Bragging rights on line as West Virginia visits Marshall

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09/08/2010 - Huntington, WV (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - State rivals will square off in Huntington on Friday night, as the Marshall Thundering Herd welcome the 23rd-ranked West Virginia Mountaineers to town.

On opening weekend, West Virginia cruised past Coastal Carolina as expected by a 31-0 final. Members of the Big East Conference, the Mountaineers are led by Bill Stewart, now in his third season at the helm. There are 16 starters back between the offense and defense, so expectations are fairly high in Morgantown.

As for Marshall, which is a member of Conference USA, it had the unenviable task of taking on second-ranked Ohio State in Columbus to open the season last week. Put simply, the Thundering Herd were outclassed, as they fell to the Buckeyes in a 45-7 final. That lopsided defeat spoiled the debut of Doc Holliday, the new coach at Marshall.

"I told our team that I was proud of the effort that they gave," said Holliday. "I was not proud of the fact that we did not follow the plan to win."

West Virginia has won all nine previous meetings with Marshall, including double-digit victories over the Herd in each of the last four seasons.

While many starters do return for West Virginia, Geno Smith is a fresh face under center. In the opener against Coastal Carolina, Smith completed 20-of-27 passes for 216 yards with two touchdowns and one interception.

"I want Geno to know I have all the confidence in the world in him and the other 10 players out there with him," said coach Stewart. "I wanted that young man to know he's our guy, we're going with him and I wanted to showcase him right from the get go."

Noel Devine ran for 111 yards and a score for WVU, and the speedy back now has nearly 3,500 rushing yards in his brilliant collegiate career.

"People expect him to go out and run for 300 yards against these guys," said Stewart of Devine. "They spent the whole day trying to take Noel out of the game plan. That's why we threw the ball."

Jock Sanders paced the WVU receivers with eight grabs for 71 yards and a score, and the Mountaineers finished the contest with 400 total yards. They were 9-of-17 on third-down conversion attempts and held the ball for over 32 minutes.

Defensively, West Virginia stifled Coast Carolina, limiting the overmatched Chanticleers to 186 total yards on 60 offensive plays. Of the 14 third-down conversion attempts that Coastal faced in the tilt, only two of those were successful. WVU was particularly strong against the run, permitting a mere 63 yards on 33 attempts. The Mountaineers didn't record any sacks, but they did post a pair of takeaways. Terence Garvin paced WVU with seven total tackles.

"I really liked the way our defense played," said Stewart. "I am really pleased with the way our defense adjusted and reacted during the football game."

Looking forward to this weekend's game, Marshall's new head coach showed great respect for West Virginia.

"We come from playing the best team in the Big Ten Conference to now playing the best team in the Big East Conference," said Holliday. "They are the most talented Big East team out there."

Holliday's offense posted just 199 total yards and recorded 11 first downs against Ohio State, which possesses one of the best defenses in all of college football. The Thundering Herd were 4-of-14 on third-down conversion attempts and turned the ball over three times.

A major problem for Marshall was that its receivers dropped far too many passes. Both Brian Anderson and Eddie Sullivan saw time under center, and both were victimized by the drops. Anderson completed 17-of-28 passes for 135 yards and figures to be under center for much of this weekend's tilt.

Moving over to the defensive side of the ball, Marshall was simply not match for the high-powered and well-balanced Ohio State offense. The Thundering Herd were gashed for 529 total yards and 23 first downs, and OSU was able to hold the ball for nearly 35 minutes of the contest. With zero takeaways, Marshall failed to make the type of impact plays necessary to keep a game close against an elite opponent. Mario Harvey recorded 10 total tackles in the tilt, while Vinny Curry had a pair of sacks.

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The NFL preseason is approaching. Time for players, coaches and teams to turn over a new leaf. General managers have hired some new coaches, while coaches have added some offensive and defensive assistants to try and improve things. Here’s a look at some changes to look for in the preseason.

New York Jets: The Jets were one of the surprise teams in the NFL last season, making the playoffs under hard-driving first-year coach Eric Mangini. Mangini rebuilt the offensive line with rookies D'Brickashaw Ferguson (the No. 4 pick in the 2007 Draft) and Ohio State center (the 29th pick in the first round). This season he upgraded the defense with rookie linebacker David Harris (Michigan) while the secondary picked up a much needed top-notch corner in Pitt CB Darrelle Revis (No. 14 overall).

The Jets have added balance to the offense for QB Chad Pennington with RB Thomas Jones, essentially stolen from the Bears. He will upgrade a New York ground game that was 20th in rushing with a weak 3.5 yards per carry. They have their first true feature back since Curtis Martin. Offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer prefers ball control, like his father Marty. In preseason, behind Pennington you’ll see second-year QB Kellen Clemens and mobile newcomer QB Marques Tuiasosopo.

