By Dick Ash
The Herd scrimmaged under bright, sunny skies instead of a dry white roof Saturday as the day featured unseasonably warm spring weather. The sun and spotlight was shining on the offense with three quarterbacks contending for the starting job. Combined, they led their units to an average of 5.8 yards per play in a 112 play morning that was at times incredibly fast paced and never dull.
As the offense averaged just over 5 yards per rush and about 12 yards per completed pass, the defense didn't have such gaudy numbers. There were only a handful of plays that lost yardage. With 65 passes attempted, 33 were completed, 2 intercepted, 10 broken up and only 1 sack recorded.
As has been reported all spring, there are many more defensive regulars missing than offensive regulars.
That was the case again Saturday. Five likely defensive starters and some probable second stringers were missing from the lineup.
I'll look at how each position group fared in the scrimmage and how things look with one week remaining in spring practice.
On the defensive line there was no action seen by Gary Thompson, Jarquez Samuel, Steve Dillon and Malik Thompson, which meant likely fourth string tackles Ryan Riedel and Matt Harless got the lion's share of second unit tackles. No lineman was credited with as many as five tackles; the only stats registered were by young defensive ends.
Jerome Dews deflected a Gunnar Holcombe pass, resulting in an interception by linebacker Chase Hancock.
Dews made a few more plays that didn't show up in the statistics as part of one particularly good series for the defense. The sophomore end beat right tackle Tyler Combs on the inside pressuring Holcombe. Later in the series, he used an outside rush to get by Combs again causing an early throw for an incompletion.
True freshman Damien Dozier and redshirt freshman Ryan Bee each recorded a tackle-for-loss during the scrimmage. Dozier's athleticism helped him recover the only lost fumble of the day.
Redshirt freshman walk-on Jamon Cofield ran for a nice 10 yard gain but lost the ball when hit by safety Cody Carter. The ball rolled further downfield as Cofield tried to crawl after it and Dozier recovered it about 15 yards from the line of scrimmage.
As expected Joe Massaquoi, Armonze Daniel, Blake Keller and Thompson look to be the top four in the rotation at defensive end. Dews, Bee and Dozier have shown this spring that they're capable of contributing. The three young players should gain experience in one-sided games as Tomell One did last year. Dews could get some chances to use his speed in third and long situations.
No defensive tackles made any big plays or accumulated many tackles on Saturday. Ricardo Williams, Samuel, Dillon and One form an experienced two-deep, but it would be helpful for Jason Smith and Malik Thompson to get some real game experience early in the season before they are needed to contribute in meaningful situations.
At linebacker, Raheim Huskey and Shawn Petty played together most of the scrimmage at the inside positions to gain experience at both spots. Senior D.J. Hunter led the defense with eight tackles including six solo tackles. The redshirt senior said he's looking to follow in some big footsteps of past senior leaders. "I'm just trying to come out here every day and improve. We need to keep going with the foundation that seniors like Swag (Darryl Roberts), Neville (Hewitt) and (James) Rouse set for us last year."
Hunter said he's been limited a little this spring, not by injury but by academic requirements. 'My spring's been kind of short with class on Tuesdays. I really don't like it; I'd rather be out here getting my reps (and) getting ready for my last season.'
The surprise of the spring on defense has likely been walk-on linebacker Chase Hancock. The 2013 AAA All-State 2nd team selection from Beckley's Woodrow Wilson High School redshirted as a safety last season. Adding 16 pounds to his high school weight and moving to linebacker has earned Hancock a spot in the two-deep in the absence of senior Evan McKelvey.
Hancock had another good performance, with seven tackles, a pass broken up and an interception of Holcombe's deflected pass. Hunter has noticed the young linebacker's improved play. 'He's making a lot of good plays, getting a lot of tips and hustling to the ball. He's an effort guy and he's really going to help us (and) contribute this year.'
Hancock's play has also caught the eye of Head coach Doc Holliday. 'We take great pride in trying to do a great job in developing players around here. We work hard in getting good walk-ons and he is. For some reason that Beckley area has turned out an awful lot of good players for us, and we're sure glad he's here because he's going to play a lot of football for us. He's a good player.'
Even after a healthy McKelvey gets back on the field this fall, Marshall has only five experienced linebackers on scholarship for this coming season - Hunter, Huskey, Houston and Petty (whose experience came at Maryland in 2013).
Even if Marquis Couch uses his spring experience to gain playing time this fall and JUCO signee Devontre'a Tyler is able to step into the two-deep, Hancock has likely earned some playing time from scrimmage for 2015.
Defensive back: If you added up all the tackles from all the spring practices, walk-on safety Cody Carter may be the leader. Today he tied Hunter with eight total tackles, and added a pass broken up, a forced fumble and half a tackle for loss.
With the number of intermediate pass completions and running plays that went well past the line of scrimmage, most of the other leading tacklers were from the defensive backfield.
Sophomore corner Rodney Allen played opposite Keith Baxter as Saturday's first team corners. Allen had five tackles, while Baxter had two passes broken up.
Taj Letman had five tackles and a pass broken up, playing safety on the first-team defense with A.J. Leggett.
