I wasn’t there, but I read stories and listened to the interview from Saturday’s postgame. I was on Sunday’s conference call and I again read stories today that made this point.

Bill Stewart had not mentioned Marshall by name and had instead referred to the Thundering Herd as the “team down south” or the “in-state rival.” He even seemed to be going out of his way to do so.

Well, Oll Schembechler was at it again Monday and twice in his opening statement of the Big East teleconference avoided the word Marshall.

The first question asked him if the “team down south” and “in-state rival” stuff was intentional.

“They’re south of us, they’re the team in our state,” Stewart said. “It’s big. Big, in my opinion, for bragging rights for another year.”

As a follow up, Stewart was again asked if he was doing this on purpose.

“No.”

Storyline!

Or not. At the end, Stewart was talking about the brief break from Big East play and trying to downplay it as much as he could — likely because he’s going to be asked about it at least 12 more times this week.

“We have Marshall,” he said. “An in-state game is just like a conference game to us.”

Damn!