Tale of the Tape: West Virginia vs Syracuse

This week SU battles the West Virginia Mountaineers. The teams will be battling for an Orange Tooth Tattoo.






Born on Date
WV: 1867 vs SU: 1870
Ottos Edge: WV… which was founded as the Agricultural College of West Virginia

You can find the schools in…

GPS (Location)
WV: Morgantown vs SU: Syracuse
Ottos Edge: SU… Morgantown was founded by Zackquill Morgan, son of Morgan Morgan

Those cities are located in the…

State Nickname
WV: Mountain State vs SU: Empire State
Ottos Edge: WV... which was once part of Virginia but broke away and stayed with the Union during the Civil War. Good for them. That damn Virginia is always causing problems (ACC mess).

Sticking with mountains…

Mountain Range
WV: Appalachian vs SU Adirondacks
Ottos Edge: SU... the Appalachians dont have everything the Adirondacks do, including people with teeth. WV is the only state entirely within the Appalachians .

Other WV geography…

WV is part North, part South, part East, and part Midwest . The state stretches as far North as Staten Island . The NE part has a connection to DC. The NW part along Ohio has a Midwestern feel. The Southern part shares with Kentucky and Virginia . The North is all about Pitt. So WV is the epitome of the NBE, all over the place.

And to get all over the place…

Commuting
WV: Morgantown Personal Rapid Transit System vs SU: Centro
Ottos Edge: Push... what we really need is a genuine, bona fide, six car monorail

While commuting you may read the…

School paper
WV: The Daily Athenaeum (DA) vs SU: Daily Orange (DO)
Ottos Edge: SU… the best place to read about SUs upset win

Or you may use your IPod to listen to…

Unofficial Song
WV: Country Roads vs SU: Remember the Name
Ottos Edge: WV... I hope Marrone will take SU FB home to the place it belongs

Which brings us to FB tradition…

First year of FB
WV: 1891 vs SU: 1889
Ottos Edge: SU… we have more history than them

All time wins
WV: 676 vs SU: 675
Ottos Edge: WV... damn they just past us last week.

National Titles
WV: None vs SU: One
Ottos Edge: SU... and that aint changing any time soon. West Virginia is the winningest team to have never won a national championship. BTW I am sure this isnt much of a shocker but WV is 13 time Rifle champs.

Big East titles
WV: 5 vs SU: 4
Ottos Edge: Push… its the BE, who cares?

Lambert Trophies
WV: 3 vs SU: 6
Ottos Edge: SU... too bad this isnt the trophy for a true Northeast Conference. Having SU, RU, UConn , BC , Pitt, Temple , PSU, Maryland , and WV all together would be almost heaven.

Bowl record
WV: 13-15 vs SU: 12-9-1
Ottos Edge: SU... we are better at winning the big one

All time great player
WV: Sam Huff vs SU: Jim Brown
Ottos Edge: SU... Huff will admit Brown is the best

Injured NFL QB
WV: Marc Bulger vs SU: McNabb
Ottos Edge: SU… at least McNabb has incentive to get back to his team

1980s QB
WV: Major Harris vs SU: Don McPherson
Ottos Edge: WV... he had a great career, too bad he didnt finish his major at WV and left school early.

Other QBs
WV: Rasheed Marshall, Jeff Hostetler, Darren Studstill, Pat White vs SU: Marvin Graves, Todd Philcox, Troy Nunes, Bill Hurley
Ottos Edge: WV... White and Marshall set BE records and Jeff won a SB, although Graves is a fan fave in WV.

RBs
WV: Adrian Murrell, Amos Zereoue, Avon Cobourne, Quincy Wilson, Steve Slaton vs SU: Jim Brown, Ernie Davis, Floyd Little, Joe Morris, Walter Reyes
Ottos Edge: SU… their RBs have names starting with “A” but ours are grade A.

Fullback
WV: Rat Rodgers vs SU: Larry Csonka
Ottos Edge: SU… whos he?

WRs
WV: Jerry Porter, Chris Henry, James Jett vs SU: Marvin Harrison, Art Monk, Rob Moore
Ottos Edge: SU… none of those WV guys turned out

LB
WV: Darryl Talley vs SU: Keith Bulluck
Ottos Edge: WV… I wouldn’t want to upset the Talley-Whackers so this goes to Spiderman

CB
WV: Pacman Jones vs SU: Will Allen
Ottos Edge: SU… Jones got the nickname for packing heat. Ironically WV has a top forensics program that was created with the help of the FBI. Maybe Jones and Henry can inspire the show CSI Morgantown.

