Steve Dunlap knows too much.

Anybody with a Marshall connection would assume that.

After all, Dunlap is now West Virginia University's assistant head coach, as well as safeties coach, after spending last season as Marshall's defensive coordinator.

Therein lies the problem.

Dunlap could be an invaluable source of inside Marshall information as the Mountaineers prepare to host the Herd at 3:30 p.m. Saturday in the annual Friends of Coal Bowl game at Mountaineer Field in Morgantown.

But that's where the plot of this morality play takes a very unexpected twist.

WVU head coach Bill Stewart -- ever the champion of sportsmanship -- refuses to compete that way.

"I have not picked Steve Dunlap's brain because No. 1, Steve Dunlap wouldn't tell us any secrets because he's a professional," said Stewart.

"We won't have a meeting and ask him to tell us everything he knows about the players. We don't do that. Maybe some coaches do, but I was trained by coaches like Don Nehlen not to do that.

"Take it off the film. Coach how you're supposed to coach. And let it go.

"Steve did say this. He said that Mark Cann (Marshall quarterback) is a heck of a winner, a good kid and a son of a coach. That's all I need to know."

Surprised? Get in line.

It's a pleasant change to encounter such a seemingly archaic concept as fair play in the sports world.

Unfortunately, such coaches as Bill Belichick and Rich Rodriguez are the rule, while the Stewarts and Nehlens are the exception.

Stewart would choose to lose the right way, rather than win the wrong way.

That is a refreshing outlook. ... especially in this in-state rivalry series.

I seem to recall a former WVU head coach sending a spy to a Marshall spring practice in hopes of gleaning a few morsels of inside information.

Thank goodness the Marshall-WVU series now rests on firmer moral ground.

• The long and short of it is WVU has lost two consecutive games because of third down.

Third-and-long. Third-and-medium. Third-and-short.

It hasn't mattered much. The Mountaineers aren't converting any of them very well.

And Stewart believes he knows why.

"I learned a long time ago," said Stewart, "with all those tailbacks we had at North Carolina, Thomas Haskins down at VMI and Napoleon McCallum at Navy, you get a good back to the line of scrimmage, you let him work.

"We didn't get him to the line of scrimmage. That's what we didn't do. That's what we have to correct and that's what we're going to correct.

"Somebody says Noel Devine (5-foot-8, 170 pounds) is too little and Jock Sanders (5-8, 175) is too little, I disagree. If you miss a block, you miss a block.

"We're not in panic mode."

Perhaps, but in the meantime a big back solution has appeared in the unlikely form of backup quarterback Jarrett Brown -- all 6-foot-4, 220 pounds of him.

"Jarrett is going to play (against Marshall)," said Stewart. "We don't know if he's going to play quarterback or where he is going to play, but he's going to play. He needs to get on the field.

"I've talked to both he and the staff about him playing I-formation back. Putting that big rascal back there might be advantageous to us."

Your move, Mark Snyder.

Ah, we're a day away from kickoff and the chess match is starting already.

Chuck Landon is a sports columnist for The Herald-Dispatch. Call him at 526-2827. E-mail him at clandon@herald-dispatch.com.

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