HUNTINGTON, W.Va.– If Marshall’s offense was a well-oiled machine at the end of last season, it came out looking more like a rusty tractor that had been sitting in the barn all winter.
At the end of the first quarter Marshall’s offense had run just nine plays and gained 11 yards against the Miami Redhawks. It hardly resemble the “turbo” offense fans remembered from 2012. Then the offense started to come to life in the second quarter a Marshall marched down the field on a pair of scoring drives and gained 206 yards of total offense. 123 of those yards came via the rushing attack as Cato had just 72 yards passing at halftime.
Needing to come out of the locker room and make a statement on offense, Marshall exploded in the third quarter and looked like the offense everyone was expecting to see.
“Once we got in our groove, we just went with that pace and just went fast,” says quarterback Rakeem Cato.
The Herd rolled up 213 yards of offense and reached the endzone five times in the third quarter turning what was a 14-14 game at the half into 35-14 blowout by the end of the quarter. Cato threw four touchdown passes in the third quarter connecting withTommy Shuler, Craig Wilkins and twice with Gator Hoskins.
Marshall ended the night with 591 yards of total offense, 304 yards passing and 287 yards rushing. Keep in mind Marshall did that in just three quarters. The Herd ran 85 plays and rolled up 580 yards in just three quarters.
“We just kept momentum going. We just kept running the ball and taking what they gave us,” says center Chris Jasperse.
Jasperse says The Herd could sense the Miami defense wearing down and becoming increasingly frustrated that it couldn’t find a way to stop The Herd.
“We kind of lost our confidence a little bit,” admits Miami defensive lineman Austin Brown.
Imagine what could have happened if Marshall had decided to play four quarters Saturday night.