By: Josh Stowers
On an absolutely gorgeous Saturday morning at Joan C. Edwards and in front of approximately 100 fans, the Thundering Herd took the field for their first scrimmage of the spring. “I thought defensively it was the way it should be. If the defense doesn’t win that first scrimmage of the spring, then chances are you’re not a very good football team. That’s what they did and they came prepared to play better than the offense today,” head coach Doc Holliday said of the scrimmage. In case you didn’t pick up on his tone, the defense controlled the scrimmage from start to finish. “We’ve had a great spring so far, but these last couple of days the defense came out and threw some stuff at us that we haven’t seen and we didn’t react. Offensively I feel like we didn’t’ have a good scrimmage,” sophomore quarterback Chase Litton said. Overall, the offense accumulated over 400 yards of offense, but gave us six sacks and turned the ball over once. I’ll cover both sides of the ball and more in the Day 9: Scrimmage Report.
MIA
There wasn’t a whole lot of change in the participation list from earlier in the week. Jordan Dowrey, Nate Devers, Sandley Jean-Felix, and Antavis Rowe all watched from the sidelines. Jean-Felix and Rowe both worked out with trainers, but didn’t take part in any drills. Deon-Tay McManus and Tiquan Lang both sported the red (no-contact) jerseys again, but took part in every portion of practice. Tony Pittman was no in attendance (to my knowledge).
Offense
As Holliday pointed out above, the offense took their lumps today regardless racking up over 400 yards of offense. It took an inefficient 100 plays to get that yardage though so in hindsight, that’s not as impressive as it normally might be. Neither Litton or Michael Birdsong looked comfortable throughout the day with the defense getting constant pressure. “They were a little inconsistent I thought. To be fair to them, there’s a lot of things coming at them. A lot of things they haven’t seen early on, and Chuck likes to blitz in the scoring zones (plus side of the 50-yard line),” Holliday said of his quarterbacks. Litton finished the day 13/30 for 188 yards, three touchdowns, one interception, and was sacked 4 times. “It’s not fun to have to wait until Tuesday to get this taste out our mouth, but hats off to that defense and our defensive line on how they played today,” Litton said. Birdsong didn’t fare much better completing only 12/26 passes for 133 yards, two touchdowns, and was sacked twice. Honestly, the offense struggled putting together drives. All five offensive touchdowns came from inside the 20-yard line when the ball was placed at the 15 for situational purposes.
Each quarterback would hit big pass plays during the scrimmage, but couldn’t sustain drives. Litton connected with Hyleck Foster (25 yards on a check down), Justin Hunt (38 yards on a “go” route) and Michael Clark (33 yards over top of Chris Jackson) for gains of 25 yards or more. He later found McManus (15 yards), Ryan Yurachek (14 yards), and Josh Knight (nice “dig” route and a perfect pass in the back of the end-zone) for scores inside the 20.
Birdsong’s biggest pass of the day went to Gator Green on a “go” route down the west sideline for a gain of 40 yards. Green went up over top of the defensive back and won the battle. It’s the same type of heart we’ve been seeing from Green all spring long. Inside the red-zone, Birdsong hooked up with walk-on receiver Nick Matthews twice, both for scores. First, Birdsong hit Matthews on a 15-yard slant in front of safety Corey Neely and Birdsong later threw a ball over the outstretched arms of the defense to Matthews for a four-yard touchdown.
The Thundering Herd offense didn’t fare much better on the ground today only churning out 3.4 yards/carry. Red-shirt Delvin Weems led Marshall in rushing on the day with 10 carries for 49 yards. Junior Hyleck Foster (nine carries for 24 yards) and red-shirt sophomore Keion Davis (six carries for 19 yards) never seemed to get in a rhythm. In Davis’ defense, he would’ve had a 99-yard score had Josh Knight sealed his block on the edge. Walk-on Ellis Cain finished with 13 carries for 37 yards respectively. Now, even though the running backs weren’t very effective on the ground, they all four had receptions. Foster finished with three receptions for 43 yard, Weems had two receptions for 22 yards, Davis had one reception for 15, and Cain had one for 11 yards. Marshall has made an effort to get the ball to the running backs in the passing game this spring and it continued on Saturday.
