10 College Football Teams That Will Take a Major Step Back in 2015

[Marine03]

Found this on Bleacher Report:

We are #6, ECU #4

Key departures: DE Arnold Blackmon, QB Rakeem Cato, LB Neville Hewitt, LB Jermaine Holmes, WR Tommy Shuler

Every major spike in Marshall's performance over the past 20 years has been tied to a big-time quarterback, the latest being record-setter Rakeem Cato. Now that he is moving on, along with huge chunks of the Thundering Herd's underrated defense, another fallback appears on the horizon in Huntington.

Cato, a four-year starter, threw for 14,079 yards and 131 touchdowns in his career, including 3,903 yards and 40 TDs in 2014. His career passing numbers rank eighth and tied for fourth in FBS history, respectively, and Cato holds the FBS record for consecutive games with a touchdown pass with 46.

Whoever replaces Cato won't have Marshall's top receiver at his disposal, as Tommy Shuler (1,138 yards, 9 TDs) has also moved on. The offense might become far more run-oriented in 2015, with juniors Devon Johnson and Steward Butler bringing back 2,765 yards and 24 TDs.

But with six starters moving on from a defense that ranked 32nd in yards allowed in 2014, Marshall will likely find itself in some shootouts next season. That's not the recipe for a running team, or one without an experienced quarterback to work with.

 

[redsfan5590]

I don't buy it. Maybe I'm being a Homer, I don't think anyone would ever accuse me of that. But we are fine on defense with plenty of depth and young talent. We lose some key players but I think we will be ok. We bring back one of the best running backs in college football. It will come down to the QB. If birdsong or whoever it is, can produce well enough to keep the d from selling out on the run we will be good on offense. We have some of the best young receivers we've ever had. Tommy won't be missed in the long run (outside of the obvious leadership we miss from him). Step back maybe, major step back? No. With a week schedule next year I say we win 10-11 games next year. Conference championship game for the 3rd straight year if we can find a way to win in bowling green

 

[Catfanatic1979v1]

We just need a QB and to improve our run defense.

 

[flairforherd]

Originally posted by redsfan5590:
Conference championship game for the 3rd straight year if we can find a way to win in bowling green

Nevermind, I just realized you meant Bowling Green, KY, not OH.

 

[BleedsGreen33]

Yes we llse Cato but I have faith in our QB corp right now.

We have a loaded backfield to take the burden off of a first time starter.

Yes we lose Shuler but I believe Foster to have a lot of promise with more soeed and athleticism than Shuler. Couple him with McManus, AJL, Beal, Yuracheck, Gator, Knight, Hunt our QB will have plenty of targets.

For me the biggest key is going to be who replaces Jasperse and how effectice they will be.

Defense is fine.

IMO 9 wins is our floor and another run at 13-0 is not out of the question.

 

[SuperAnjario]

Originally posted by flairforherd:

Originally posted by redsfan5590:
Conference championship game for the 3rd straight year if we can find a way to win in bowling green

Nevermind, I just realized you meant Bowling Green, KY, not OH.

There's a chance that we play WKU in Huntington again.

 

[redsfan5590]

Originally posted by SuperAnjario:

Originally posted by flairforherd:

Originally posted by redsfan5590:
Conference championship game for the 3rd straight year if we can find a way to win in bowling green

Nevermind, I just realized you meant Bowling Green, KY, not OH.

There's a chance that we play WKU in Huntington again.

How's that? Because of UAB leaving?

 

[SuperAnjario]

Originally posted by redsfan5590:

Originally posted by SuperAnjario:

Originally posted by flairforherd:

Originally posted by redsfan5590:
Conference championship game for the 3rd straight year if we can find a way to win in bowling green

Nevermind, I just realized you meant Bowling Green, KY, not OH.

There's a chance that we play WKU in Huntington again.

How's that? Because of UAB leaving?

Everything up in the air. We had an unbalanced schedule this year AND UAB left. There's no way we'll travel to WKU and MTSU in the same year once everything sorts out. We could this year, but who knows what this year's schedule will look like now?

