By: Josh Stowers
For the first time this spring, Doc Holliday and Thundering Herd took the field for consecutive days. In a normal week Marshall practices on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, but with Easter on Sunday Holliday chose to give his players the entire weekend off. There was some worry that there would be fall off from Thursday's high intensity practice, but that just wasn't the case. As a matter of fact, I think this was the most spirited practice Marshall has had all spring.
Practice opened up with the normal warm-ups, and was followed by field goal practice. Nick Smith basically has a stranglehold on the place kicking job as there is just no real competition for him. Amoreto Curraj will serve as Smith's backup and hopefully never have to kick unless it's booming a touchback into the end-zone.
Following field goals, Holliday's squad line up for HERD drills and the questions about the level of effort were quickly put to rest. Eric Ansley dominated Blake Keller on two different occasions. Jordan Dowrey beat Ricardo Williams. Raheim Huskey beat Emanuel Byrd and Damien Dozier side-stepped Cody Collins before crushing the ball carrier. Other players who shined during the drill were Justin Hunt, Josh Knight, and Jason Smith.
After the HERD drill, the team split up into offensive and defensive groupings for one-on-one passing/coverage drills and the seven-on-seven running game drills. These drills laid the foundation for what could've been mistaken for a WWE tryout by multiple players in the rest of practice.
The offensive line was as physical as I've seen them all spring long opening up big holes and allowing Stew Butler and company to get to the end-zone. Gunnar Holcombe had his best sequence in the one-on-one's finding Knight and Deandre Reaves both for big gains.
In the full scrimmage portion of practice there were two things that stood out.
Michael Birdsong and the Herd defense (specifically the secondary) went to work. Birdsong picked up right where he left off on Thursday hitting Ryan Yurachek down the seam for a 65 yard touchdown. Birdsong hit six of his first seven passes for around 110 yards and the touchdown.
Apparently after seeing Birdsong and the Marshall receivers torch the defense in the first series Defensive Coordinator Chuck Heater decided he'd seen enough.
After the first series, the defense accounted for five interceptions, a couple sacks and multiple pass breakups. Dozier snagged a pass out of mid-air that slipped from Chase Litton's hand and took it in for the "pick six." Raheim Huskey intercepted a Birdsong pass that was tipped by another defender. Cody Carter intercepted an under-thrown ball by Litton. Michael Johnson made a very nice play on a Cole Garvin pass close to the sidelines, but the play of the day was made by AJ Leggett. Leggett intercepted a Garvin pass one-handed that he tipped to himself while tight roping the sidelines.
One of the biggest improvements I saw today from the offense though, was the blitz pick-up by Tony Pittman. Pittman took on blitzers from every angle by stepping into the hole and giving the quarterback more time to make their throw.
One play that stood out to me from the offense was just a tribute to the genius of Offensive Coordinator Bill Legg. Holcombe hit Reaves on a gain for 25 yards on a beautifully designed play. The outside receiver ran a comeback and drew the defenders down while Reaves, who was in the slot, ran a corner to the sidelines and sit down in the open spot.
For those of you who don't have Twitter or haven't seen tweets from players and Herd Nation, the athletic department could've charged admission to see the "extra-curricular" activities today. Redshirt freshman Nate Devers channeled his inner Ivan Drago all day long locking up with Dozier, Cody Carter, and Jarquez Samuel.
The latter was a poor choice as Samuel took the younger player to the ground and removed his helmet before letting up.
The most entertaining battle of the day was when Devers and Carter locked up. During the altercation Ansley stepped in to split the two up only to stir up Carter even more. As Carter went at Ansley with what I can only describe as a "flying dropkick" Devers caught him in mid-air and power slammed him to the ground. Needless to say, this writer was like a kid in a candy store.
Another battle of giants today was when six foot, seven inches Ryan Bee got upset with fellow six foot, seven inches Ansley. The two went at each other pretty hard before Bee's helmet came off and the two were separated by coaches and players. Although you could tell Doc loved the fire in his players, he had enough towards the end of practice and let the players know (in his own subtle way) they were "wasting time."
Something the coaching staff is looking for early this spring is leadership. One player that has made an impression early on is Davonte Allen. "Somebody I think is turning into a great leader is Davonte Allen. His play has really raised the level of others," Legg said.
Ever since Legg mentioned Allen, I've paid attention to his interaction with other players and Legg is 100% right. He's always telling the other receivers good job and when they mess up he lets them know about it. He also jumped Gunnar's case today when Gunnar misread a defense and cost the offense a big play.
Finally, if you're ever at practice and you see the players, coaches, managers, etc raising their hands up with the "L's" in the air, you better join them. Coach Holliday addressed the media today after we didn't initially raise our hands in the air along with the team. Although, I think he was joking, this writer isn't willing to test his patience again. In case you aren't familiar with the "L's" it stands for love and loyalty. The team's motto this season is "Love what you're doing and be loyal to it."
Marshall returns to the practice field on Tuesday at 3:30pm.