Defense
Marshall’s defense, who has been like a younger brother to the offense this spring, has grown up in the last two practices and let their big brother know they can play. Defensive Coordinator Chuck Heater’s defense set the tone Saturday on the first drive of the game when red-shirt freshman Ty Tyler tipped a Litton pass in the air and cornerback Rodney Allen came down with the interception. The entire defensive sideline went nuts and the momentum just carried on throughout the scrimmage. The defense tallied six sacks, nine tackles-for-loss, 12 pass break-ups, and one forced fumble as well. The defensive MVP of the day was red-shirt sophomore Jason Smith though. Smith dominated the line of scrimmage finishing with four tackles, three tackles-for-loss, and two sacks. “He’s done some nice things. He’s got a lot energy and other guys seem to feed off of him,” Heater said of Smith. Gary Thompson, Damien Dozier, Chase Hancock, and Tyler would all finish the day with sacks. Thompson’s sack actually resulted in a strip of Litton as well accounting for the second turnover on the day.
At linebacker, the day belonged to red-shirt junior Davon Durant. Durant, who was quiet in his first two weeks of spring ball, has made his presence felt this week. Holliday, Heater, and Litton all had comments on the former four-star JUCO product. “I noticed him too. That’s what you’re supposed to look like. His speed reminds me of when I used to play,” Holliday said laughingly. Durant finished with a scrimmage-leading seven tackles. “Durant plays at a different speed. He has a really good skill set. He’s a good-sized guy that can play with speed,” Heater said. Durant’s speed and power were both on display during Saturday. On one play, he met Weems at the second level and when Weems lowered his head, Durant didn’t budge. It drew plenty of laughs from the press box. I’ll let Litton tell you about the other play. “He made play today that I’ve never seen on the football field. He was in the “box” at “B” gap. We threw a “smoke” (screen) to the outside and he stopped it for a two-yard gain,” Litton said of Durant’s speed. Heater said this was Durant’s third day of practice in a row (for the first time this spring due to injury) and it definitely showed.
In the secondary, it was the same story, but different day. Freshman corner back Chris Jackson continued his strong play of the spring with three pass break-ups (all against Litton). Jackson broke up passes to McManus (2x) and Clark. The first break-up would’ve been a “pick-six” had McManus not broken up the interception. “He doesn’t look like a freshman out there and that’s good for the Herd. He’s a long corner that has a skill set. He’s extremely tough and smart,” Holliday said of Jackson. As I mentioned above, Rodney Allen had a great day for the second practice in a row. Allen had two pass break-ups to go along with his interception. Safety Corey Neely had his most productive practice of the spring with six tackles and one pass break-up. It’s really early still, but the combination of our talented front-seven and the potential of the secondary has me liking this defense. I think we’ll take some lumps early on possibly, but by the mid-way point of the season, I think we’ll be pretty tough defensively.
Special Teams
It’s pretty clear that the kicking battle is going to stretch into fall practice when JUCO kicker Grayson Pontius enrolls. Juniors Nick Smith and Amoreto Curraj both made three of their four attempts. Regardless making three of four kicks, neither kicker looked comfortable in doing so. Both kickers did show good range today though hitting all four kicks from outside of 40 yards. Punters Kaa’re Vedvik and Smith both punted the ball well today. Both hit high, spiraling kicks for the coverage team to make plays on. Long snapper Zach Wood seems to have locked down that position (knock on wood).
Mike Tyson Award
The trio of Fred Binot, Damien Dozier, and Eli Gates win this award today. Binot locked up with Dozier after a play was over and proceeded to rip Dozier’s helmet off. Gates didn’t take too kindly to his defensive teammate’s helmet being ripped off and threw a helmet punch at Binot. The scramble went on for a couple minutes before leaders from each side of the ball separated them.
Notes
Marshall returns to the field on Tuesday to start their fourth week of spring practice. According to the forecast, the weather is supposed to be in the 80’s for the next four or five days so practice should be held outside (open to the public).
