West Virginia-Marshall Recapalooza!

Well, that was close...

Geno Smith looked like a star in the making tonight. His passing stats: 32-45-316-1-0, which was remarkable considering the constant barrage of pressure he felt from the Marshall blitz, which was aided by the spectacularly-awful play of his offensive line, which appeared to have more holes than a Singapore hooker.

One lost fumble aside, Noel Devine again did nothing to disqualify himself from Heisman contention 23-112-1, but without a breakout performance soon, he may find himself on the outside looking in to the Downtown Athletic Club come December. Let's just say he's not winning any awards with his relatively dull, workman-like performances.

Some instant analysis and recaps from around the interweb:

West Virginia Escapes in OT [ESPN | Big East Blog]
No. 23 WVU rallies, escapes Marshall upset in OT [ESPN.com]
Full Box Score [ESPN.com]
Smith, No. 23 WVU clip rival Marshall, 24-21 (OT) [SI.com]

Apparently the AP started writing their recap early and, forgot to change the team records:

"Brian Anderson threw three touchdown passes for Marshall (1-1) and the Thundering Herd appeared to have the outcome in hand after jumping ahead 21-6 early in the fourth.

West Virginia (1-1) twice drove more than 90 yards for a touchdown down the stretch, including Smith's 5-yard TD toss to Will Johnson with 12 seconds left. Smith then threw to Jock Sanders in the back of the end zone on the 2-point conversion try to send the game into overtime tied at 21-21."

Haha. Links from ESPN recap and SI recap.
(UPDATE: ESPN and SI have both updated their websites with the correct records.)

Also news of note from the Friends of Coal Bowl, Gov. Joe Manchin announced that the rivalry game would be extended for 10 more years, now to run through 2022. The sound you hear is the collective groan of Mountaineer fans everywhere. I personally do not think this rivalry is helping our program, but our play on the field has done little in recent years to lead anyone to believe that our program is on a different level than the Herd. As much as we don't want it to, don't expect this game to disappear from the WVU schedule for a looooooong time.

In other Mountaineer news, WVU legend Pat White signed a minor league baseball contract with the Kansas City Royals. Let me join the rest of Mountaineer Nation in wishing Pat the best of luck in his future endeavors in the MLB.

- Grey Bush