Mountaineers v. Thundering Herd or Cat v. Mouse? I say both and so says defensive co-coordinator Keith Patterson. A meal has been made of Marshall and its super duper top secret offense, but strip away all the intrigue and all the stickers we’ve had fun applying and it’s still pretty simple for WVU: Play, observe, adjust and try not to screw up too many things.

What’s interesting about all first games, but especially this one, is that these two teams have spent a lot of time on the game and that’s going to be a factor, in some regard, Saturday, if not in performance, than in reliance.

Marshall did whatever Marshall did in Oregon, and I’m fully prepared to admit it’s not nearly as big of a deal as it’s been played to be, but WVU’s defense spent an entire spring, offseason and preseason installing and refining a new defense with a lot of new players. Those Mountaineers have tried very hard to be very good at things and, ideally, would float along those to the shore Saturday afternoon.

There’s going to be this battle, though, to succumb to and to resist the urge to change. Far more likely than not, there are going to be bad plays and discouraging results and WVU’s coaches will huddle whenever there is an opportunity and discuss what or who needs changed. But when does a team go away from what it’s worked so long at and how does a team adapt to make sure it can stay in what it knows so well? There is no easy answer.

“Nobody knows going into the first game,” Coach Dana Holgorsen said. “You can assume all you want to, but the bigger thing for game one is in-game adjustments, which I’m confident our coaches are going to be very aware of and alert to what is going on on the field, to the point where they can see what’s going on and then talk about how we need to attack it either offensively or defensively and get it communicated to our players so they can adjust what they’re doing.”