Ray Marshall

Ray Marshall

Linebacker Ray Marshall -- the most valuable player of the 1975 Peach Bowl -- almost wasn’t the most valuable player of the 1975 Peach Bowl. The Clairton, Pa., native, spent two years at nearby Potomac State and entertained several college offers to play both football and basketball. And of them, West Virginia wasn't at the top of his list.

“I had offers to play both football and basketball at either Maryland or Cincinnati, but I wound up coming to West Virginia,” he said. “I wasn’t really all that interested in West Virginia at the time.”

But Coach Bobby Bowden’s persistence finally won out. Marshall was the leading tackler on Potomac State’s 1973 team where he earned junior college All-America honors. The 6-foot-1-inch, 205-pound defender says strong safety was the position he was pegged to play in college but soon switched to linebacker when he arrived at WVU.

“I think they liked the talent they had in the secondary,” he said.

“Ray Marshall was not that big as a linebacker but he was tough and was a quick as could be,” remembered Chuck Klausing, West Virginia’s defensive coordinator in 1975.

Injuries limited Marshall to just eight games in 1974, but he still managed to produce 71 tackles, eight tackles for losses and three quarterback sacks. He says a badly sprained ankle that season kept him from covering the field the way he was accustomed.

“I’d play until I hurt my ankle and then I would come out and go back in – that kind of thing,” he said.

Marshall believes the ‘74 defense had a lot of talent with players like Jeff Merrow and Tree Adams at defensive tackle, John Spraggins at defensive end and Marcus Mauney in the secondary, but it just couldn’t put everything together.

“Things weren’t clicking,” he said. “Key people weren’t healthy. I knew a lot of other guys had been hurt so that great class that Bobby Bowden brought in was decimated somewhat.”

Marshall believes improved health and the addition of secondary coach Greg Williams were the two main reasons the defense played much better in 1975.

“They called (Williams) the ‘Mole-Man’ and the defensive backs really liked him,” said Marshall. “We had talented people before in the secondary and he made a big difference.”

Marshall says he played the entire ‘75 season with a slight fracture in the back of his neck that didn’t fully heal until after the Peach Bowl. Still, he was able to lead the defense with 175 tackles, including 102 solos.

“I had several x-rays after the season and they could see where it had been fractured,” Marshall said.

Marshall believes two important moments that year came during West Virginia’s key road wins at Cal and at SMU.

“The Cal game was a big confidence builder,” he admitted. “Chuck Muncie had a 45-yard run on the first play and I don’t think he got 60 the rest of the game on about 25 carries. The rest of the game he was pretty shut down.

“And we had a lot of injuries coming out of the SMU game,” he added. “I hurt my sternum against SMU and I wasn’t even sure I was going to be able to play against Penn State.”

According to Marshall, injuries played a big part in Penn State’s blowout 39-0 victory over the Mountaineers in State College.

“Our whole defensive line was out for Penn State and we were thin,” he said. “We couldn’t afford to lose two starters much less four. We lost them all.”

Marshall believes the toll of winning the SMU game and absorbing the blowout loss at Penn State made West Virginia ripe for a homecoming upset loss to Tulane.

“They caught us at a good time,” said Marshall. “We just couldn’t seem to score and we had some people banged up from the SMU and Penn State games and we were a little deflated.”

By the time West Virginia faced North Carolina State in the Peach Bowl, Marshall says the defense was healthy and well rested.

“We were very well prepared. We played well in every phase and our defensive line was healthy,” he said.

Marshall set the tone at the start of the second quarter when he dropped North Carolina State running back Scott Wade for a nine-yard loss on a screen pass. It was a play West Virginia prepared for all week and one Marshall could never quite seem to get right in practice.

But in the game it was a different story.

“He just unloaded on the guy,” said Donnie Young, WVU’s linebackers coach at the time. “He killed him.”

Linebacker Steve Dunlap, who lined up next to Marshall, had a ready explanation.

“Ray liked the games,” he laughed.

Marshall also made the key play of the game late in the fourth quarter when North Carolina State was driving for the go-ahead score. Marshall sacked Wolfpack quarterback Dave Buckey for a nine-yard loss that forced a long third-down try N.C. State was unable to convert.

“There was a particular defense that kind of featured me in a way to get to more places,” said Marshall. “That helped me a lot.”

Following Marshall’s sack, West Virginia was able to regain possession of the football when Tom Pridemore intercepted a Buckey desperation pass on fourth down. The Mountaineers were able to run out the clock for its first bowl win since 1969. The victory elevated West Virginia into the Top 20 for just the fifth time in school history.

Today, Marshall is a lawyer living in Winston-Salem, N.C. He received his law degree from Wake Forest in 1989 and a son, Laymarr, played running back at Duke a few years ago.

“I’m proud of what we did,” Marshall said. “We were a scrappy team, especially on defense. We had a lot more weapons on offense. Bobby Bowden is an offensive guy and he’ll load up on offense – he’s done that wherever he’s been.

“But we played tough.”