HUNTINGTON, W.Va.– Defensive Coordinator Chuck Heater obviously wasn’t in Huntington last season and didn’t see Marshall’s defense miss tackles, give up big plays and let leads slip away. However, players such as Keith Baxter, Armonze Daniel, Derek Thomas and others lived it week in and week out.
“I’d think if i had a lot of pride and I was part of that a year ago I wouldn’t be very happy,” said Heater. “You think that would add some edge.”
Players who endured the 2012 season haven’t shied away from last year’s short comings and have taken ownership of the subpar performance. They’re also using last year as motivation heading into 2013.
“There’s a good core group of senior guys who are very disappointed for what happened in the past and have taken ownership of what happened,” says Heater.
Heater believes a solid foundation of seniors are in place and that will aid in the transition throughout preseason camp and help the defense grow and mature more quickly.
Additional depth on defense, especially in the secondary should also make a significant difference this year. Marshall’s secondary was ravaged by injuries last season, forcing players to play out of position and backing the coaching staff into a strategic corner. While fans clamored for more man defense and tighter coverages, Marshall simply couldn’t match up one-on-one with offenses every play.
“We all are really good man corners so we won’t have stop running man like we had to last year sometimes because we were getting tired, we can just rotate in and out and just stay in man the whole game,” says senior defensive back Derrick Thomas. “All of us can play, no matter which one of us is in there we won’t be lacking.”
Thomas now believes Marshall can go toe-to-toe with any offense in the league.
“We’re a lot more talented on the back end this year,” asserts Thomas. “These teams like run to the hurry up offense now with four-wide and five-wide we’ve got a guy for every one of their guys now.”