Jacksonville Jaguars: The heat is on Jack Del Rio in Jacksonville as the Jaguars flopped last season despite a ton of talent. Keep in mind that under Del Rio the Jaguars have been outstanding in preseason with a 12-4 SU, 11-5 ATS August mark. online football betting Their defense is loaded, it’s the offense that has been stuck in first gear the last few years.

Enter a new offensive coordinator in Dirk Koetter, the former Boise State and Arizona State pass-happy coach. He will try and upgrade a passing game that ranked 24th last season. Del Rio has criticized wide receivers and Matt Jones this summer, both of whom have battled injuries. It will be interesting to watch the “new” Jaguars passing game in preseason.

Arizona Cardinals: Word out of Arizona is that the players like new coach Ken Whisenhunt, who was the Steelers offensive coordinator last year. We think of Arizona as all-passing because their running game has been awful of late because of a poor offensive line. However, keep an eye on the running game in preseason as they’ve made a lot of changes.

The new coach brings in Russ Grimm to coach the offensive line (Grimm did a marvelous job building the Steelers line). They took Penn State OT Levi Jones in the first round and signed two offensive linemen, Mike Gandy and Al Johnson, to provide depth. Reggie Wells was moved from right tackle to left guard and they want more speed out of the offensive line for pulling and traps, a Pittsburgh staple under Bill Cowher.

Atlanta Falcons: While all the attention has been focused on QB Mike Vick’s off-field problems, new coach Bobby Petrino is revamping the Falcons from an all-running team to a more balanced one. Petrino likes the experience of backup QB Joey Harrington and he has veteran backup Chris Redman, who used to play for Petrino at Louisville and knows his offenses better than anyone. Petrino wants Vick to be more of a pocket passer.

The addition of FB Ovie Mughelli is a sign Petrino wants a power rushing attack behind a physical fullback and newcomer WR Joe Horn should upgrade what was a below average wideout corps. Petrino is changing their old zone-blocking scheme to a more traditional in-line blocking scheme and the offensive line is bigger. Rookie DE Jamaal Anderson was grabbed in the first round and the secondary got younger with former Auburn cornerback David Irons, who the Falcons think was a steal as a sixth-round pick.

Cleveland Browns: The 2007 Browns look like a double-edged sword. There was the excitement of the offseason, trading for RB Jamel Lewis, upgrading the offensive line with Wisconsin’s Joe Thomas (the No. 2 pick in the draft) and free agent LG Eric Steinbach, then trading for Notre Dame QB Brady Quinn when he fell to No. 22. GM Phil Savage and head coach Romeo Crennel feel they have a talented, balanced offense with these new pieces, plus TE >Kellen Winslow and WR Braylon Edwards.

However, were these moves made in desperation? And were they foolish ones? The Browns gave up their 2008 first-round pick for Quinn and we all know QBs take time to develop. And even first-round QBs can be busts (Joey Harrington, Akili Smith). We also don’t know if the offensive line is that much improved (31st in rushing in 2007) and they did nothing to improve a defense that was awful against the run (142 yds pg allowed).

The Browns have a new offensive coordinator in Rob Chudzinski. This is a young offense and Quinn looked tentative, indecisive and inaccurate early in camp. Crennel will play Charlie Frye, Quinn and Derek Anderson in preseason. And there is a mixed bag for rookie QBs receiving significant starts: Tim Couch (14), Kerry Collins (13), Ben Roethlisberger (13), Vince Young (13), Joey Harrington (12), Matt Leinart (11) and Kyle Boller (nine). While all the focus will be on the Browns new-look offense, I’m more concerned with the defense.

Carolina Panthers: Coach Jon Fox loves the ground game, but Carolina has made some interesting changes for 2007. Fox fired offensive coordinator Dan Henning and brings in Jeff Davidson to run the offense. Davidson has brought in zone-blocking schemes to the Panther offense, a dramatic change for a system that's been built around a power-running style.

In zone-blocking, offensive linemen are responsible for blocking any defender who appears in their zone, instead of focusing on one defender. The Broncos and Falcons have had success with the system, which features smaller, more athletic offensive linemen and can create running lanes on the inside and outside. Keep an eye in preseason on how Carolina adjusts as it will take time to learn the system. Fox has been one of the top coaches in preseason, with a 15-5 SU, 12-7-1 ATS August record.

Dallas Cowboys: WR Terrell Owens is still here, but QB Drew Bledsoe and Bill Parcells are gone. New head coach Wade Phillips takes over, replacing Parcells. He ran the Chargers defense last season. Phillips was chosen by teary-eyed owner Jerry Jones partly because he is one of the best 3-4 coaches in football and the Cowboys have loaded up on players for that scheme.

Remember that Phillips was blitz-happy with the Chargers last season and early reports out of the Dallas camp have mentioned how the Cowboys have been blitzing a lot, a departure from Parcells. The theme of the 2007 Dallas defense appears to be one of attack.

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