Friends of Coal Bowl
Encyclopedia
| West Virginia | Marshall |
|---|---|
| (11) | (0) |
| 1911 1914 1915 1923 1997 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 |
The Friends of Coal Bowl is an annual college football
College football
College football refers to American football played by teams of student athletes fielded by American universities, colleges, and military academies, or Canadian football played by teams of student athletes fielded by Canadian universities...
game played between the West Virginia University Mountaineers and the Marshall University Thundering Herd. The game is sponsored by the Friends of Coal
Friends of Coal
Friends of Coal is a West Virginia-based political advocacy group funded by the West Virginia Coal Association, a trade organization. The group offers free membership and has asserted its reach spans 37 states, three provinces in Canada and nine other countries....
, a coal industry trade group. Planned to be a seven year series, the Friends of Coal Bowl was organized by the West Virginia Coal Association at the urging of West Virginia Governor Joe Manchin
Joe Manchin
Joseph "Joe" Manchin III is the junior United States Senator representing West Virginia. Manchin, a Democrat, was Governor of West Virginia from 2005 to 2010...
. West Virginia has never lost to Marshall.
The first game of the series was played in Morgantown, West Virginia
Morgantown, West Virginia
Morgantown is a city in Monongalia County, West Virginia. It is the county seat of Monongalia County. Placed along the banks of the Monongahela River, Morgantown is the largest city in North-Central West Virginia, and the base of the Morgantown metropolitan area...
at Mountaineer Field on September 2, 2006 and was won by the Mountaineers 42-10.
The trophy awarded to the winning team is called the Governor's Cup. It will be presented by the West Virginia Governor and housed at the university which wins the annual matchup. Made completely in West Virginia, the trophy is made of a carbon base, a glass pedestal, and football-shaped piece of coal enclosed in glass. It was designed by Rick Mogielski.
History
Despite both teams being from the state of West VirginiaWest Virginia
West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian and Southeastern regions of the United States, bordered by Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Ohio to the northwest, Pennsylvania to the northeast and Maryland to the east...
, hard feelings and politics kept the teams from playing for the most part. Teams from West Virginia University and Marshall University had only played five previous times before the beginning of the series in 2006.
The 1997 match-up is often thought of as the start of "hard feelings" between the two schools. When Marshall moved to Division 1A in 1997, their first game was against WVU. WVU jumped out to a 28-3 lead in the first half. Marshall led that game 31-28 going to the fourth quarter with Randy Moss
Randy Moss
Randy Gene Moss is a former American football wide receiver. He was drafted by the Minnesota Vikings in the first round of the 1998 NFL Draft...
leading the show. However, two touchdowns in the final quarter gave WVU the victory. At that point, bad blood arose between the two administrations. WVU claims Marshall backed out of 3 future games. Marshall claims they were never scheduled. The schools couldn't come to an agreement to play again. Former Marshall head coach Bob Pruett
Bob Pruett
Bob Pruett is best known as the former head football coach of the Marshall University Thundering Herd for nine seasons from 1996 to 2004...
tried to get the WVU administration to agree to a series, but WVU stood by their stance of wanting 3 out of 4 games to be played in Morgantown
Morgantown, West Virginia
Morgantown is a city in Monongalia County, West Virginia. It is the county seat of Monongalia County. Placed along the banks of the Monongahela River, Morgantown is the largest city in North-Central West Virginia, and the base of the Morgantown metropolitan area...
, while Marshall demanded 1 out of every 3 be played in Huntington
Huntington, West Virginia
Huntington is a city in Cabell and Wayne counties in the U.S. state of West Virginia, along the Ohio River. Most of the city is in Cabell County, for which it is the county seat. A small portion of the city, mainly the neighborhood of Westmoreland, is in Wayne County. Its population was 49,138 at...
. West Virginia Governor Joe Manchin
Joe Manchin
Joseph "Joe" Manchin III is the junior United States Senator representing West Virginia. Manchin, a Democrat, was Governor of West Virginia from 2005 to 2010...
got the schools together and hashed out the current format, which includes four games in Morgantown, two in Huntington, and the remaining game will be decided by who wins two out of the first three games. The settlement finally got the only two Division 1A schools in the state to play each other.
West Virginia won the first match-up of the new series 42-10 in 2006, and the next one in Huntington
Huntington, West Virginia
Huntington is a city in Cabell and Wayne counties in the U.S. state of West Virginia, along the Ohio River. Most of the city is in Cabell County, for which it is the county seat. A small portion of the city, mainly the neighborhood of Westmoreland, is in Wayne County. Its population was 49,138 at...