On an absolutely gorgeous Saturday morning at Joan C. Edwards and in front of approximately 100 fans, the Thundering Herd took the field for their first scrimmage of the spring. “I thought defensively it was the way it should be. If the defense doesn’t win that first scrimmage of the spring, then chances are you’re not a very good football team. That’s what they did and they came prepared to play better than the offense today,” head coach Doc Holliday said of the scrimmage. In case you didn’t pick up on his tone, the defense controlled the scrimmage from start to finish. “We’ve had a great spring so far, but these last couple of days the defense came out and threw some stuff at us that we haven’t seen and we didn’t react. Offensively I feel like we didn’t’ have a good scrimmage,” sophomore quarterback Chase Litton said. Overall, the offense accumulated over 400 yards of offense, but gave us six sacks and turned the ball over once. I’ll cover both sides of the ball and more in the Day 9: Scrimmage Report.
MIA
There wasn’t a whole lot of change in the participation list from earlier in the week. Jordan Dowrey, Nate Devers, Sandley Jean-Felix, and Antavis Rowe all watched from the sidelines. Jean-Felix and Rowe both worked out with trainers, but didn’t take part in any drills. Deon-Tay McManus and Tiquan Lang both sported the red (no-contact) jerseys again, but took part in every portion of practice. Tony Pittman was no in attendance (to my knowledge).
Offense
As Holliday pointed out above, the offense took their lumps today regardless racking up over 400 yards of offense. It took an inefficient 100 plays to get that yardage though so in hindsight, that’s not as impressive as it normally might be. Neither Litton or Michael Birdsong looked comfortable throughout the day with the defense getting constant pressure. “They were a little inconsistent I thought. To be fair to them, there’s a lot of things coming at them. A lot of things they haven’t seen early on, and Chuck likes to blitz in the scoring zones (plus side of the 50-yard line),” Holliday said of his quarterbacks. Litton finished the day 13/30 for 188 yards, three touchdowns, one interception, and was sacked 4 times. “It’s not fun to have to wait until Tuesday to get this taste out our mouth, but hats off to that defense and our defensive line on how they played today,” Litton said. Birdsong didn’t fare much better completing only 12/26 passes for 133 yards, two touchdowns, and was sacked twice. Honestly, the offense struggled putting together drives. All five offensive touchdowns came from inside the 20-yard line when the ball was placed at the 15 for situational purposes.
Each quarterback would hit big pass plays during the scrimmage, but couldn’t sustain drives. Litton connected with Hyleck Foster (25 yards on a check down), Justin Hunt (38 yards on a “go” route) and Michael Clark (33 yards over top of Chris Jackson) for gains of 25 yards or more. He later found McManus (15 yards), Ryan Yurachek (14 yards), and Josh Knight (nice “dig” route and a perfect pass in the back of the end-zone) for scores inside the 20.
Birdsong’s biggest pass of the day went to Gator Green on a “go” route down the west sideline for a gain of 40 yards. Green went up over top of the defensive back and won the battle. It’s the same type of heart we’ve been seeing from Green all spring long. Inside the red-zone, Birdsong hooked up with walk-on receiver Nick Matthews twice, both for scores. First, Birdsong hit Matthews on a 15-yard slant in front of safety Corey Neely and Birdsong later threw a ball over the outstretched arms of the defense to Matthews for a four-yard touchdown.
The Thundering Herd offense didn’t fare much better on the ground today only churning out 3.4 yards/carry. Red-shirt Delvin Weems led Marshall in rushing on the day with 10 carries for 49 yards. Junior Hyleck Foster (nine carries for 24 yards) and red-shirt sophomore Keion Davis (six carries for 19 yards) never seemed to get in a rhythm. In Davis’ defense, he would’ve had a 99-yard score had Josh Knight sealed his block on the edge. Walk-on Ellis Cain finished with 13 carries for 37 yards respectively. Now, even though the running backs weren’t very effective on the ground, they all four had receptions. Foster finished with three receptions for 43 yard, Weems had two receptions for 22 yards, Davis had one reception for 15, and Cain had one for 11 yards. Marshall has made an effort to get the ball to the running backs in the passing game this spring and it continued on Saturday.
