WVU Could Play Marshall Again, but is it Worth Reviving This Lopsided Matchup?

West Virginia and Marshall have played twelve times on the gridiron, and the Mountaineers have won all twelve matchups.

It's been 13 years since the programs last played, and with WVU athletic director announcing several non-conference games earlier this month, the Mountaineers are booked through the 2030 season. That's the next possible year the two can clash in the "Friends of Coal Bowl."

With the return of Rich Rodriguez and his friend and former assistant at WVU, Tony Gibson, taking over the program at Marshall, it makes a future game between the two schools a little more interesting.

Since Gibson became the head coach at Marshall, he's taken a couple of shots at WVU, including about the lack of interest in scheduling a series. “I was on the other side of this rivalry at WVU. Nobody wanted to play Marshall for a lot of different reasons,” Gibson said. “The biggest reason was you didn’t want to be the one that lost to Marshall.”

On the day of his introductory press conference in Morgantown, Rodriguez was asked about possibly playing Marshall in the future and quickly tossed that to the side.

"Gibby is a great friend of mine. Was a great staff member, and we're still very dear friends. But if you think I've spent one second thinking about Marshall you're wrong. I could care less what's going on in Huntington."

If we're being honest, what do you expect him to say? Very few outside of Huntington even think about Marshall football, let alone the head coach of WVU. That being said, it wouldn't be a bad idea to play them every once in a while. A home-and-home, however, isn't going to do it. It needs to be a two-for-one or maybe even a three-for-one.

Oklahoma has a good strategy with an in-state Group of Six school, Tulsa. They've played 29 times, playing a handful of games close together at a time before taking several years off. The Sooners have visited Tulsa 11 times, but only four times since the late 1980s.

Playing Marshall in 2030 would fit in nicely around the opponents they already have scheduled. So far in 2030, they have VMI and Pitt. With two Power Four opponents on the slate for 2031, they'll likely try to schedule an FCS opponent to round out the non-con, so the second game would need to be pushed to 2032 at the earliest.

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