48-23 in 2007. West Virginia defeated Marshall in 2008, 27-3, after losing two consecutive games to begin the season 1-2, making their record 2-2. In 2009, WVU and Marshall faced off for the fourth time in the Friends of Coal Bowl, with WVU coming out on top 24-7. In 2010, WVU and Marshall faced off in Huntington. Facing a 21-6 fourth-quarter deficit, WVU outscored Marshall 15-0 on drives of 96 and 98 yards in the final 8:28 of the game. In overtime WVU took the lead with a field goal and won 24-21 when Marshall's kicker Tyler Warner missed a 39-yard field goal attempt.
West Virginia will host the next Friends of Coal Bowl in 2012.
Future
West Virginia and Marshall have discussed extending the series, but negotiations have resulted in an impasse. Marshall, despite having never won in the series, would like to have an alternating site format for revenue purposes, while West Virginia would prefer a "two-for-one" arrangement.On September 10, 2010, Governor Manchin announced that the series would continue but no further details came from the announcement. In June, 2011 WVU athletic director Oliver Luck
Oliver Luck
Oliver Luck is the athletic director of West Virginia University, his alma mater. Luck is a retired American football player who spent four seasons in the National Football League as a quarterback for the Houston Oilers . He was also the first president and general manager of the Houston Dynamo...
stated on the instate program Decision Makers that there were no plans to extend the series in the near future. Luck later went on to say "The expansion of the Big East will make it a little more challenging [to schedule Marshall]," says Luck. "Not impossible, but a little more challenging. It very well may be that we can only do a Marshall game every now and then as opposed to every year or four out of five years." WVU's out of conference schedule is now full until the year 2015, making 2016 the first possible date a new series could start. When asked if talks had taken place to renew the series WVU's Deputy Director of Athletics Mike Parsons state "No, not really. [We've met about other sports but] there's been no conversations with football."
Game results
West Virginia victories are shaded ██ blue. If Marshall were to win, their victories would be shaded ██ green.| Date | Site | Winning team | Losing team | Series | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All-time | FOC Bowl | |||||||
| Pre-Friends of Coal Bowl games | ||||||||
| October 28, 1911 | Morgantown Morgantown, West Virginia Morgantown is a city in Monongalia County, West Virginia. It is the county seat of Monongalia County. Placed along the banks of the Monongahela River, Morgantown is the largest city in North-Central West Virginia, and the base of the Morgantown metropolitan area... |
West Virginia | 17 | Marshall Marshall University Marshall University is a coeducational public research university in Huntington, West Virginia, United States founded in 1837, and named after John Marshall, the fourth Chief Justice of the United States.... |
15 | WVU 1-0 | ||
| October 3, 1914 | Morgantown | West Virginia | 20 | Marshall | 0 | WVU 2-0 | ||
| November 6, 1915 | Huntington Huntington, West Virginia Huntington is a city in Cabell and Wayne counties in the U.S. state of West Virginia, along the Ohio River. Most of the city is in Cabell County, for which it is the county seat. A small portion of the city, mainly the neighborhood of Westmoreland, is in Wayne County. Its population was 49,138 at... |
West Virginia | 92 | Marshall | 6 | WVU 3-0 | ||
| October 20, 1923 | Morgantown | West Virginia | 81 | Marshall | 0 | WVU 4-0 | ||
| August 30, 1997 | Morgantown | West Virginia | 42 | Marshall | 31 | WVU 5-0 | ||
| Friends of Coal Bowl games | ||||||||
| September 2, 2006 | Morgantown | West Virginia | 42 | Marshall | 10 | WVU 6-0 | WVU 1-0 | |
| September 8, 2007 | Huntington | West Virginia | 48 | Marshall | 23 | WVU 7-0 | WVU 2-0 | |
| September 27, 2008 | Morgantown | West Virginia | 27 | Marshall | 3 | WVU 8-0 | WVU 3-0 | |
| October 17, 2009 | Morgantown | West Virginia | 24 | Marshall | 7 | WVU 9-0 | WVU 4-0 | |
| September 10, 2010 | Huntington | West Virginia | 24 | Marshall | 21 | WVU 10-0 | WVU 5-0 | |
| September 4, 2011† | Morgantown | West Virginia | 34 | Marshall | 13 | WVU 11-0 | WVU 6-0 | |
| September 1, 2012 | Morgantown | Marshall at West Virginia | ||||||
†