 

[herdalicious]

Calm down guys, its Bleacher Report - a bunch of message board people writing posts in article form and pretending like they're Sports Illustrated. Check out the line about Johnson and Butler's combined yardage - what are the chances the author knows the breakdown of those yards, or who the starter was.

Don't bite the click bait.

 

[ShadySpring]

Maybe im crazy but i think we will be better next year as long as we have good QB play like i think we will. Im looking for a undefeated season possibly one loss. We had plenty of depth on the oline and defense this year with most everyone getting some playing time. Next year recievers will be better then last years and so will the running game. I think the defense gets better with some young boulders up front and the d-backs are going to be nasty. Looking for a top 25

 

[Tim Hensley]

Don't buy it, either. If a QB comes through, we will be just as good --maybe even better as the year progresses. After we beat Purdue in the opener, we'll vault up into the Top 25 early.

 

[sportsphantom1]

Originally posted by flairforherd:

Originally posted by redsfan5590:
Conference championship game for the 3rd straight year if we can find a way to win in bowling green

Nevermind, I just realized you meant Bowling Green, KY, not OH.

As long as the coaching staff doesnt come up with another boneheaded game plan to throw the ball all over the place and not run the ball when WKU has one of the worst run defenses in the country, we have a shot. We should have never lost that game. Coaching cost us that one.

 

[herdit44]

Originally posted by sportsphantom1:

Originally posted by flairforherd:

Originally posted by redsfan5590:
Conference championship game for the 3rd straight year if we can find a way to win in bowling green

Nevermind, I just realized you meant Bowling Green, KY, not OH.

As long as the coaching staff doesnt come up with another boneheaded game plan to throw the ball all over the place and not run the ball when WKU has one of the worst run defenses in the country, we have a shot. We should have never lost that game. Coaching cost us that one.

we have 59 points in regulation and you're blaming the offense? lol, too funny.

fyi, in that game we threw the ball 56% of the time, hardly "throw the ball all over the place and not running the ball"

 

[sportsphantom1]

Originally posted by herdit44:

Originally posted by sportsphantom1:

Originally posted by flairforherd:

Originally posted by redsfan5590:
Conference championship game for the 3rd straight year if we can find a way to win in bowling green

Nevermind, I just realized you meant Bowling Green, KY, not OH.

As long as the coaching staff doesnt come up with another boneheaded game plan to throw the ball all over the place and not run the ball when WKU has one of the worst run defenses in the country, we have a shot. We should have never lost that game. Coaching cost us that one.

we have 59 points in regulation and you're blaming the offense? lol, too funny.

fyi, in that game we threw the ball 56% of the time, hardly "throw the ball all over the place and not running the ball"

Obviously you didnt watch the game. If you had watched the game you would know Marshall came out with a game plan to throw it, throw it and throw it some more. It didnt work and cost us. Devon Johnson only had three carries before he left the game and at that point we were already getting beat 42-21. Trying to throw the ball all over the place did not work.

It wasnt until after we changed what we were doing and started running the ball down WKUs throat did we slow the game down and slow down Western Kentucky's offense and get back in the game. The gameplan from the very beginning should have been to run it down WKUs throat because they were one of the worst defenses in the country against the run while we had one of the top rushing offenses in the country. We didnt do that. We came out throwing the ball all over the place. It allowed WKU to jump out to a big lead early that was hard to come back from. And while the Marshall offense did put a bunch of points on the board, they also gave WKU a bunch of points on turnovers. If we come out running the ball with a better gameplan, we beat WKU. Bad coaching cost us WKU.

 

[redsfan5590]

Also we were down 14 in that game before most of the chair backs stumbled in from their tailgate. Our game plan didn't cost us the WKU game, execution did. Mixed with the fact that their qb and receivers had a game for the ages

 

[herdit44]

Originally posted by sportsphantom1:

Originally posted by herdit44:

Originally posted by sportsphantom1:

Originally posted by flairforherd:

Originally posted by redsfan5590:
Conference championship game for the 3rd straight year if we can find a way to win in bowling green

Nevermind, I just realized you meant Bowling Green, KY, not OH.

