In the previous three editions of the West Virginia-Marshall game, the Thundering Herd defense has had to contend with offensive stars Pat White, Steve Slaton and Noel Devine, among others.
In the previous three editions of the West Virginia-Marshall game, the Thundering Herd defense has had to contend with offensive stars Pat White, Steve Slaton and Noel Devine, among others.
But one can argue that WVU's defense vs. Marshall's offense has been a bigger mismatch.
Consider that the Herd has mustered just 36 points in the 2006, 2007 and 2008 contests, with 23 of those coming in the 2007 game in Huntington. And those came in the first three quarters - the Herd was held to 11 yards in three drives toward the end of the game as WVU pulled away.
The Herd will attempt to do much better when it takes on WVU at 3:30 p.m. Saturday at Mountaineer Field. The contest will air on WCHS, Channel 8 in Charleston-Huntington.
Marshall has yet to score inside the "red zone," inside the WVU 20-yard line, in the recent series. Look it up - the Herd's three touchdowns were Bernard Morris passes, a 21-yarder to Matt Morris in 2006, a 38-yarder to Darius Passmore in 2007 and a 42-yard shot to Cody Slate later in that game.
When the Herd has ventured inside the WVU 20, the results haven't been better than the three field goals Anthony Binswanger kicked in the 2007 contest. Last season, the Herd had to settle for one Tyler Warner field goal and two attempts that went awry in some fashion.
And remember, the drive that actually resulted in Marshall points traveled minus-11 yards. That happened when then-left tackle Ryan Tillman was ticketed for a holding penalty on an apparent touchdown pass from Mark Cann to Lee Smith.
The Herd had just gotten possession on the WVU 6-yard line when Ellis Lankster muffed a punt and Chubb Small recovered. Instead of tying the game at 7, the tone was set for the Herd's long afternoon.
"We thought we scored; we had a penalty and they called it back," said center Chad Schofield. "I think that took the wind out of our sails a little bit. So this year, we're going into this game and we want to get rolling fast."
Schofield, who was then a backup guard who hadn't yet cracked the lineup, objected to the call.
"After reviewing the film, it wasn't even holding," he said. "He just clubbed [the defender] down. It was an awful call."
Whatever the case, the Herd later had a 16-play drive that ended in fumbled field goal snap (holder Emmanuel Spann was trying to cancel a fake when the ball arrived) and a 19-yard play that ended up with a missed 24-yarder. Both drives were aided by WVU personal fouls, but still accounted for most of the Herd's 158 total yards.
Yep, that was it - Marshall's season low on offense and WVU's season best on defense, both by a fair margin. Darius Marshall was held to 45 rushing yards and Cann went 15-of-36 for 119 yards, committing a delay penalty on his first scrimmage down and committing two of the Herd's three turnovers.
In the previous three editions of the West Virginia-Marshall game, the Thundering Herd defense has had to contend with offensive stars Pat White, Steve Slaton and Noel Devine, among others.
But one can argue that WVU's defense vs. Marshall's offense has been a bigger mismatch.
Consider that the Herd has mustered just 36 points in the 2006, 2007 and 2008 contests, with 23 of those coming in the 2007 game in Huntington. And those came in the first three quarters - the Herd was held to 11 yards in three drives toward the end of the game as WVU pulled away.
The Herd will attempt to do much better when it takes on WVU at 3:30 p.m. Saturday at Mountaineer Field. The contest will air on WCHS, Channel 8 in Charleston-Huntington.
Marshall has yet to score inside the "red zone," inside the WVU 20-yard line, in the recent series. Look it up - the Herd's three touchdowns were Bernard Morris passes, a 21-yarder to Matt Morris in 2006, a 38-yarder to Darius Passmore in 2007 and a 42-yard shot to Cody Slate later in that game.
When the Herd has ventured inside the WVU 20, the results haven't been better than the three field goals Anthony Binswanger kicked in the 2007 contest. Last season, the Herd had to settle for one Tyler Warner field goal and two attempts that went awry in some fashion.
And remember, the drive that actually resulted in Marshall points traveled minus-11 yards. That happened when then-left tackle Ryan Tillman was ticketed for a holding penalty on an apparent touchdown pass from Mark Cann to Lee Smith.
