By: Josh Stowers
Coach Doc Holliday and the Thundering Herd Football team took the field Saturday for the 12th time this spring in front of an estimated crowd of 200 Herd faithful. This week's scrimmage was exclusive to Big Green members, season ticket holders, and students.
Fortunately enough, the weather cooperated as it was a gorgeous sunny day with temperatures in the 60's.
Saturday marked only the fourth time Marshall fans have been able to see the Thundering Herd in action this spring and the first time in a scrimmage format with last week's being held at The Greenbrier.
Marshall fans are just thrilled to hear pads popping inside Joan C. Edwards Stadium again, but they'd be lying if they said they weren't most interested to see who'll be replacing Rakeem Cato at quarterback. "We're getting closer to getting that figured out," Holliday said of the quarterback battle. "They can all make some throws. I saw some good things out there from all of them, so that's good. By the time the spring game is over we'll have a decision," Holliday added.
Speaking of the quarterback battle, for the second week in a row Michael Birdsong was first in the rotation of signal callers. "When you spend another week in the system you're obviously going to get much more acclimated and comfortable with the receivers and everything. It was much better this week than last week," Birdsong said of his afternoon.
Birdsong completed 14 of his 24 attempts for 148 yards and no touchdowns or interceptions. His day would've been even more impressive had he not fell victim to multiple drops.
Although Birdsong took the first-team snaps, freshman Chase Litton had the most impressive day of the three quarterbacks. "He seems like he's one of those kinds of guys that can turn a bad situation into a good situation, and that's what good players do," Holliday said of Litton. "He looks like he has it. He still has a long way to go, but I'm glad he's here," Holliday added.
Litton finished the day completing 12 of his 20 attempts for 151 yards and a touchdown. Litton also scored a touchdown on the ground when he scrambled off the right side of the line and raced down the sideline extending the ball across the goal line before being touched down.
Litton's touchdown through the air went to rising junior Justin Hunt on a fade route that he went over top of the defender on.
Gunnar Holcombe's day had its share of highs and lows.
Holcombe finished the day only completing seven of his 21 attempts for 111 yards, one touchdown, and two interceptions. The biggest play of the day came off the arm of Holcombe when he found tight end Kaleb Harris down the left hash. Harris finished off the play by outracing Kendall Gant to the end-zone.
Speaking of the tight end position, I really do believe Marshall fans will be pleasantly surprised by it. Ryan Yurachek Emanuel Byrd and Harris will supply Herd fans with their share of big plays as well.
That rotation of players doesn't even include Joe Woodrum, who is the most physical player at the position. Woodrum flashed his ability on a nice catch in traffic across the middle of the field from Holcombe.
As I said though, Holcombe's day included some lows as well. Holcombe's interceptions came at the hands of Gant and Chase Hancock. Gant broke on an "out" route that Holcombe threw late and Hancock snagged a ball out of the air that was tipped at the line of scrimmage.
As much as we want to call this a quarterback battle, there is simply no battle here. Birdsong has a sizeable advantage in the competition and it's shown through the first two scrimmages in the rotation. If there is a battle at this point, it's for the backup quarterback. Although Chase Litton has performed as well or better than Gunnar Holcombe in Marshall's two scrimmages, the idea of redshirting the freshman is the best situation for the future of Herd Football. Much like many other positions on Marshall's roster, the quarterback position is deeper than years before. If Birdsong does struggle at any point, look for Holcombe to step in.
With Devon Johnson and Remi Watson's absences this spring from all contact drills, it's given Steward Butler and Tony Pittman plenty of chances to better themselves. "Stew's playing his best football right now. He's more physical than he's ever been," Holliday said of Butler. "Around here, for the last few years that we've had good football teams, our seniors played their best football and that's kind of what's happening with him right now," Holliday added.
Butler displayed that physical play on Saturday when he carried two defenders from the three yard line and extended the ball into the end-zone. Butler finished his day with 102 yards and two touchdowns on just 14 carries.
Pittman has been the biggest surprise for me this spring. Although he struggled early on, he has turned it on in the last week of practices and become a legit threat to Watson and Butler to take carries away from them. Known as "Pitbull", Pittman's one cut running style matches his bowling ball type physique. He finished with 61 yards on 12 carries Saturday. This fall when Johnson and Watson return to the lineup, Marshall will be blessed with the sixth leading rusher from 2014 and three capable reserves behind him. Look for the running game to surpass last year's success if the offensive line is effective.
Speaking of the offensive line, the two-deep is starting to round out. The only real competition along the offensive line is the battle between Jordan Dowrey and Nate Devers at right guard. Saturday, Dowrey joined Sandley Jean-Felix, Sebastian Johansson, Michael Selby, and Tom Collins on the first team.
