Still Not a Rivalry

As the dust settles after the first annual (?) Friends of Coal Bowl, and WVU's 42-10 demolition of Marshall, I think I may have figured out one reason why so many WVU fans were not "up" for the game. I think it comes down to the fact that the PR folks and Marshall supporters tried to instantly make this game a "rivalry," such that it would be on the same level with, say, WVU-Pitt. The problem is, you can't force such things.

The Backyard Brawl is a great rivalry because of the lack of distance between Morgantown and Pittsburgh, the fact that WVU and Pitt have played 98 times since 1895, and that there have been classic games in that stretch where the better team was upset by the weaker one, that were resolved in the last minute, etc. The WVU-Marshall series just doesn't have that kind of backstory yet. We've only played 6 times in 100 years, WVU won all of them, and only one of them was close (WVU won early games by scores of 92-6 and 81-0!).

By contrast, the WVU-Marshall basketball game is a bona fide rivalry. Since the game was moved to Charleston (from the back and forth of the two campuses), the games have usually been tight and there have been great upsets. The past two seasons, when Marshall struggled to make a winning record and WVU went deep into the NCAA tournament, Marshall pulled the upset and won the game. That's the sort of thing you need for a real rivalry.

That may all develop in time with the Friends of Coal Bowl, but until them it would be better if the hype machine dialed itself back and let the games speak for themselves.