As long as the coaching staff doesnt come up with another boneheaded game plan to throw the ball all over the place and not run the ball when WKU has one of the worst run defenses in the country, we have a shot. We should have never lost that game. Coaching cost us that one.

we have 59 points in regulation and you're blaming the offense? lol, too funny.

fyi, in that game we threw the ball 56% of the time, hardly "throw the ball all over the place and not running the ball"

Obviously you didnt watch the game. If you had watched the game you would know Marshall came out with a game plan to throw it, throw it and throw it some more. It didnt work and cost us. Devon Johnson only had three carries before he left the game and at that point we were already getting beat 42-21. Trying to throw the ball all over the place did not work.

in the first quarter, on the ground we had 4 carries, for 21 yards or 5.25 yards per play. meanwhile had 15 passes, 11 completions for 181 yards, and 3 touchdowns or 12.1 yards per play. they couldn't stop our passing game, why should we abandon it? they were giving us the passes and taking away the run, they had an extra guy in the box. they adjusted in the 2nd quarter, we adjust then again.

offense didn't cost us that game, the fact that you're even thinking that shoots your credibility to hell. i'll let you in on a secret...in football, if you score 59 points in regulation and get beat...that's not on your offense.

 

[sportsphantom1]

Originally posted by redsfan5590:
Also we were down 14 in that game before most of the chair backs stumbled in from their tailgate. Our game plan didn't cost us the WKU game, execution did. Mixed with the fact that their qb and receivers had a game for the ages

Their QB and receivers had a game for the ages? Its not like WKU did this out of the blue. Coming into the game they had one of the top offenses in the country. Everyone knew WKU with the #2 ranked pass offense and top QB they had the ability to shred defenses with the passing game. You cant play one of the top offenses in the country then act surprised they put up lots of yards and points.

WKU has one of the worst run defenses in the country. Marshall has one of the top rushing offenses in the country. What do you think would be a logical game plan? Try to throw the ball all over the place or run it down their throat? Which makes more sense?

also WKU has one of the top passing offenses in the country, one of the top total offenses and one of the top scoring offenses. What do you think would be a logical game plan to slow down that WKU offense? Having Marshall throw it all over or run it? The game plan from the coaching staff was horrible. It wasnt until the coaching staff decided to run the ball and run the ball and run the ball did we slow down WKU and close the gap.

 

[sportsphantom1]

offense didn't cost us that game, the fact that you're even thinking that shoots your credibility to hell. i'll let you in on a secret...in football, if you score 59 points in regulation and get beat...that's not on your offense.

I'll let you in on an even bigger secret. In football if your offense scores 59 points but has 4 interceptions that leads to 28 points for the other team your offense deserves part of the blame. You show how little you know about football if you are seriously trying to claim an offense giving up 28 points to the opposing team doesnt deserve blame. That is nearly half their scores coming off of Marshall turnovers and specifically interceptions in the passing game. Yet the Marshall offense has no blame? You're clueless.

Originally posted by herdit44:
in the first quarter, on the ground we had 4 carries, for 21 yards or 5.25 yards per play. meanwhile had 15 passes, 11 completions for 181 yards, and 3 touchdowns or 12.1 yards per play. they couldn't stop our passing game, why should we abandon it? they were giving us the passes and taking away the run, they had an extra guy in the box. they adjusted in the 2nd quarter, we adjust then again.

They couldnt stop our passing game? Really? They had 3 ints that led to 21 of their 42 first half points. It sounds a bit foolish to claim they couldnt stop our passing game when they had 3 picks in a little over 1 quarter of football and went in to halftime with a 42-21 lead with half those points coming off WKUs defense having 3 interceptions.

 

[Herdstruck]

How do you take a major step back when you were terrible to begin with??

I guess ecu will show us what that is.

 

[herdit44]

Originally posted by sportsphantom1:

offense didn't cost us that game, the fact that you're even thinking that shoots your credibility to hell. i'll let you in on a secret...in football, if you score 59 points in regulation and get beat...that's not on your offense.

