No. 24: Maryland, 2004
June 18, 2010 04:38 PM | General
July 7, 2010
It looked like the Mountaineers were headed for another Penn State-esque dominance at the hands of Maryland. Some West Virginia fans were beginning to think that in 2004 after four consecutive beatings from the Terps. Beginning with a 32-20 defeat in College Park in 2001, West Virginia lost by progressively worse scores: 48-17 in 2002, 34-7 in 2003 and 41-7 in the 2004 Gator Bowl in Jacksonville, Fla.
The gap between the two programs only seemed to be widening when Coach Ralph Friedgen brought his No. 21-ranked Terps to Morgantown for a mid-September meeting at sun-drenched Milan Puskar Stadium.
Making the losses sting even more was the fact that ex-Mountaineer quarterback Scott McBrien had played a big role in three of the Maryland victories.
McBrien was no longer quarterbacking the Terps – Joel Statham was now under center, but the onus was clearly on West Virginia quarterback Rasheed Marshall. Marshall had kept a clipping of a quote made by a Maryland defensive player questioning his leadership qualities.
That quote gave Marshall all the motivation he needed to lead West Virginia to a come-from-behind, 19-16 victory over the Terps in overtime. It was Marshall’s 7-yard touchdown pass to Chris Henry on a quick slant that won the game for the Mountaineers.
Fourth-year coach Rich Rodriguez had the team go up to the line of scrimmage without calling a play to see what defense Maryland would be in.
“You had our best wideout (Henry) against their best DB (Dominique Foxworth), and they won a lot of those battles,” Rodriguez explained. “But we won the one at the end.”
Marshall completed 10 of 20 passes for 132 yards and rushed 15 times for 47 yards. Kay-Jay Harris led all ball carriers with 142 yards and a touchdown.
With John Denver’s “Country Roads” blaring on the public address system, the Mountaineer players and fans stayed on the field to celebrate their first win over Maryland in five years.
After the game, Rodriguez presented two game balls to the team – one to defensive coordinator Jeff Casteel for holding Maryland to just 295 yards of offense, including only 108 through the air, and the other to Marshall for his perseverance.
“When you go out and perform above what other people think that you will, it satisfies you,” Marshall said after the game. "And I did that today.”
"He really came back,” added Rodriguez. “He never quit fighting and battling.”
Rodriguez was naturally pleased to get his first victory against WVU’s longtime rival from the ACC.
“It wasn’t a monkey on our back,” Rodriguez said. “It was like a big gorilla.”
