W. Virginia v. Marshall

West Virginia University and Marshall University are the only two schools from the Mountaineer State in Division I-A. If you are familiar with the typical relationship between state-wide universities like WVU and regional universities like Marshall, you will not be surprised to learn that these two schools have only played 11 football games against each other.

They played four times between 1911 and 1923, and West Virginia won all four match-ups. After the Mountaineers beat the Thundering Herd 92-6 in 1915, and 81-0 in 1923, they didn't play for another 74 years. By 1997, Marshall had Randy Moss, they were coming off of a 1996 I-AA championship, they were back in Division I-A, and they were ready for a rematch. It was great game, but WVU won again 42-31.

As far as the Mountaineers were concerned, that settled things, but Herd fans kept clamoring for more games. Finally, after a series of complex negotiations that involved the Governor, WVU and Marshall agreed to play seven games in a row -- one in each season from 2006 to 2012. They agreed to play four of the games in Morgantown (WVU's hometown), two in Huntington (home of the Herd) -- and the last one would be played at the home of which team won two of the first three. Each of the seven games would be known as the Friends of Coal Bowl -- coal presumably being a rare area where WVU and Marshall fans could agree.

This is the seventh -- and last -- game of the series, and things have not gone well for the Herd. They were unfortunate that the series began just as their team fell off from the high quality of play it had enjoyed in the 1990's and early 2000's. Five of the six Friends of Coal Bowls were blowouts -- the only close game was in 2010, when WVU won 24-21 in Huntington. WVU now leads the all-time series 11-0.

Tomorrow's game will probably be the last between the two West Virginia schools for awhile. The Mountaineers say that their schedule is full until 2015, meaning that they couldn't play the Herd again until at least 2016. And they further say that since they've joined the Big 12, filling their schedule has become "a little more challenging." The two teams are also back to the old disagreement about how often WVU should come to Huntington. So my guess is you won't be seeing the Friends of Coal Bowl until the politicians in West Virginia get involved again.

West Virginia is ranked at number 11 in the pre-season AP poll, and Vegas has them as 26-point favorites. So this game is not likely to be a classic. But the UCFC has surprised us before, and the Herd will surely want to make their last scheduled trip to Morgantown a memorable one.

Marshall

Marshall University, in Huntington, West Virginia, traces its history back to 1837. In the early years, it was in the state of Virginia and was known as "Marshall Academy" after John Marshall, the powerful Chief Justice of the United States. In 1863, however, that part of Virginia broke off from the Old Dominion and became part of West Virginia. Four years later, the West Virginia Legislature resurrected Marshall Academy -- which had been closed due to the war -- as the State Normal School of Marshall College. At that point, it was basically a teachers' college.

In 1907, the West Virginia Board of Regents changed the title of the presiding officer from "Principal" to "President" and allowed the creation of new college-level departments. The school began offering four-year degrees in 1920. In 1938, Marshall Collee was authorized to offer Master's degrees. And in 1961, the legislature finally elevated Marshall to university status.

Football fans know a surprising amount about Marshall. They know that its nickname is the "Thundering Herd," which is one of the best nicknames in college football. According to Wikipedia (and why would they lie?), the name comes from a Zane Gray novel released in 1925. Marshall tried other nicknames, including the Big Green, but the school finally settled on Thundering Herd after a 1965 vote of students, alumni, and faculty.

They also know that Marshall football was almost destroyed by a terrible plane crash on November 14, 1970, where 37 members of the team were killed. The tragedy hung over the program for years. Marshall was the nation's worst college football team in the 1970's, with a record of 23-83.

But football fans also know that the Thundering Herd had a resurgence in the 1990's -- a decade in which Marshall went 114-25. They won the I-AA national championship in 1992 and 1996, and they were the national runner-up in 1987, 1991, 1993, and 1995. These were the years when Marshall had its greatest player -- Randy Moss of Rand, West Virginia.

In 1997, Marshall moved up to Division I-A and returned to the Mid-American Conference (which had evicted them in 1969 for academic problems.) They kept winning, finishing in the top 25 in 1999, 2001, and 2002. In 2005 they moved to Conference USA, but they had lost Bob Pruett, who had a record of 94-23 from 1996 to 2004, and they had lost some scholarships due to the NCAA sanctions. Since Pruett's departure, they have been pretty mediocre, going 35-50 from 2005 to 2011. Last year they went 7-6.

For all their rich and complicated history, the Thundering Herd has (have?) never appeared in a UCFC game. They do have a rabid fan base, however, and we can expect their fans to go absolutely nuts if Marshall knocks off West Virginia for the title.