Sophomore Kendall Gant played on the second unit with Carter and also had five tackles. He added two passes broken up and intercepted a Holcombe pass that shouldn't have been thrown.
Junior Michael Johnson and freshman Chris Williams-Hall were the corners on the second unit. Johnson had the only sack of the day, streaking into the backfield on a corner blitz and earning an eight yard loss at the point he would have hit Holcombe.
The Herd looks to have seven talented players to man the corner, nickel and dime spots. A healthy Corey Tindal and D'Andre Wilson will add depth to the spring group of Baxter, Johnson, Allen, Williams-Hall and Antavis Rowe.
At safety, even after the return of Tiquan Lang, the depth chart only lists Letman, Leggett and Gant as the other scholarship players. Carter will almost certainly get some time at safety as well as on special teams.
The biggest play the defense surrendered Saturday was a 65 yard touchdown to Kaleb Harris. The talented tight end got behind the safeties for the catch and outran Leggett to the end zone.
After giving up touchdowns to 'veteran' tight ends Joe Woodrum and Ryan Yurachek at the Greenbrier last week, rookie tight ends Emanuel Byrd and Harris combined for 8 catches and 152 yards against the Marshall defense. The four tight ends combined for 11 total catches and 189 yards. Byrd's longest catch was on a 30 yard pass from Litton.
Safeties are usually involved in covering the slot receivers as well as the tight ends. Hyleck Foster, Angelo Jean-Louis, Donquell 'Gator' Green and DeAndre Reaves combined to make 14 catches for 146 yards. Many of the completions came despite good coverage and immediate contact from one or even two defenders.
Outside receivers Deon-Tay McManus, Justin Hunt, Josh Knight and Davonte Allen combined to make seven receptions for 76 yards, with Hunt scoring on a 10 yard pass from Litton. Emanuel Beal had no catches, but prevented an interception of a Litton pass by playing a little pass defense when Johnson was in better position to make the reception.
McManus was matched against Rodney Allen in one series and Birdsong hit him three times.
The best of these plays was on a 19 yard back shoulder throw.
The defense also had some problems bringing down the bigger and stronger Steward Butler and the physical Tony Pittman.
Both gained yardage after contact several times.
This was especially true on Butler's 16 yard touchdown run and his earlier 25 yard run. The defense also was vulnerable to some zone read keepers and runs off of scrambles by quarterbacks.
The highlight was Litton's 24 yard touchdown run. The true freshman couldn't find an open receiver, so he pulled down the ball and rambled into the south end zone untouched.
The Herd scrimmaged under bright, sunny skies instead of a dry white roof Saturday as the day featured unseasonably warm spring weather. The sun and spotlight was shining on the offense with three quarterbacks contending for the starting job. Combined, they led their units to an average of 5.8 yards per play in a 112 play morning that was at times incredibly fast paced and never dull.
As the offense averaged just over 5 yards per rush and about 12 yards per completed pass, the defense didn't have such gaudy numbers. There were only a handful of plays that lost yardage. With 65 passes attempted, 33 were completed, 2 intercepted, 10 broken up and only 1 sack recorded.
As has been reported all spring, there are many more defensive regulars missing than offensive regulars.
That was the case again Saturday. Five likely defensive starters and some probable second stringers were missing from the lineup.
I'll look at how each position group fared in the scrimmage and how things look with one week remaining in spring practice.
On the defensive line there was no action seen by Gary Thompson, Jarquez Samuel, Steve Dillon and Malik Thompson, which meant likely fourth string tackles Ryan Riedel and Matt Harless got the lion's share of second unit tackles. No lineman was credited with as many as five tackles; the only stats registered were by young defensive ends.
Jerome Dews deflected a Gunnar Holcombe pass, resulting in an interception by linebacker Chase Hancock.
Dews made a few more plays that didn't show up in the statistics as part of one particularly good series for the defense. The sophomore end beat right tackle Tyler Combs on the inside pressuring Holcombe. Later in the series, he used an outside rush to get by Combs again causing an early throw for an incompletion.
True freshman Damien Dozier and redshirt freshman Ryan Bee each recorded a tackle-for-loss during the scrimmage. Dozier's athleticism helped him recover the only lost fumble of the day.
Redshirt freshman walk-on Jamon Cofield ran for a nice 10 yard gain but lost the ball when hit by safety Cody Carter. The ball rolled further downfield as Cofield tried to crawl after it and Dozier recovered it about 15 yards from the line of scrimmage.
As expected Joe Massaquoi, Armonze Daniel, Blake Keller and Thompson look to be the top four in the rotation at defensive end. Dews, Bee and Dozier have shown this spring that they're capable of contributing. The three young players should gain experience in one-sided games as Tomell One did last year. Dews could get some chances to use his speed in third and long situations.
No defensive tackles made any big plays or accumulated many tackles on Saturday. Ricardo Williams, Samuel, Dillon and One form an experienced two-deep, but it would be helpful for Jason Smith and Malik Thompson to get some real game experience early in the season before they are needed to contribute in meaningful situations.
