West Virginia Mountaineers vs. Marshall Thundering Herd Point Spread and Pick

No. 25 West Virginia Mountaineers (1-0 SU, 0-1 ATS) vs. Marshall Thundering Herd (0-1 SU, 0-1 ATS), Week 2 NCAA Football, 7:00 p.m. EST, Friday, September 10, 2010, Edwards Stadium, Huntington, W.Va., TV: ESPN
by Badger of Predictem.com

Point Spread: WVU -13/Marshall +13
Over/Under: TBA

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A skirmish for some in-state bragging rights will take place in primetime on ESPN Friday night when the 25th-ranked West Virginia Mountaineers travel southwest to Huntington to take on the Marshall Thundering Herd in Edwards Stadium.

The Mountaineers won their opener last Saturday by a 31-0 score over Coastal Carolina, but don’t be deceived by the lopsided score because it was a less than impressive opener for the team from Morgantown. Ahead by only a 10-0 score at halftime, the Mountaineers played a sloppy game on offense (3 turnovers) but made it stand with a solid defensive effort against an overmatched team from Coastal Carolina.

Marshall was not as fortunate in their opener against Ohio State last Thursday, failing behind 35-0 before you could blink en route to a depressing 45-7 loss at the Horseshoe. There really wasn’t too much that went right for the Herd against the Buckeyes, but they will have the motivation of playing in their home opener on Friday on national television.

Another story line that could help to motivate the Herd into playing better in week two is the fact their new head coach, Doc Holliday, spent many years in Morgantown as the associate head coach, so there will be plenty of familiarity with the Mountaineers schemes and personnel.

The early line out of Las Vegas has West Virginia listed as 13-point favorites, but there are already a few online sportsbooks that have moved the point spread up to 13.5 in favor of the Mountaineers.

As of press time there has yet to be a total released.

As I mentioned earlier, the Mountaineers offense certainly looked raw and sloppy for some of their opener last week. Running back Noel Devine rushed for 111 yards and added a score, but his 4.8 yards per carry was a little low considering the lack of competition. Quarterback Geno Smith also finished with decent numbers (20-of-27, 216 yards and 2 TD), but he did throw an interception for one of the Mountaineers three turnovers.

But when compared to the rough day the Thundering Herd offense had against the Buckeyes, the Mountaineers numbers look like the run-n- shoot. With only 44 yards rushing on the ground, the Herd became one- dimensional in a hurry, although the Buckeyes forced them to play catch up and abandon the run by jumping out to a large lead.

The only points the Herd put on the board came via a blocked field goal returned for a touchdown, not from the Marshall offense, so quarterback Brian Anderson and his teammates in the huddle will have to find a way to get into the end zone.

It’s hard to get a good picture of what type of defense the Herd will face from West Virginia, mainly because the Mountaineers defense was hardly challenged by the Coastal Carolina offense in the opener. The Mountaineers held them to 189 yards of total offense, forced three turnovers and stopped Coastal Carolina on 12 of their 14 third-down attempts during the game.

On paper you would think the Mountaineers would be able to repeat that performance against Marshall, but Marshall’s offense is certainly better than the boys from Coastal Carolina so you really are comparing apples to oranges.

Marshall’s defense was expected to be better than they looked against the Buckeyes, but they were gouged for 280 yards on the ground by Ohio State en route to giving up over 500 yards of total offense. You know that Devine and the Mountaineers offense will dissect the tape from that game and try to duplicate the success the Buckeyes had running the ball on Friday.

Last year in the first game of the home-and-home series between these two schools in Morgantown it ended with a 24-7 victory by West Virginia. Marshall only had 207 yards of total offense (58 yards on the ground on 34 attempts), and West Virginia finished with just 313 yards (3-for-13 on 3rd down), so it turned into a defensive contest with six turnovers overall in the game (Marshall 4, W.Va. 2).

At least the Thundering Herd led the game 7-3 at halftime, then eventually made bettors happy by covering the 20-point spread in the game. But with a lack of offense the game never even came close to the 51 points the total closed at for the game.

Badger’s Pick to Cover the Spread: I don’t expect the Mountaineers to run for as many yards on the ground as the Buckeyes did against Marshall, but one could argue that Devine is a better runner than anyone on the Buckeyes team, so it could get ugly again for the Herd. I expect the same type of game as last year with Marshall playing well early, but eventually giving way to the superior Mountaineers at the end. Take West Virginia minus the 13 points.

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