You'd be hard-pressed to find someone who knows the ins-and-outs of Division 1 college football in the state of West Virginia better than Tony Gibson.
Gibson is a West Virginia native, played for current West Virginia head coach Rich Rodriguez at Glenville State in the 1990's before serving on Rodriguez's staff at West Virginia from 2001-2007, during the veteran head coach's first stint with the Mountaineers. He would then return from 2013-2018 to serve on Dana Holgorsen's staff.
Now, Gibson is serving as the head coach for the Marshall Thundering Herd, the only other Division 1 program in the state aside from WVU. And now that he has control of the Herd, he seems eager to renew the former rivalry on the gridiron between Marshall and West Virginia.
Tony Gibson calls for renewal of Friends of Coal Bowl
Gibson gave some recent quotes indicating that he would be in support of renewing the rivalry with the Mountaineers, which has been played just 12 times, but which Gibson coached in multiple times while on Rodriguez's staff. But he does not believe Marshall will receive any interest from the Mountaineers in playing the game.
129 days until Marshall football pic.twitter.com/BWztv20xGa
— Marshall Gumby (@GumbyMU) April 29, 2026
"For your money game, your Power 4 game, it makes the most sense for us to play WVU," Gibson said. "Obviously they are not going to play us, they don't want to play us. If it's a 2-for-1 deal we'd be on board. But obviously they are not going to play."
Gibson does seem to be correct that there isn't a ton of interest on WVU's behalf to play the game, but as he pointed out, it does make sense financially – and not just for Marshall, but for the state as a whole. How would you feel about a return of the Friends of Coal Bowl?
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