can,” Stewart said.
Last year West Virginia overcame a 13-7 halftime deficit to beat Marshall 48-23. Two years ago in Morgantown West Virginia came away with a 42-10 victory.
The Mountaineers lead the all-time series 7-0.
Saturday’s game will kickoff at 3:30 pm and will be televised on ESPN Plus (John Sanders and Rene Nadeau). The Marshall game is the beginning of a four-game home stand for the Mountaineers.
