Post by rainman on Sept 8, 2007 7:36:26 GMT -5
WVU-MU is far from a rivalry
By Bob Hertzel
For the Times West Virginian
HUNTINGTON— Having spent the entire week learning from newspapers around the state and beyond that what has drawn even the most borderline of football fan to this border city this weekend is not a rivalry, we wonder on the morning of the West Virginia-Marshall game just what we have here?
Mickey Furfari, the dean of the nation’s sports writers after spending more than 60 autumns on the collegiate football trail, prefers to say this is a series rather than a rivalry, something more than WVU against East Carolina, something less than WVU against Maryland.
Chuck Finder of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette notes quite correctly that all of four instate players will line up as starters in this game, which kind of takes away the thought that its importance is to the players who grew up either loving or hating each of the schools.
Why even the coaches themselves aren’t quite certain what to call this game.
“I don’t think you can put a whole lot into calling it a rivalry,” said West Virginia’s Rich Rodriguez. “I’ve always said if you play someone a lot with a lot at stake, it becomes a rivalry. You can’t compare and say it’s like Pitt, because we’ve been playing Pitt for 100 years and now it’s a Big East game.”
Let’s see, over the prior decade West Virginia and Marshall had played how many times? Twice, is that? By golly, it is, the same number of times WVU played Western Michigan since 1996.
Then, when one considers that WVU comes to Marshall’s house about as often as Ed McMahon ever came to my house — or yours — with one of those checks from Publisher’s Clearing House — well, it certainly isn’t a rivalry.
Somewhere, too, to have a rivalry, you have to have some upsets, some competition. Consider, for a moment, the long history of games between West Virginia and Penn State. Rivalry? Not to Joe Paterno, who knew nearly every time he walked on the field that he’d beat WVU, something Penn State did 49 times in 59 meetings.
It may have felt like a rivalry here in West Virginia, but in Penn State it was simply a game that moved the Nittany Lions one step closer to a major bowl.
Marshall Coach Mark Snyder understands this quite well.
“We haven’t upheld our end of the deal,” Snyder said this week.
In other words, that fact that Marshall has never beaten WVU and that the last time the game was held here the final score was 92-6, it becomes difficult to generate much of the electricity that a REAL rivalry like those between Ohio State and Michigan, Auburn and Alabama, Florida and Miami or USC and UCLA produces.
However, if this isn’t a rivalry, what in the name of Joe Manchin III is it?
He is, after all, governor of this fine state and having taken a look recently at the business atmosphere and such rankings as obesity, poverty and education, one would suspect he could find something to do on a Saturday morning in early September than show up at a football game, even if he does get to read the starting lineups on ESPN2.
At least it’s better air time than he got last year when these two teams renewed their — eh, series, Mickey? Then he found himself not on ESPN but instead on CNN and MSNBC and Fox News as the dreadful Sago mine disaster occupied the attention of the American public.
If this isn’t a rivalry, what was a WVU graduate assistant doing last year driving a red Mercedes from Morgantown to Marshall’s spring practice, being caught taking copious notes? In Huntington, they call it spying on Marshall.
In Morgantown, it was looked upon as just some extra-curricular work by a student, done with neither the knowledge nor support of the coaching staff.
If this is not a rivalry, why have tickets shown up on the Internet with values of up to $300? Is a mere football game worth that, or is this really something more, something bigger than a Saturday spent tiptoeing through a field of plastic grass?
And, if this isn’t a rivalry, why does it have a name like The Friends of Coal Bowl?
So what is this thing that has brought us all descending upon Huntington for today?
The truth of the matter is that what we have here is a spectacle, not a rivalry.
It is the Super Bowl of partying within our state, a time when you wear your most expensive piece of clothing, whether the WVU jersey bears the No. 5 or 10. You heap insults upon the poor Marshall fans, who can only dream Division I-AA dreams of Pennington and Moss.
If it is for bragging rights, it is the fans, not the players or coaches, who do the bragging for they are schooled in such matters as sportsmanship and respect for one’s opponent.
If it were anything more than that, if it truly were a rivalry worthy of the national attention being heaped down upon it, do you really believe it be aired at 8:10 a.m. for the California market on a Saturday morning?
Rivalry, series or spectacle, it still is West Virginia and Marshall and that makes it something out of the ordinary, a special weekend that is worth playing and worth partying around.
