Marshall University Football Preview
Thundering Herd Hopes to Return to Winning Ways
In the 1990s, Marshall posted the highest winning percentage of any NCAA Division I program, winning 114 games and losing only 25. The Thundering Herd won the 1992 and 1996 national championship in Division I-AA, now called the Football Championship Subdivision. They also set a record in the FCS by advancing to the “Final Four” in six consecutive seasons. Jim Donnan coached the Herd from 1990 to 1995 before leaving for the Georgia Bulldogs and being replaced by Bobby Pruett. Donnan has just been named into the 2009 College Football Hall of Fame Class.
Marshall football moved to the Football Bowl Subdivision, Division I-A, in 1997 by joining the Mid-American Conference. Bobby Pruett’s team took the MAC by storm in winning the conference championship in 1997 with a team consisting of NFL stars Chad Pennington and Randy Moss. The Herd went undefeated in 1999, which led to a top 10 ranking in the final AP rankings. The following season is when Byron Leftwich took over as quarterback of the Herd and helped them win the MAC championship four years in a row.
When thinking of Marshall football from the past many think of the great plays from Pennington to Moss or the heroics of Leftwich returning injured to a game in which he had to be carried by his offensive line after each first down. Many also like to think of the huge upset over Xavier in Marshall’s season after losing their team and coaching staff to a tragic plane crash.
Troubles in Huntington
However, when thinking of Marshall football today there are not too many positive things to mention. Pruett left the team in the spring of 2005 with the cupboard pretty bare in talent and depth. With NCAA probations, scholarship reductions, and a decline in recruiting, Mark Snyder took over a team that has seen its better days. Marshall has had some good talent under Snyder, but he has only amassed a record of 16-31.
The latest news out of Huntington has seemed to only be negative. Leading rusher Darius Marshall and defensive back DeQuan Bembry were arrested on drug possession and intent to deliver and suspended from the team. Luckily it has since been proven that the charges were incorrect. Marshall has to be hoping that the charges will not be as serious since both of these players are big contributors on the field.
Season Preview
Quarterback Mark Cann played pretty shaky last season and the coaching staff has brought in some more options this offseason with two junior college transfers. They have some work to do with receivers since the talented Darius Passmore just graduated. Snyder has a lot of work to do to impress fans who still want results like those from the Pruett era and he will have a tough time in getting some big wins. He has some great opportunities this season that could make for some huge upsets with strong opponents in West Virginia and Virginia Tech. Those will be very hard games for the Herd to win, but if they could pull it off it would surely get them some national attention once again.
Marshall showed some good signs last year by taking a 14-point lead over the Wisconsin Badgers, but lost all of that momentum when they allowed Wisconsin to put up 51 points on them as they went scoreless for the remainder of the game. They also had wins over conference opponents Southern Miss, Memphis, and Houston. The problem is that those three wins were their only ones in the conference and they only won four total games in the season. The Herd lost seven of their last eight games last year, which must not happen again.
Snyder and the Herd have a lot to prove this season and it will be tough to do so, but not impossible in a current unpredictable Conference USA. Marshall has a long way to get back to the winning ways that it had under Pruett, but first Snyder needs to worry about the team being competitive enough just to contend to win a conference title.
Marshall should be able to pull off some more wins with the talent of running back Darius Marshall, tight end Cody Slate, and defensive lineman Albert McClellan, who was the Conference USA defensive player of the year back in 2006. The Herd should be good enough this season to end its four-year bowl drought and enjoy the team’s first winning season since 2003.
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