Kicking great
WV: Mike Vanderjagt vs SU: Gary Anderson
Ottos Edge: SU... the Bills drafted Anderson and cut him. That didnt come back to haunt the Bills in 1990, did it? Then again he did cost the Vikings with his only missed FG in 1998. But to be fair he was long over due.

These players competed at…

No one, and I mean no one, comes into our house and pushes us around (Home Field)
WV: Mountaineer Field at Milan Peskar Stadium (63.5K) vs SU: Ernie Davis Legends Field at the Carrier Dome
Ottos Edge: WV... the lots around the Dome are not couch burning friendly

And inside the stadium…

Fans wear to games
WV: coon skin caps vs SU: metallic grey
Ottos Edge: SU… our fans are all committed to wearing the same thing

Which you cannot say about SUs unis…

Logo
WV: flying WV vs SU: block S
Ottos Edge: SU… we win for now until we change logos again

We also changed our…

Team Name
WV: Mountainqueers vs SU: Orange
Ottos Edge: SU… losing your manhood is better than taking on another manhood

From the team name we get the…

Mascot
WV: Mountaineer vs SU: Otto
Ottos Edge: SU... oranges are scary to toothless mountain men.

Another SU mascot…

Former coach
WV: Don Nehlen vs SU: Coach Mac
Ottos Edge: Push... they were 5-5 against each other

Sticking with coaches…
Ben Schwartwalder
WV: player vs SU: coach
Ottos Edge: SU... he had to come here to get a ring

Named after Ben…

Battle for the Schwartzwalder Trophy (Head to Head)
WV: 26 wins vs SU: 30 wins
Ottos Edge: WV... there are people alive who have never seen SU beat WV (we have lost 7 straight)

While we are rivals it is not a…

Main Rivalry
WV: Backyard Brawl vs SU: ....
Ottos Edge: WV... I wanna hate someone too. WV also plays the Friends of Coal Bowl (Marshall)

Speaking of hate…

FootBrawl
WV: lose 3 starting defenders vs SU: lose a bench player
Ottos Edge: SU... with a TD pass from Graves

Which made Graves practically WV…

Family
WV: Bowdens (Bobby former coach, Tommy and Terry Alumni) vs SU: Powells (Casey, Ryan, Mike)
Ottos Edge: SU... they brought the school 4 LAX titles

Families often go out for…

Let's put the women and children to bed and go lookin' for dinner! (Fine Dining)
WV: fresh kill from I-79 vs SU: Dino BBQ
Ottos Edge: SU... sorry I am a picky eater

And you can wash down that meal with…

Mountain Dew
WV: homemade whiskey vs SU: soft drink
Ottos Edge: WV... there is nothing soft about it.

All that caffeine will keep you up at night leaving you to watch…
Caine-Hackman Theory (alum you can see if you turn on your TV no matter what time it is)
WV: Don Knotts vs SU: Jerry Stiller
Ottos Edge: WV… Knotts claim to fame was appearing twice on Scooby Doo

Someone who turned knots in WV fans stomachs...

Former Alumnus HCing in CFB
WV: RRod vs SU: HCRE
Ottos Edge: SU… at least HCRE didnt leave his school behind

Sticking with coaching…
BBall coach
WV: Huggins vs SU: Boeheim
Ottos Edge: SU… Huggins makes hating WV BBall fun again

Staying with BBall…

BBall great
WV: Jerry West vs SU: Dave Bing
Ottos Edge: WV... both made the NBA's Top 50 all time but Jerry is 5th all time in points

While we are on rankings…

Edumacation
WV: Tier 3 (US News) vs SU: Tier 1
Ottos Edge: SU… they actually spell it edumacation

Zero Point Zero (famous alum who didnt graduate)
WV: Cheryl Hines (Curb Your Enthusiasm) vs SU: Vanessa Williams
Ottos Edge: WV… she musta gotten stuck in a car wash and missed class

Someone who was pro education…

JFK
WV: state handed to JFK by mob vs SU: spoke at commencement
Ottos Edge: SU… I wonder if that is the reason why Dome concessions has a monopoly on Half Dollars. I dont think they know what quarters are.

Someone who wants to know how many quarters you have…

Wrestling
WV: Mean Gene Okerlund vs SU: Mike Rotunda
Ottos Edge: SU… no one is meaner than I.R.S.

The meanest guy on the field…

Bobby Boucher (best current defender)
WV: Scooter Berry vs SU: Art Jones
Ottos Edge: SU... Arthur is better

And finally the category of the week...

Competitive Eater
WV: John Kruk (from WV) vs SU: Doug Marrone
Ottos Edge: SU... real men dont go on NutriSystem


And the Tattoo goes to...


The Syracuse Orange as they take it to WV and cruise to a win.