The Marshall-Virginia Tech game on Thursday has all the ingredients to be one of the best matchups this season of "our system vs. your system". Here's my breakdown of the meeting of two of the best-coached teams in the country in a Hatfields vs. McCoys matchup in the mountains of Virginia.

Family Trees

	Byron Leftwich is the latest in a line of great QBs at Marshall.

After suffering one of the worst disasters in college football history when it lost its entire team, staff and support system in a 1970 plane crash, Marshall has now become one of the top teams in the country. Coach Bob Pruett won a Division I-AA championship in 1996 and has four Mid-American Conference championships and five straight bowl appearances in his seven years at the helm.

The Thundering Herd won more games than any other team in the 1990s, every starting quarterback since 1987 has earned All-America, all-conference or player of the year honors and players such as Randy Moss and Troy Brown are among the big names to come out of Huntington.

Frank Beamer has also brought the Virginia Tech program to national prominence with his "Beamer Ball" philosophy. Nine bowl games, a national championship runner-up finish and consistent top-10 play have become old hat for the Hokies. Michael Vick, Bruce Smith and countless others have been developed at Tech. The Hokies are the premier special teams program in the country and Beamer himself directs this phase of the program.

Marshall offense vs. Virginia Tech defense
This game is a matchup of the classic spread offense against the old-fashioned eight-man front. Marshall features the fast-break, no-huddle offense with outstanding receivers and a great quarterback in Byron Leftwich, who with a great performance can become the leading candidate for the Heisman Trophy.

Virginia Tech's defense is built on speed, quickness and pressure, so Marshall will have to protect quarterback Byron Leftwich and limit the number of times he is hit not only on sacks but as he is throwing.The Herd's running game will look to hit some draw plays and quick traps to stop the Hokies' penetration, but don't look for them to run the ball a lot.

Marshall will have to score touchdowns and not settle for field goals. The big play must happen and having Darius Watts back in the lineup will be a plus for the Herd. Look for Watts to go in motion to make it harder for Tech to double-team him. The offense will also need to use tight end Jason Rader on short drag routes and delays to get first downs and move the chains.

Leftwich will have to move in the pocket to neutralize the Hokies' blitzes, using sprint-outs, roll-outs and bootlegs to negate some of the speed of Tech, and he will also have to be cautious of turnovers. The Herd cannot turn the ball over on their side of the field and give Virginia Tech easy scores.

The Hokies will have to mix up the coverage looks they give Leftwich, utilizing some man-under coverage with the free safety doubling on Watts and using some two-deep coverage to stop the short routes. They will also have to limit the big play and prevent runs after the catch.

But most of all Tech will have to pound Leftwich. He's very strong and hard to put on the ground, so the Hokies will have to get him down when they get a clean shot at him.

Virginia Tech offense vs. Marshall defense

	Lee Suggs figures to run straight at the Marshall defense.

Virginia Tech will look to establish the rushing game to make things easier for new starter Bryan Randall, keeping long-yardage situations to a minimum and using one-man routes in the passing game to make things simple. Randall will have to hit the open man on play-action passes because Marshall will over-commit to the run in this game.

Tech is going to run right at Marshall on offense, mixing in powers, sweeps and isolation plays for Lee Suggs and Kevin Jones.

The Thundering Herd will try to counter that with lots of inside and outside pressure from linebackers. Marshall has to sell the ranch here, bringing corners off the edge and everybody else except Marco the team mascot.

The defense will have to be sure tacklers and eliminate big plays by gang-tackling, and will also try to create negative-yardage plays. And they must also win in third-down situations because every first down will put the Herd offense 10 yards further from the end zone.

Special Teams
Everyone knows about the special teams dominance of Virginia Tech, and that could easily be the difference in this game.

The best thing that could happen to Marshall would be not having to punt too much because the Hokies' blocks and returns will give the Herd fits. Marshall was terrible on returns and coverage last year on both kickoffs and punts.

Coaching
Bob Pruett will tell his team before this game that it has to expect to win. He will have to have the he players believing in each other, that they can do it together.

It will be a 60-minute game with peaks and valleys and Pruett will stress the need to hang in there, avoiding momentum for Virginia Tech by reacting to sudden-change situations and creating Marshall's own momentum by creating those situations.

Frank Beamer, on the other hand, will sell the fact that the Hokies are in their own house and will need to use the crowd. One way to do that will be to create havoc in the kicking game.

He will be telling his players to be patient because they cannot stop everything, and Beamer has to get his guys believing they are the better team.

ESPN.com college football analyst Jim Donnan will be taking part in chats and making observations on Saturdays as part of College GameDay Online.