By Bob Hertzel
For the Times West Virginian
HUNTINGTON— Having spent the entire week learning from newspapers around the state and beyond that what has drawn even the most borderline of football fan to this border city this weekend is not a rivalry, we wonder on the morning of the West Virginia-Marshall game just what we have here?
Mickey Furfari, the dean of the nation’s sports writers after spending more than 60 autumns on the collegiate football trail, prefers to say this is a series rather than a rivalry, something more than WVU against East Carolina, something less than WVU against Maryland.
Chuck Finder of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette notes quite correctly that all of four instate players will line up as starters in this game, which kind of takes away the thought that its importance is to the players who grew up either loving or hating each of the schools.
Why even the coaches themselves aren’t quite certain what to call this game.
“I don’t think you can put a whole lot into calling it a rivalry,” said West Virginia’s Rich Rodriguez. “I’ve always said if you play someone a lot with a lot at stake, it becomes a rivalry. You can’t compare and say it’s like Pitt, because we’ve been playing Pitt for 100 years and now it’s a Big East game.”
Let’s see, over the prior decade West Virginia and Marshall had played how many times? Twice, is that? By golly, it is, the same number of times WVU played Western Michigan since 1996.
Then, when one considers that WVU comes to Marshall’s house about as often as Ed McMahon ever came to my house — or yours — with one of those checks from Publisher’s Clearing House — well, it certainly isn’t a rivalry.
Somewhere, too, to have a rivalry, you have to have some upsets, some competition. Consider, for a moment, the long history of games between West Virginia and Penn State. Rivalry? Not to Joe Paterno, who knew nearly every time he walked on the field that he’d beat WVU, something Penn State did 49 times in 59 meetings.
It may have felt like a rivalry here in West Virginia, but in Penn State it was simply a game that moved the Nittany Lions one step closer to a major bowl.
Marshall Coach Mark Snyder understands this quite well.
“We haven’t upheld our end of the deal,” Snyder said this week.
In other words, that fact that Marshall has never beaten WVU and that the last time the game was held here the final score was 92-6, it becomes difficult to generate much of the electricity that a REAL rivalry like those between Ohio State and Michigan, Auburn and Alabama, Florida and Miami or USC and UCLA produces.
However, if this isn’t a rivalry, what in the name of Joe Manchin III is it?
He is, after all, governor of this fine state and having taken a look recently at the business atmosphere and such rankings as obesity, poverty and education, one would suspect he could find something to do on a Saturday morning in early September than show up at a football game, even if he does get to read the starting lineups on ESPN2.
At least it’s better air time than he got last year when these two teams renewed their — eh, series, Mickey? Then he found himself not on ESPN but instead on CNN and MSNBC and Fox News as the dreadful Sago mine disaster occupied the attention of the American public.
If this isn’t a rivalry, what was a WVU graduate assistant doing last year driving a red Mercedes from Morgantown to Marshall’s spring practice, being caught taking copious notes? In Huntington, they call it spying on Marshall.
In Morgantown, it was looked upon as just some extra-curricular work by a student, done with neither the knowledge nor support of the coaching staff.
If this is not a rivalry, why have tickets shown up on the Internet with values of up to $300? Is a mere football game worth that, or is this really something more, something bigger than a Saturday spent tiptoeing through a field of plastic grass?
And, if this isn’t a rivalry, why does it have a name like The Friends of Coal Bowl?
So what is this thing that has brought us all descending upon Huntington for today?
The truth of the matter is that what we have here is a spectacle, not a rivalry.
It is the Super Bowl of partying within our state, a time when you wear your most expensive piece of clothing, whether the WVU jersey bears the No. 5 or 10. You heap insults upon the poor Marshall fans, who can only dream Division I-AA dreams of Pennington and Moss.
If it is for bragging rights, it is the fans, not the players or coaches, who do the bragging for they are schooled in such matters as sportsmanship and respect for one’s opponent.
If it were anything more than that, if it truly were a rivalry worthy of the national attention being heaped down upon it, do you really believe it be aired at 8:10 a.m. for the California market on a Saturday morning?
Rivalry, series or spectacle, it still is West Virginia and Marshall and that makes it something out of the ordinary, a special weekend that is worth playing and worth partying around.