At linebacker, Raheim Huskey and Shawn Petty played together most of the scrimmage at the inside positions to gain experience at both spots. Senior D.J. Hunter led the defense with eight tackles including six solo tackles. The redshirt senior said he's looking to follow in some big footsteps of past senior leaders. "I'm just trying to come out here every day and improve. We need to keep going with the foundation that seniors like Swag (Darryl Roberts), Neville (Hewitt) and (James) Rouse set for us last year."
Hunter said he's been limited a little this spring, not by injury but by academic requirements. 'My spring's been kind of short with class on Tuesdays. I really don't like it; I'd rather be out here getting my reps (and) getting ready for my last season.'
The surprise of the spring on defense has likely been walk-on linebacker Chase Hancock. The 2013 AAA All-State 2nd team selection from Beckley's Woodrow Wilson High School redshirted as a safety last season. Adding 16 pounds to his high school weight and moving to linebacker has earned Hancock a spot in the two-deep in the absence of senior Evan McKelvey.
Hancock had another good performance, with seven tackles, a pass broken up and an interception of Holcombe's deflected pass. Hunter has noticed the young linebacker's improved play. 'He's making a lot of good plays, getting a lot of tips and hustling to the ball. He's an effort guy and he's really going to help us (and) contribute this year.'
Hancock's play has also caught the eye of Head coach Doc Holliday. 'We take great pride in trying to do a great job in developing players around here. We work hard in getting good walk-ons and he is. For some reason that Beckley area has turned out an awful lot of good players for us, and we're sure glad he's here because he's going to play a lot of football for us. He's a good player.'
Even after a healthy McKelvey gets back on the field this fall, Marshall has only five experienced linebackers on scholarship for this coming season - Hunter, Huskey, Houston and Petty (whose experience came at Maryland in 2013).
Even if Marquis Couch uses his spring experience to gain playing time this fall and JUCO signee Devontre'a Tyler is able to step into the two-deep, Hancock has likely earned some playing time from scrimmage for 2015.
Defensive back: If you added up all the tackles from all the spring practices, walk-on safety Cody Carter may be the leader. Today he tied Hunter with eight total tackles, and added a pass broken up, a forced fumble and half a tackle for loss.
With the number of intermediate pass completions and running plays that went well past the line of scrimmage, most of the other leading tacklers were from the defensive backfield.
Sophomore corner Rodney Allen played opposite Keith Baxter as Saturday's first team corners. Allen had five tackles, while Baxter had two passes broken up.
Taj Letman had five tackles and a pass broken up, playing safety on the first-team defense with A.J. Leggett.
Sophomore Kendall Gant played on the second unit with Carter and also had five tackles. He added two passes broken up and intercepted a Holcombe pass that shouldn't have been thrown.
Junior Michael Johnson and freshman Chris Williams-Hall were the corners on the second unit. Johnson had the only sack of the day, streaking into the backfield on a corner blitz and earning an eight yard loss at the point he would have hit Holcombe.
The Herd looks to have seven talented players to man the corner, nickel and dime spots. A healthy Corey Tindal and D'Andre Wilson will add depth to the spring group of Baxter, Johnson, Allen, Williams-Hall and Antavis Rowe.
At safety, even after the return of Tiquan Lang, the depth chart only lists Letman, Leggett and Gant as the other scholarship players. Carter will almost certainly get some time at safety as well as on special teams.
The biggest play the defense surrendered Saturday was a 65 yard touchdown to Kaleb Harris. The talented tight end got behind the safeties for the catch and outran Leggett to the end zone.
After giving up touchdowns to 'veteran' tight ends Joe Woodrum and Ryan Yurachek at the Greenbrier last week, rookie tight ends Emanuel Byrd and Harris combined for 8 catches and 152 yards against the Marshall defense. The four tight ends combined for 11 total catches and 189 yards. Byrd's longest catch was on a 30 yard pass from Litton.
Safeties are usually involved in covering the slot receivers as well as the tight ends. Hyleck Foster, Angelo Jean-Louis, Donquell 'Gator' Green and DeAndre Reaves combined to make 14 catches for 146 yards. Many of the completions came despite good coverage and immediate contact from one or even two defenders.
Outside receivers Deon-Tay McManus, Justin Hunt, Josh Knight and Davonte Allen combined to make seven receptions for 76 yards, with Hunt scoring on a 10 yard pass from Litton. Emanuel Beal had no catches, but prevented an interception of a Litton pass by playing a little pass defense when Johnson was in better position to make the reception.
McManus was matched against Rodney Allen in one series and Birdsong hit him three times.
The best of these plays was on a 19 yard back shoulder throw.
The defense also had some problems bringing down the bigger and stronger Steward Butler and the physical Tony Pittman.
Both gained yardage after contact several times.
This was especially true on Butler's 16 yard touchdown run and his earlier 25 yard run. The defense also was vulnerable to some zone read keepers and runs off of scrambles by quarterbacks.
The highlight was Litton's 24 yard touchdown run. The true freshman couldn't find an open receiver, so he pulled down the ball and rambled into the south end zone untouched.
