HUNTINGTON, W.Va.—After Offensive Coordinator Bill Legg grades the game film on Sunday, quarterback Rakeem Cato always asked about his statistics. But Cato is not interested in his passing yards, completions or touchdowns.
“At the end of the day, first question he asks me is ‘How’d I do with the decisions?’ If there are 70 decisions to be made he wants to be 70-for-70,” says offensive coordinator Bill Legg.
In the midst of being hyped as a dark horse candidate to be a Heisman finalist, no one would blame Cato if he peeked at his stats once in a while. You could understand if Cato wanted to open up the offense against weaker defenses and pad his numbers a little bit to make them appear more impressive to national observers.
But that’s just not who he is.
“Last week he checked out of seven passes into runs,” said Legg. “Three of them turned out to be touchdowns. He’s going to take what they give you. He’s all about the wins.”
Marshall’s offense is as balanced as it has ever been. Gone are the days when defenses knew Marshall was going to throw the ball on every down. Now, when Cato comes to the line and sees a defensive alignment that favors the run, he will not hesitate to check to play to get the ball into Devon Johnson’s hands.
“No matter what play he checks to the line has to block, the receivers have to do what they do. He’s got a great feel of how the game is going,” explained Legg. He knows when they give him a certain picture this is the best possible play to attack what they’re doing. He understands how to use our system to his advantage.”
Doc Holliday has continually said the offense is simply taking what the defense is giving it. That has always been his philosophy but now with an effective run game, defenses have to pick their poison. Do you want to let Cato drop back and throw or do you want to defend the pass and deal with the likes of Johnson, Remi Watson and Steward Butler?
“If you can force teams to become one dimensional that’s when you have issues on offense,” said Holliday.
Johnson, who is eighth in the country in rushing yards per game coming into Saturday insisted that Marshall is 5-0 and on the cusp of the top 25 because of Cato’s understanding of the offense and getting the rest of the unit in the best position to succeed.
“Cato does a great job of reading the defense and getting us into the right plays. If it wasn’t for him we probably wouldn’t be where we are,” insisted Johnson.
Where Marshall is on the doorstep of the top 25. It hasn’t been there since 2002 and if Cato continues to make the right decisions and put the offense in a position to succeed, Marshall will likely find itself back in the top 25 very soon.