[WVGrandma4Kasey]

A Mountainous Rivalry Aaron Kendeall
Sports Writer

With only a few days until kickoff, many students are gearing up for the 2006 Mountaineer football season. But as people plan pregame festivities for Saturday's 3 p.m. kickoff, many overlook the importance of the game.
It seems that everyone, from students to big-time sports analysts, see Saturday's opener against Marshall as a lopsided cakewalk for the Mountaineers.
Sure the top-10 ranked Sugar Bowl Champions should easily destroy any Conference USA team any day of the week. However, with the air thick-smelling of a rivalry, perhaps there is more to this game than appears on the surface.
Call me a pessimist, but I don't think it's too outrageous to believe that, given the right circumstances, WVU might find out the Thundering Herd actually has some fight in them.
On paper there is no way that West Virginia should lose this football game. The Mountaineers are just too full of national caliber players for Marshall to compete with.
But this game is a rivalry, and any college football fan can tell you that when it comes to rivalries, you can throw what looks good on paper out the window.
Growing up in Pittsburgh, I know firsthand how ugly college rivalries can get. I've been to enough Backyard Brawls to tell you that it doesn't matter which team has bowl aspirations and which team won't break .500. When two teams hate each other, there is no telling who is going to come out on top.
This brings me to my next point. Maybe we, WVU students, don't hate Marshall enough. Perhaps we've been pampered too much by the success of the last few seasons that we have bigger things to worry about than a little in-state rivalry game.
I guarantee that Marshall has been thinking about this game since it was announced. I bet there is nothing the players and fans wearing those ugly green M's would like more than to destroy West Virginia's season, along with its dreams of a national title.
Let's face it; this is probably as close as Marshall is going to get to a bowl game. With the game being regionally televised, there is little that Marshall's head coach Mark Snyder is going to have to do to get his team motivated.
Rodriguez, on the other hand, may have to think of some clever psychological tricks to get his team pumped up for this game.
When the Mountaineers beat Virginia Tech in 2003, it was because a lackadaisical Hokie squad underestimated WVU's hunger and determination. And I'm sure everyone remembers last year's basketball game where Kevin Pittsnogle practically guaranteed victory, only to be upset by Marshall in the Toyota Classic.
Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that I think WVU is going to lose on Saturday, or that they don't have the mentality to handle a tough situation.
Teams that hope for national titles have to fight through this kind of thing.
But I will say that when those teams suit up, they will have 11 players on the field. And with first game jitters in the equation to compound the problem, the task in front of the Mountaineers may be a more serious accomplishment than one may think.
aaron.kendeall@mail.wvu.edu