Devers and Dowrey both took snaps with the first and second-team offensive lines. Taking the field with the second-team was Eric Ansley, Fred Binot, Cody Collins and Tyler Combs. When Clint Van Horn, who is sitting out at the coach's discretion, returns this fall look for Collins to allow Combs to move back inside where he's more comfortable.
The lineup of Jean-Felix, Johansson, Selby, Dowrey/Devers, and Van Horn should provide Coach Bill Legg with a physical and dominant line for his offense to play behind. With Coach Alex Mirabal and the senior leadership from Van Horn and Johansson, I fully expect this group to be good to go by the time the Purdue Boilermakers roll into town.
The coach that has possibly been the most blessed by Holliday and his staff's recruiting efforts is Mike Furrey.
Furrey has an absolute stacked two-deep lineup at each of the three wide receiver spots. On Saturday, Marshall's top six receivers accounted for 16 catches, 153 yards, and one touchdown.
With the move of Angelo Jean-Louis to the slot position, Marshall now has five of its six players in its two-deep that have caught multiple touchdowns. "I'm enjoying the slot. I get the ball faster and there are more routes," Jean-Louis said of his move.
The first-team receivers on Saturday were Davonte Allen, Deon-Tay McManus and Hyleck Foster. Manning the second-team spots were Justin Hunt, Emanuel Beal and Jean-Louis. Not included in the two-deep is Josh Knight, who has been very solid at every chance he's been given this spring.
Furrey's biggest concern this spring is to try and replace the production of Tommy Shuler. I don't know that we'll see one player with that kind of production next season, but if there was one player I'd bet on, it would be McManus. McManus' drive and hunger to be the best player on the field shine through in his play. On top of that, McManus seems to be Birdsong's "go-to" receiver when he's in trouble.
Overall, I still think this version of the Marshall offense has a chance to be more explosive than last season's purely because of the wide receiver play. In my opinion, we haven't seen a receiving corps similar to this since the days of Darius Watts, Josh Davis and Denero Marriott. When you pair the receiver's improved production with a running game that looks to be loaded and Marshall may not have to play defense at all (that's a joke).
Marshall will return to the practice field on Tuesday at 3:30pm.
Coach Doc Holliday and the Thundering Herd Football team took the field Saturday for the 12th time this spring in front of an estimated crowd of 200 Herd faithful. This week's scrimmage was exclusive to Big Green members, season ticket holders, and students.
Fortunately enough, the weather cooperated as it was a gorgeous sunny day with temperatures in the 60's.
Saturday marked only the fourth time Marshall fans have been able to see the Thundering Herd in action this spring and the first time in a scrimmage format with last week's being held at The Greenbrier.
Marshall fans are just thrilled to hear pads popping inside Joan C. Edwards Stadium again, but they'd be lying if they said they weren't most interested to see who'll be replacing Rakeem Cato at quarterback. "We're getting closer to getting that figured out," Holliday said of the quarterback battle. "They can all make some throws. I saw some good things out there from all of them, so that's good. By the time the spring game is over we'll have a decision," Holliday added.
Speaking of the quarterback battle, for the second week in a row Michael Birdsong was first in the rotation of signal callers. "When you spend another week in the system you're obviously going to get much more acclimated and comfortable with the receivers and everything. It was much better this week than last week," Birdsong said of his afternoon.
Birdsong completed 14 of his 24 attempts for 148 yards and no touchdowns or interceptions. His day would've been even more impressive had he not fell victim to multiple drops.
Although Birdsong took the first-team snaps, freshman Chase Litton had the most impressive day of the three quarterbacks. "He seems like he's one of those kinds of guys that can turn a bad situation into a good situation, and that's what good players do," Holliday said of Litton. "He looks like he has it. He still has a long way to go, but I'm glad he's here," Holliday added.
Litton finished the day completing 12 of his 20 attempts for 151 yards and a touchdown. Litton also scored a touchdown on the ground when he scrambled off the right side of the line and raced down the sideline extending the ball across the goal line before being touched down.
Litton's touchdown through the air went to rising junior Justin Hunt on a fade route that he went over top of the defender on.
Gunnar Holcombe's day had its share of highs and lows.
Holcombe finished the day only completing seven of his 21 attempts for 111 yards, one touchdown, and two interceptions. The biggest play of the day came off the arm of Holcombe when he found tight end Kaleb Harris down the left hash. Harris finished off the play by outracing Kendall Gant to the end-zone.
