Marshall Preview
October 14, 2009 11:34 AM | General
October 14, 2009
GAME INFORMATION | GAME NOTES
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia steps outside of Big East play one final time to take on Marshall Saturday afternoon at Milan Puskar Stadium in the 2009 Friends of Coal Bowl.
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| Noel Devine has run for 2,547 yards and scored 17 touchdowns in 30 career games for the Mountaineers.
Allison Toffle photo |
Marshall (4-2) is coming off a 31-10 victory at Tulane last weekend. Darius Marshall, the nation’s second-leading rusher averaging 147.4 yards per game, was held to a season-low 98 yards by the Green Wave, but he did manage to score a pair of touchdowns.
“He has it,” said West Virginia coach Bill Stewart. “He runs and plays hard. I watched the kickoff return and last year he ran up and down the field on us. It looked like he was running sprints at a track meet.
“This year he has done the same thing,” Stewart added. “When he doesn’t have the ball he blocks. He is a great football player and we will have our hands full with No. 5 Darius Marshall.”
A 5-foot-10, 190-pounder from Milledgeville, Ga., Marshall has run for more than 100 yards in four of the five games he played this year, including a 109-yard one-TD performance against fourth-ranked Virginia Tech. Marshall had a season-best 203 yards and three touchdowns in Marshall’s 27-16 victory over Memphis.
The Thundering Herd is also getting exceptional play from quarterback Brian Anderson, who has completed 61 percent of his passes for 963 yards and five touchdowns.
Anderson’s best performance was during the season opener against Southern Illinois with Darius Marshall out of the lineup. Anderson completed 27 of 36 passes for 316 yards and three touchdowns in 31-28 Marshall victory.
Anderson’s favorite target is tight end Cody Slate, a 6-foot-4, 229-pound senior from Chipley, Fla. Slate has caught a team-best 28 passes for 322 yards and two scores. His two best games were a nine-catch, 114-yard, two-TD afternoon against Southern Illinois and a nine-catch, 88-yard performance against East Carolina.
“He’s an athletic tight end who can run,” said West Virginia safety Sidney Glover. “We really have to treat him like a slot receiver.”
Freshman Antavious Wilson has also been a big factor in the passing game with 19 catches for 238 yards and two touchdowns. He caught six balls for 65 yards in last week’s win against Tulane.
Defensively, Marshall defensive coordinator Rick Minter will use a variety of fronts and prefers to bring a lot of pressure.
“He’s a zone blitz kind of guy,” said West Virginia offensive coordinator Jeff Mullen. “He’s also doing it from a four-down front. He likes to bring pressure and that’s certainly something that we’re going to have to prepare for.”
Defensive end Albert McClellan is one of Minter’s big-play guys on the outside. The senior is now sixth on the school career sack list with 20 while making 35 ½ tackles for losses during his career. So far this year the senior shows three sacks and 5 ½ tackles for losses.
“It’s like every week. Every defense has a core of guys that you have to make sure you have to match up to and he’s certainly one of the guys we’re keeping in mind,” Mullen said.
Weakside linebacker Mario Harvey leads the team with 46 tackles. Brandon Burns and DeQuan Berry show two interceptions each to lead the Herd.
“They are a physical group, they’re well coached, and they fly around to the football,” said Mullen. “Systematically they’re a nightmare to prepare for. They’ve got an even front and an odd front – very similar to last week in terms of a lot of different schemes so we’re going to have to be real sharp and make sure we see what they’re giving us and doing a good job of adjusting to it.
Marshall’s two losses were against Virginia Tec, 52-10 in Blacksburg, and 21-17 to East Carolina Huntington.
Marshall’s wins were against Southern Illinois, Bowling Green, Memphis and Tulane.
“The Mountaineers know the importance of this game,” said Stewart. “It is all about state pride and the state program – their program and our program.”
The only common opponent between the two teams this year is East Carolina, which West Virginia defeated 35-20 in Morgantown on Sept. 12.
Last weekend, West Virginia (4-1) jumped out to a 27-0 and defeated the Orange 34-13 in Syracuse. Jarrett Brown completed 22 of 30 passes for 244 yards and a touchdown. Nine different receivers caught passes in the game.
Noel Devine ran 22 times for 91 yards and a touchdown, while Jock Sanders had a team-best nine catches for 67 yards.
Brown is completing 68.8 percent of his pass attempts this year for 1,190 yards and eight touchdowns.
Devine shows 631 yards rushing and seven touchdowns, averaging 126.2 yards per game. He ran for a season-high 220 yards in a 35-24 win over Colorado in Morgantown on Oct. 1.
Sanders has a team-best 41 catches for 394 yards and two scores. Bradley Starks shows 14 catches for 296 yards and a touchdown, while Alric Arnett has 14 catches for 194 yards and two TDs.
Linebacker J.T. Thomas leads an improving WVU defense with 32 tackles, 4 ½ tackles for losses and a ½ sack. Defensive end Julian Miller has a team-best 3 ½ sacks and five tackles for losses, while six different defensive players have picked off passes so far this year.
The Mountaineer defense blanked Syracuse in the first half, and held the Orange to 0 for 12 on their third-down tries last weekend.
Last year, WVU defeated Marshall 27-3 in Morgantown and owns an 8-0 all-time record in series play that dates back to 1911. The Mountaineers are 4-0 against Marshall since 1997.
The game will be televised on the Big East Network (John Sanders and Danny Kannell) and will be carried in these Mountain State markets: Charleston (WCHS), Beckley-Bluefield (WOAY), Clarksburg-Fairmont-Morgantown (WVFX ), Wheeling (WTOV and WPCW), Parkersburg (WTAP) and in the Eastern Panhandle (WJAL).
MSN radio coverage includes the Internet (MSNsportsNET.com) and satellite radio (Sirius 125).
Kickoff is set for 3:30 pm.