I'll let you in on an even bigger secret. In football if your offense scores 59 points but has 4 interceptions that leads to 28 points for the other team your offense deserves part of the blame. You show how little you know about football if you are seriously trying to claim an offense giving up 28 points to the opposing team doesnt deserve blame. That is nearly half their scores coming off of Marshall turnovers and specifically interceptions in the passing game. Yet the Marshall offense has no blame? You're clueless.

Originally posted by herdit44:
in the first quarter, on the ground we had 4 carries, for 21 yards or 5.25 yards per play. meanwhile had 15 passes, 11 completions for 181 yards, and 3 touchdowns or 12.1 yards per play. they couldn't stop our passing game, why should we abandon it? they were giving us the passes and taking away the run, they had an extra guy in the box. they adjusted in the 2nd quarter, we adjust then again.

They couldnt stop our passing game? Really? They had 3 ints that led to 21 of their 42 first half points. It sounds a bit foolish to claim they couldnt stop our passing game when they had 3 picks in a little over 1 quarter of football and went in to halftime with a 42-21 lead with half those points coming off WKUs defense having 3 interceptions.

here's what you're trying to do, but fail to grasp, it's not black/white. you're trying to label it as black or white, when it's really grey.

yeah 4 turnovers by the offense hurts, but the defense created 2 and blocked a field goal, so it wasn't a huge difference in the turnover department. wku put the ball on the ground a couple times and the defense couldn't get on the fumble.

you are saying, without a doubt the offense cost us that game. the defense let wku convert 50% of their third downs, one more stop on 3rd down would've been a difference maker. down 3 under 10 minutes to go, we had them 3rd and 10 and we allow a 14 yard gain, for a first down, two plays later they score a touchdown to go back up 10.

the turnover margin was -1, nothing drastic, our offense threw up 59 points, 708 yards of total offense on 82 plays and you want to put the sole blame on the offense. that's just absurd, it's beyond absurd.

wku averaged 155 yards on the ground per game against everyone else and 362.5 yards in the air per game this year against everyone else, our defense let them run for 222 (+67) and throw for 516 (+154). They got over 200 yards more against us than they averaged against everyone else. It was easy for them against us. They had 738 yards on 86 plays or 8.6 per play, but against everyone else they had 6.9 yards per play. They averaged more than a yard and a half more per play against us than they did the rest of the year.

our offense had some misfires, but when you score 59, against a team that averages 42.5 points per game, you should win. we our defense had chances to stop them, and didn't.

 

[phs55]

As long as we play in C-USA we are going to win games. No way we take a big step back with next years schedule.

 

[herdit44]

Originally posted by sportsphantom1:

Originally posted by herdit44:
in the first quarter, on the ground we had 4 carries, for 21 yards or 5.25 yards per play. meanwhile had 15 passes, 11 completions for 181 yards, and 3 touchdowns or 12.1 yards per play. they couldn't stop our passing game, why should we abandon it? they were giving us the passes and taking away the run, they had an extra guy in the box. they adjusted in the 2nd quarter, we adjust then again.

They couldnt stop our passing game? Really? They had 3 ints that led to 21 of their 42 first half points. It sounds a bit foolish to claim they couldnt stop our passing game when they had 3 picks in a little over 1 quarter of football and went in to halftime with a 42-21 lead with half those points coming off WKUs defense having 3 interceptions.

btw, since you struggle with reading comprehension i'll mention it again. they did not stop our passing attack in the first quarter. we had 3 touchdowns to 1 interception. they adjusted in the 2nd quarter and we adjusted to running the ball more, which really didn't get us anywhere.

and going back to your point about devon only having 3 carries, if you were at the game or even watched it, you'd know he was injured. so, when doing your gameplan for the week, if your top back was out and you had one of the best quarterbacks in school history, you wouldn't consider throwing it more?