Speaking of the tight end position, I really do believe Marshall fans will be pleasantly surprised by it. Ryan Yurachek Emanuel Byrd and Harris will supply Herd fans with their share of big plays as well.
That rotation of players doesn't even include Joe Woodrum, who is the most physical player at the position. Woodrum flashed his ability on a nice catch in traffic across the middle of the field from Holcombe.
As I said though, Holcombe's day included some lows as well. Holcombe's interceptions came at the hands of Gant and Chase Hancock. Gant broke on an "out" route that Holcombe threw late and Hancock snagged a ball out of the air that was tipped at the line of scrimmage.
As much as we want to call this a quarterback battle, there is simply no battle here. Birdsong has a sizeable advantage in the competition and it's shown through the first two scrimmages in the rotation. If there is a battle at this point, it's for the backup quarterback. Although Chase Litton has performed as well or better than Gunnar Holcombe in Marshall's two scrimmages, the idea of redshirting the freshman is the best situation for the future of Herd Football. Much like many other positions on Marshall's roster, the quarterback position is deeper than years before. If Birdsong does struggle at any point, look for Holcombe to step in.
With Devon Johnson and Remi Watson's absences this spring from all contact drills, it's given Steward Butler and Tony Pittman plenty of chances to better themselves. "Stew's playing his best football right now. He's more physical than he's ever been," Holliday said of Butler. "Around here, for the last few years that we've had good football teams, our seniors played their best football and that's kind of what's happening with him right now," Holliday added.
Butler displayed that physical play on Saturday when he carried two defenders from the three yard line and extended the ball into the end-zone. Butler finished his day with 102 yards and two touchdowns on just 14 carries.
Pittman has been the biggest surprise for me this spring. Although he struggled early on, he has turned it on in the last week of practices and become a legit threat to Watson and Butler to take carries away from them. Known as "Pitbull", Pittman's one cut running style matches his bowling ball type physique. He finished with 61 yards on 12 carries Saturday. This fall when Johnson and Watson return to the lineup, Marshall will be blessed with the sixth leading rusher from 2014 and three capable reserves behind him. Look for the running game to surpass last year's success if the offensive line is effective.
Speaking of the offensive line, the two-deep is starting to round out. The only real competition along the offensive line is the battle between Jordan Dowrey and Nate Devers at right guard. Saturday, Dowrey joined Sandley Jean-Felix, Sebastian Johansson, Michael Selby, and Tom Collins on the first team.
Devers and Dowrey both took snaps with the first and second-team offensive lines. Taking the field with the second-team was Eric Ansley, Fred Binot, Cody Collins and Tyler Combs. When Clint Van Horn, who is sitting out at the coach's discretion, returns this fall look for Collins to allow Combs to move back inside where he's more comfortable.
The lineup of Jean-Felix, Johansson, Selby, Dowrey/Devers, and Van Horn should provide Coach Bill Legg with a physical and dominant line for his offense to play behind. With Coach Alex Mirabal and the senior leadership from Van Horn and Johansson, I fully expect this group to be good to go by the time the Purdue Boilermakers roll into town.
The coach that has possibly been the most blessed by Holliday and his staff's recruiting efforts is Mike Furrey.
Furrey has an absolute stacked two-deep lineup at each of the three wide receiver spots. On Saturday, Marshall's top six receivers accounted for 16 catches, 153 yards, and one touchdown.
With the move of Angelo Jean-Louis to the slot position, Marshall now has five of its six players in its two-deep that have caught multiple touchdowns. "I'm enjoying the slot. I get the ball faster and there are more routes," Jean-Louis said of his move.
The first-team receivers on Saturday were Davonte Allen, Deon-Tay McManus and Hyleck Foster. Manning the second-team spots were Justin Hunt, Emanuel Beal and Jean-Louis. Not included in the two-deep is Josh Knight, who has been very solid at every chance he's been given this spring.
Furrey's biggest concern this spring is to try and replace the production of Tommy Shuler. I don't know that we'll see one player with that kind of production next season, but if there was one player I'd bet on, it would be McManus. McManus' drive and hunger to be the best player on the field shine through in his play. On top of that, McManus seems to be Birdsong's "go-to" receiver when he's in trouble.
Overall, I still think this version of the Marshall offense has a chance to be more explosive than last season's purely because of the wide receiver play. In my opinion, we haven't seen a receiving corps similar to this since the days of Darius Watts, Josh Davis and Denero Marriott. When you pair the receiver's improved production with a running game that looks to be loaded and Marshall may not have to play defense at all (that's a joke).
Marshall will return to the practice field on Tuesday at 3:30pm.
