File photo courtesy of BlueGoldNews.com WVU quarterback Rasheed Marshall looks for running room at Wisconsin in 2002.

MORGANTOWN — Timing, they say, is everything in sports.

In the case of quarterback Rasheed Marshall and running back Adrian Murrell, two of the seven athletes being inducted into the WVU Athletic Hall of Fame at the far too early hour of 9 a.m. Saturday in the Caperton Athletic Center before the noon Kansas game, they were able to enjoy the fruits of their greatness as players but performed more in setting up some of the greatest teams in school history rather than playing for them.

One wouldn’t put it that they were too early for greatness.

Instead, it is fair to say, team greatness came too late for them.

Murrell played his way into the Hall of Fame in the two years — 1991 and 1992 — in which Don Nehlen was building toward his 1993 that wound up 11-0 in the regular season before a humbling 41-7 New Year’s loss to Florida in the Sugar Bowl.

In Murrell’s two seasons after coming all the way to Morgantown from a celebrated high school career in Hawaii after Nehlen was tipped about him from alumni, he was a tireless ball-toting machine who rushed for 904 yards on 201 carries as a junior and then 1,145 yards while averaging 5.2 yards per rush as a senior.

The best the Mountaineers, facing a killer schedule both years, could make out of his performances was 6-5 and 5-4-2.

Marshall came along in time to show the Big East that Rich Rodriguez’s spread offense, built around the skills of an athletic, run/pass quarterback, would prove to be devastating as the Mountaineers put together seasons of 9-4, 8-5 and 8-4 in 2002, 2003 and 2004 before Marshall graduated, heading for the NFL.

By that time, Rich Rod had his offense perfected and his personnel at the highest of levels with Pat White in Marshall’s role at quarterback and joined by Steve Slaton to put together years of 11-1, 11-2 and 11-2 complete with bowl victories and national rankings.

Murrell left WVU after his junior season and would be drafted in the 5th round of the 1993 NFL draft with the 120th overall pick by the New York Jets and would outplay his draft positions as he put together three 1,000-yard rushing seasons. Two were with the Jets in 1996 and 1997 and one with Arizona as he gave them a rushing offense and for his career, he rushed for 5,199 yards and 23 NFL touchdowns.

“For me [the draft] was a bittersweet process. From what was told to me and what my rankings were, I was going to be a first or second-day pick. I showed fairly well in the Combines and the Senior Bowl,” Murrell said on the Classactsports.com podcast a few years back.

“All things pointed to me being drafted in the first or second round. For it not happening, but still getting an opportunity to go to the NFL was a lifelong dream. I took that as I have an opportunity here and I want to see if I can make the best of that opportunity.”

As noted, Murrell’s Mountaineers faced difficult schedules in his two years, facing Pitt, Virginia Tech, Maryland and Penn State along with Miami when the U was at the height of its greatness.

In that 1992 season, Murrell rushed for 141 yards on 29 carries and two touchdowns in a 44-6 walkover of Pitt, added 157 yards on 26 carries against the Hokies in a 16-7 victory, 127 yards on 21 tries and a pair of TDs against Maryland in his most memorable game, a 34-33 come from behind victory in which he caught two fourth-quarter TD passes, including one of 20 yards to win the game with 1:24 left.

He even managed 76 yards on 19 carries against No. 1 Miami’s vicious defense in a game that the Hurricanes won, 35-23, in the Orange Bowl as Heisman Trophy winner Gino Torretta threw for 363 yards and 3 touchdowns.

As it was when he was at West Virginia, his efforts weren’t converted into success on the scoreboard as the 1996 Jets were 1-15, losing their first eight games before beating Arizona, then losing the next seven.

That they did beat Arizona, though, probably helped the Cardinals decide to trade for him after the 1997 season and he provided them with his last 1,000-yard season. The Arizona game was his best as an NFL player, gaining 199 yards and missing a 200-yard game by 36 inches.

Marshall, of course, came to WVU out of Brashear High in Pittsburgh, which sent another pretty good quarterback to WVU — a guy named Major Harris — who made it all the way to the College Football Hall of Fame. While it seemed certain Marshall would follow him here, Marshall admits he made some visits but never seriously toyed with going elsewhere.

“This week has been a lot of thinking and a lot of reflecting,” Marshall told MetroNews. “And here I am. It’s all happening on Saturday. Every single summer, just sitting around and hearing the classes announced, you can’t help but think, ‘I wonder when my day is coming, if it ever comes.'”

It did come about a couple of months ago. Marshall, who now serves as Director of Player Relations for the football program, came to work one morning and was asked to join Coach Neal Brown and Wren Baker in the coach’s office.

He had no idea what they wanted and when he went in he admitted they looked concerned leaving him wondering just what he had done as “they looked right through me.”

But they were just pranking him, informing him he had been elected to the Hall of Fame, which he accepted as the highlight of his career.

Marshall spent three seasons starting at WVU and ran for 2,040 yards with 24 touchdowns while completing 433 of 795 passes for 5,558 yards and 45 TDs.

Former tight end Anthony Becht from the Don Nehlen years also has been elected but has a conflict as he does color commentary on New York Jets games and will not be in attendance, planning to be honored in a separate ceremony before the Iowa State game on Oct. 12.

Also being inducted in the 2024 class is men’s basketball player Chris Brooks, women’s basketball player Liz Repella, men’s cross country and track runner Bob Donker, baseball’s Mark Landers and swimmer Bette Hushla.