Defense
Marshall’s defense, who has been like a younger brother to the offense this spring, has grown up in the last two practices and let their big brother know they can play. Defensive Coordinator Chuck Heater’s defense set the tone Saturday on the first drive of the game when red-shirt freshman Ty Tyler tipped a Litton pass in the air and cornerback Rodney Allen came down with the interception. The entire defensive sideline went nuts and the momentum just carried on throughout the scrimmage. The defense tallied six sacks, nine tackles-for-loss, 12 pass break-ups, and one forced fumble as well. The defensive MVP of the day was red-shirt sophomore Jason Smith though. Smith dominated the line of scrimmage finishing with four tackles, three tackles-for-loss, and two sacks. “He’s done some nice things. He’s got a lot energy and other guys seem to feed off of him,” Heater said of Smith. Gary Thompson, Damien Dozier, Chase Hancock, and Tyler would all finish the day with sacks. Thompson’s sack actually resulted in a strip of Litton as well accounting for the second turnover on the day.
At linebacker, the day belonged to red-shirt junior Davon Durant. Durant, who was quiet in his first two weeks of spring ball, has made his presence felt this week. Holliday, Heater, and Litton all had comments on the former four-star JUCO product. “I noticed him too. That’s what you’re supposed to look like. His speed reminds me of when I used to play,” Holliday said laughingly. Durant finished with a scrimmage-leading seven tackles. “Durant plays at a different speed. He has a really good skill set. He’s a good-sized guy that can play with speed,” Heater said. Durant’s speed and power were both on display during Saturday. On one play, he met Weems at the second level and when Weems lowered his head, Durant didn’t budge. It drew plenty of laughs from the press box. I’ll let Litton tell you about the other play. “He made play today that I’ve never seen on the football field. He was in the “box” at “B” gap. We threw a “smoke” (screen) to the outside and he stopped it for a two-yard gain,” Litton said of Durant’s speed. Heater said this was Durant’s third day of practice in a row (for the first time this spring due to injury) and it definitely showed.
In the secondary, it was the same story, but different day. Freshman corner back Chris Jackson continued his strong play of the spring with three pass break-ups (all against Litton). Jackson broke up passes to McManus (2x) and Clark. The first break-up would’ve been a “pick-six” had McManus not broken up the interception. “He doesn’t look like a freshman out there and that’s good for the Herd. He’s a long corner that has a skill set. He’s extremely tough and smart,” Holliday said of Jackson. As I mentioned above, Rodney Allen had a great day for the second practice in a row. Allen had two pass break-ups to go along with his interception. Safety Corey Neely had his most productive practice of the spring with six tackles and one pass break-up. It’s really early still, but the combination of our talented front-seven and the potential of the secondary has me liking this defense. I think we’ll take some lumps early on possibly, but by the mid-way point of the season, I think we’ll be pretty tough defensively.
Special Teams
It’s pretty clear that the kicking battle is going to stretch into fall practice when JUCO kicker Grayson Pontius enrolls. Juniors Nick Smith and Amoreto Curraj both made three of their four attempts. Regardless making three of four kicks, neither kicker looked comfortable in doing so. Both kickers did show good range today though hitting all four kicks from outside of 40 yards. Punters Kaa’re Vedvik and Smith both punted the ball well today. Both hit high, spiraling kicks for the coverage team to make plays on. Long snapper Zach Wood seems to have locked down that position (knock on wood).
Mike Tyson Award
The trio of Fred Binot, Damien Dozier, and Eli Gates win this award today. Binot locked up with Dozier after a play was over and proceeded to rip Dozier’s helmet off. Gates didn’t take too kindly to his defensive teammate’s helmet being ripped off and threw a helmet punch at Binot. The scramble went on for a couple minutes before leaders from each side of the ball separated them.
Notes
Marshall returns to the field on Tuesday to start their fourth week of spring practice. According to the forecast, the weather is supposed to be in the 80’s for the next four or five days so practice should be held outside (open to the public).
