Norfolk State University Spartins come to Morgantown on Saturday.

So who are these guys?  They are an FCS school with some football tradition.  They play in the MEAC Conference.  This is the first ever meeting between WVU and NSU.  There QB, Chris Walley,  was named the MEAC player of the week leading the Spartins to an opening day victory over Virginia State.  He completed 25 of 29 passes for 255 yards and 2 touchdowns.  He also was able to get it done on the ground rushing 10 times for 42 yards.   Defensively, The Spartins had returned their top five tacklers from a unit that was 3rd best in the MEAC and 6th best in FCS Nationally.  First team All MEAC Defensive lineman, Josh Turner and Second Team All-MEAC Linebacker Corwin Hammond lead this unit with 46 and 76 tackles respectively.  They will attempt to force mistakes by the offense.   This Unit gave up only 15.6 points per game last season.  They continued that dominance against Virgina State giving up only giving up one field goal.  This weeks tilt though is going to be a huge step up in talent and speed.   My guess is that the points per game average is going to take a serious hit. 

 

Pete Adrian, a former Mountaineer football player is the Head Coach. A native of Brilliant, Ohio, Adrian lettered in five sports at Brilliant High School before attending West Virginia. At WVU, he played one year of freshman football (1966) before playing parts of three seasons on the varsity squad in 1967-69. An injury cut short his playing career as a Mountaineer, but he coached the Mountaineers’ freshman football team as a senior in 1969. He earned his bachelor’s degree from WVU in 1970.  Adrian’s four-year record at NSU plus the win last Saturday stands at 35-33.  He has lead NSU to back to back winning seasons for the first time in the schools Division I era.  He has chosen to run  a very similar offense to the Mountaineers.  It is geared to maximize on match-up problems.  Play the numbers game and attack.  The problem this weekend, is that WVU will likely line up a better athlete at every position so those match-up advantages may be hard to find. 

While I welcome Coach Adrian back to Morgantown.  I don't think that his business trip is going to go very well.  My guess is that he will be on the losing end of a 60+ point drubbing.  

• Game time is 1:05.
• That places the time for the Mountaineer Man trip at about 10:45.  
• Parking could get complicated so come early and prepare for a wonderful day in Morgantown. 

I can't wait to see about 65,000 of my friends at MPS for this second tilt of the season.  
Da Geek