 

[ThunderCat98]

Running the ball keeps the other team's offense off the field. 5+ yards per carry? I'll take that all day, every day.
Posted from Rivals Mobile

 

[sportsphantom1]

Originally posted by herdit44:

btw, since you struggle with reading comprehension i'll mention it again. they did not stop our passing attack in the first quarter. we had 3 touchdowns to 1 interception. they adjusted in the 2nd quarter and we adjusted to running the ball more...

I don't have a problem reading. You have a problem with facts. This claim that WKU adjusted in the second quarter and that allowed us to start running is completely made up. We didnt start running the ball more until we were already getting beat 42-21. By that point Cato had already thrown 3 ints which had given WKU 21 points off turnovers. By that point we only had 2 runs with Devon Johnson and Cato had 2 QB scrambles. Our air it out game plan wasnt working so we had to change what were were doing and go to our biggest strength which is running the ball (and WKUs biggest weakness BTW) or we were going to get embarrassed.

And again think about how ridiculous you sound with your claims. With WKU winning 42-21 in the second quarter why in the world would they all of a sudden change their game plan to allow us to start running the ball? If they were loading the box in the first quarter + part of the second quarter to stop our running game and their defense had stopped our passing game with 3 ints they turned into TDs which gave them a 42-21 lead, why would they change their defense to allow our offense to start running on them? It makes no sense. The reason it makes no sense is because its not true.

Originally posted by herdit44:

and we adjusted to running the ball more, which really didn't get us anywhere.

It didnt get us anywhere? We started running the ball with about 10 minutes left in the 1st half and losing 42-21. In those last 10 minutes with Marshall going to the ground game our offense scored 21 points and WKU scored just once. That's a 21-7 advantage for Marshall once we started running it. In the second half we stayed with that same ground game and outscored WKU 17-10. The one TD WKU did get in the second half came after a Cato int.

Originally posted by herdit44:

and going back to your point about devon only having 3 carries, if you were at the game or even watched it, you'd know he was injured. so, when doing your gameplan for the week, if your top back was out and you had one of the best quarterbacks in school history, you wouldn't consider throwing it more?

Johnson was not out of the game against WKU. He was injured in WKU game. Even with him injured its not as if Marshall doesnt have other outstanding running backs. Stew Butler averaged 8.8 a carry last year which is the second greatest single season average in Marshall history. He averaged 7.5 a carry this year. One area Marshall is deep with talent is RB. With WKU having one of the worst rush defenses in the country, you take advantage of it and run the ball. Also with WKU having one of the top offenses in the country the last thing you want to do is speed the game up and get in a shootout with them. That only gives them a chance. The Marshall coaches game plan for the offense was wrong on two fronts. First you fail to exploit WKUs defense greatest weakness and second with a sped up game you allow WKUs offense to get in a shootout with you. Coming out throwing the ball all over the place was the worst thing they could have done.


.

This post was edited on 1/13 10:11 PM by sportsphantom1

 

[redsfan5590]

So your solution would have been to rely heavily on our run attack when our Quarterback Rakeem Cato is putting up some really good numbers. In my opinion you put the ball in your best players hands and let him make plays for you. Cato made 3 terrible throws. He pressed and it cost us. Who is to say we don't give the ball to DJ and he fumbles it? Yeah in hindsight it is really easy to say "we should have ran the ball more" but when your defense looks like they are playing on skates your offensive game plan changes.

 

[19MU88]

have to agree with sportsphantom on this

 

[Marine03]

Fact is you can not give 4 extra opportunities to the nations number 1 passing QB. We lost to WKU for a variety of reasons, turnovers being the Achilles heel of our offense, it put the defense in a bad spot a few times. Our game plan on defense was weak, La Tech gave a good blueprint to stop WKU and we simply did not follow it. Our offensive gameplan to abandon the run and pass at all costs to open the gane up I don't necessarily disagree with. Cato simply threw the ball to the wrong spots, they picked him 4 times as a result that gave them 28 points. It was a bad game all the way around.

 

[SHAMMOND16]

Originally posted by 19MU88:

have to agree with sportsphantom on this

Yep.

 

[herdalicious]

Maybe by "major step bavkwards" they meant "back to November."