The second annual Friends of Coal bowl almost cost West Virginia in their first trip to Huntington in nearly a century.  West Virginia and Marshall renewed their series last season when the Mountaineers trounced the Thundering Herd 42-10.  This year, at least in the first three quarters, in was a different story.

Rich Rodriguez is known for being an offensive mastermind.  Coaches all around the country have attempted to learn the spread offense and put it in to their system.  So how come one of the most potent offenses in the country only scored six points in the first half against Marshall?

Early on it looked as if the Mountaineers were playing conservative, or just couldn’t get anything going.  Pat White threw screen passes that went nowhere.  Steve Slaton and Owen Shmitt seemed to take hand-offs and run straight into the defense.  On one of their only downfield pass attempts in the first half West Virginia put up 6 points and a touchdown.  So how come they didn’t do that more often? 

In the second half the Mountaineer offense seemed to gets it mojo back.  However it was not in the passing game.  The West Virginia offense ran all over Marshall in the second frame and put up what seemed like an east 42 points.  The 11 am kickoff time may have been too early for the Mountaineers, or the Marshall defense came out with a lot of emotion and fire in the first half and held West Virginia to only six points. 

West Virginia’s defense played well enough to win again, but was only mediocre against an offense that scored only 3 points a week earlier against Miami.  Marshall matched that total on their first possession.  Bernard Morris had all day to throw to his talented tight end Cody Slate and his burner wide receiver Darius Passmore.  The Thundering Herd also ran for 121 yards.  The Mountaineers blew up a few plays in the backfield but still get not get enough pressure on the quarterback often leaving the secondary out to dry.

Perhaps one reason why the Mountaineers failed to get pressure were the abundance of missed holding calls on Marshall.  Numerous times during the game a Marshall lineman grabbed hold of a Mountaineer jersey allowing Morris to throw and the running backs to run.  A few times the lineman even took West Virginia defenders to the ground.  Marshall totaled only 5 penalties in the game for 28 yards. 

The West Virginia offense struggled mightily in the first half.  Steve Slaton was ineffective in the first frame for the second game in a row, and Pat White was only allowed to throw forgettable screen passes to wide receivers.  The highlight of the first half may have been the nearly 60 yard punt by Pat McAfee (by the way did anyone else hear the announcers calling him Ken?). 

West Virginia starts a treacherous schedule come Thursday when they go on the road to take on Maryland.  They then come home to face an East Carolina team that knocked off North Carolina on Saturday and nearly did the same to Va. Tech a week earlier.  The Big East schedule starts a week later on Friday the 28^th when WVU faces South Florida, who took out SEC powerhouse Auburn on Saturday night.