HUNTINGTON, W.Va.—Already down a starting outside receiver with Davonte Allen sidelined with an injury, Marshall needed someone to step up and fill the void. When Angelo Jean-Louis left Saturday’s game early with an injury, Craig Wilkins made up his mind it was his turn to step into the spotlight.
“I just work on looking the ball in everyday in practice so in the game it is easy,” said Wilkins.
Saturday was a career day for Wilkins, who pulled a team-high five catches for 77 yards and two touchdowns. Coming into Saturday Wilkins had just three touchdowns in his entire career at Marshall.
“They trust each other and when something happens to one of them, it hurts all of them,” said coach Doc Holliday.
Wilkins’ 26-yard touchdown catch in the second quarter was Rakeem Cato’s record tying touchdown toss, giving Cato 38 consecutive games with a touchdown pass. His second score came in the fourth quarter that salted the win away.
“I told the guys at the wideout positions that they had to step up big because we had one-on-one on the outsides,” said quarterback Rakeem Cato. “Even when Angelo Jean-Louis went down those guys stepped up and made plays.”
Middle Tennessee played mostly man press coverage leaving defensive backs in one-on-one matchups with Marshall’s receivers. Those were battles that Marshall won the vast majority of the time.
“We’ve seen man press every day since camp. We feel like we’ve got the best corners in the conference so when we saw that it was just like practice every day,” said Wilkins.
Cato completed passes seven different receivers as he continually took shots downfield. The Herd completed nine passes of 20 yards or more.
“It’s just the next man up, and we are always ready. When the next man has to go up, we play ball,” Wilkins said.