For the first time this spring, Doc Holliday and Thundering Herd took the field for consecutive days. In a normal week Marshall practices on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, but with Easter on Sunday Holliday chose to give his players the entire weekend off. There was some worry that there would be fall off from Thursday's high intensity practice, but that just wasn't the case. As a matter of fact, I think this was the most spirited practice Marshall has had all spring.
Practice opened up with the normal warm-ups, and was followed by field goal practice. Nick Smith basically has a stranglehold on the place kicking job as there is just no real competition for him. Amoreto Curraj will serve as Smith's backup and hopefully never have to kick unless it's booming a touchback into the end-zone.
Following field goals, Holliday's squad line up for HERD drills and the questions about the level of effort were quickly put to rest. Eric Ansley dominated Blake Keller on two different occasions. Jordan Dowrey beat Ricardo Williams. Raheim Huskey beat Emanuel Byrd and Damien Dozier side-stepped Cody Collins before crushing the ball carrier. Other players who shined during the drill were Justin Hunt, Josh Knight, and Jason Smith.
After the HERD drill, the team split up into offensive and defensive groupings for one-on-one passing/coverage drills and the seven-on-seven running game drills. These drills laid the foundation for what could've been mistaken for a WWE tryout by multiple players in the rest of practice.
The offensive line was as physical as I've seen them all spring long opening up big holes and allowing Stew Butler and company to get to the end-zone. Gunnar Holcombe had his best sequence in the one-on-one's finding Knight and Deandre Reaves both for big gains.
In the full scrimmage portion of practice there were two things that stood out.
Michael Birdsong and the Herd defense (specifically the secondary) went to work. Birdsong picked up right where he left off on Thursday hitting Ryan Yurachek down the seam for a 65 yard touchdown. Birdsong hit six of his first seven passes for around 110 yards and the touchdown.
Apparently after seeing Birdsong and the Marshall receivers torch the defense in the first series Defensive Coordinator Chuck Heater decided he'd seen enough.
After the first series, the defense accounted for five interceptions, a couple sacks and multiple pass breakups. Dozier snagged a pass out of mid-air that slipped from Chase Litton's hand and took it in for the "pick six." Raheim Huskey intercepted a Birdsong pass that was tipped by another defender. Cody Carter intercepted an under-thrown ball by Litton. Michael Johnson made a very nice play on a Cole Garvin pass close to the sidelines, but the play of the day was made by AJ Leggett. Leggett intercepted a Garvin pass one-handed that he tipped to himself while tight roping the sidelines.
One of the biggest improvements I saw today from the offense though, was the blitz pick-up by Tony Pittman. Pittman took on blitzers from every angle by stepping into the hole and giving the quarterback more time to make their throw.
One play that stood out to me from the offense was just a tribute to the genius of Offensive Coordinator Bill Legg. Holcombe hit Reaves on a gain for 25 yards on a beautifully designed play. The outside receiver ran a comeback and drew the defenders down while Reaves, who was in the slot, ran a corner to the sidelines and sit down in the open spot.
For those of you who don't have Twitter or haven't seen tweets from players and Herd Nation, the athletic department could've charged admission to see the "extra-curricular" activities today. Redshirt freshman Nate Devers channeled his inner Ivan Drago all day long locking up with Dozier, Cody Carter, and Jarquez Samuel.
The latter was a poor choice as Samuel took the younger player to the ground and removed his helmet before letting up.
The most entertaining battle of the day was when Devers and Carter locked up. During the altercation Ansley stepped in to split the two up only to stir up Carter even more. As Carter went at Ansley with what I can only describe as a "flying dropkick" Devers caught him in mid-air and power slammed him to the ground. Needless to say, this writer was like a kid in a candy store.
Another battle of giants today was when six foot, seven inches Ryan Bee got upset with fellow six foot, seven inches Ansley. The two went at each other pretty hard before Bee's helmet came off and the two were separated by coaches and players. Although you could tell Doc loved the fire in his players, he had enough towards the end of practice and let the players know (in his own subtle way) they were "wasting time."
Something the coaching staff is looking for early this spring is leadership. One player that has made an impression early on is Davonte Allen. "Somebody I think is turning into a great leader is Davonte Allen. His play has really raised the level of others," Legg said.
Ever since Legg mentioned Allen, I've paid attention to his interaction with other players and Legg is 100% right. He's always telling the other receivers good job and when they mess up he lets them know about it. He also jumped Gunnar's case today when Gunnar misread a defense and cost the offense a big play.
Finally, if you're ever at practice and you see the players, coaches, managers, etc raising their hands up with the "L's" in the air, you better join them. Coach Holliday addressed the media today after we didn't initially raise our hands in the air along with the team. Although, I think he was joking, this writer isn't willing to test his patience again. In case you aren't familiar with the "L's" it stands for love and loyalty. The team's motto this season is "Love what you're doing and be loyal to it."
Marshall returns to the practice field on Tuesday at 3:30pm.