The Herd had just gotten possession on the WVU 6-yard line when Ellis Lankster muffed a punt and Chubb Small recovered. Instead of tying the game at 7, the tone was set for the Herd's long afternoon.
"We thought we scored; we had a penalty and they called it back," said center Chad Schofield. "I think that took the wind out of our sails a little bit. So this year, we're going into this game and we want to get rolling fast."
Schofield, who was then a backup guard who hadn't yet cracked the lineup, objected to the call.
"After reviewing the film, it wasn't even holding," he said. "He just clubbed [the defender] down. It was an awful call."
Whatever the case, the Herd later had a 16-play drive that ended in fumbled field goal snap (holder Emmanuel Spann was trying to cancel a fake when the ball arrived) and a 19-yard play that ended up with a missed 24-yarder. Both drives were aided by WVU personal fouls, but still accounted for most of the Herd's 158 total yards.
Yep, that was it - Marshall's season low on offense and WVU's season best on defense, both by a fair margin. Darius Marshall was held to 45 rushing yards and Cann went 15-of-36 for 119 yards, committing a delay penalty on his first scrimmage down and committing two of the Herd's three turnovers.
Cann will almost certainly be watching this game from the sidelines, as he has fallen to third-string behind Brian Anderson and Press Taylor. A lot of the offensive characters have changed for the Herd, though featured back Marshall is still around, as are tight ends Slate and Smith.
Many of the changes come on the line. Schofield later rose to starting left guard and has since moved to center. Tillman has moved over to guard, with Brandon Campbell rising to the first string at left tackle. Daniel Baldridge watched the 2008 game, but has beaten out C.J. Wood at the right tackle spot, and Jimmy Rogers has risen to the starter at right guard.
The wide receivers will be all new, unless Courtney Edmonson finally returns from the leg injury that has plagued him since early in the season opener. Antavious Wilson and Chuck Walker did not travel with the team in last year's game, and Jamal Wilson, Wayne Bonner and Aaron Dobson weren't even at MU yet.
That's a lot of new faces to go against WVU's unusual 3-3-5 defense. Schofield and Anderson got a good look at the scheme, though, against Tulsa in the 2008 season finale. For what it's worth, the Herd enjoyed one of its better offensive outings of that season in a 38-35 loss to the Golden Hurricane, whose head coach is former Mountaineer assistant Todd Graham.
"I think you have better athletes at West Virginia than at Tulsa," Schofield said. "The defensive front is just designed to take up those double teams and let the linebackers make plays.
"You have to have a good push up front, because if you get a good push up front, that creates less separation between the defensive line and the linebackers, and we can climb up to the linebackers and get [another] block."
"[The scheme] gives them the ability to bring a lot of different people," Anderson said. "You know a fourth guy is going to come on just about every snap; it's a matter of figuring out which guy it is, and whichever one they do bring, hopefully, we can block him."
Marshall (4-2) has allowed nine sacks in six games, but faced good pressure two weeks ago in a 21-17 loss to East Carolina. The Herd's pass protection was much better last week in a 31-10 win over Tulane, as Anderson really wasn't close to taking a sack in his 18-for-22 performance.
"We went into the game with [that as] a point of emphasis," Schofield said. "We knew we were going to see blitzes from Tulane, and I think we did a great job up front blocking their blitzes."
OK, so that's against Tulane. The Herd must not just improve from recent Conference USA competition, it must improve a long, long way from its last game against a so-called BCS school, the 52-10 shellacking by Virginia Tech in September.
In that game, the Herd struck for 121 of its 252 total yards on two plays, a 61-yard Marshall touchdown run and a 60-yard pass from Anderson to Antavious Wilson, which set up a field goal.
That was a learning experience, as was last year's WVU game for the Herd. Anderson will watch the 2008 video in his determination to avoid a repeat performance.
"We just didn't execute," Anderson said of the 2008 game. "I've got to go back and look at it again; it was awhile ago. I think we have guys that can get open, we have guys that can run the ball and we have guys that can block."
Reach Doug Smock at 304-348-5130 or dougsm...@wvgazette.com.
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