HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — Marshall moved up three spots to 18th in the Associated Press and USA Today Coaches Poll after a 41-14 throttling of Rice on Saturday. Marshall became the highest ranked G5 school in both polls.
Colorado State checked in 23rd in the coaches poll and 22nd in the AP poll.
But the poll that really matters comes out Tuesday night when the CFB Playoff Committee releases its fourth set of rankings. This past week teams ranked Nos. 16, 17, 18, 19, 21 and 24 in the CFB Playoff rankings lost. So far, Marshall has been shutout of the first three rankings but with that many losses and Marshall’s total domination of Rice, it is going to be harder to dismiss the Herd.
“I have no idea about the bowls or the rankings. We’re just worried about UAB right now,” said quarterback Rakeem Cato. “We’re trying to complete our season 12-0 and let everything else take care of itself.”
But others are taking notice. Rice coach David Bailiff compared Marshall to Texas A&M and Notre Dame, which Rice both lost to earlier this year. Bailiff insisted Marshall was just as good as those teams and deserved to be ranked by the committee.
“It feels good,” running back Devon Johnson said about Bailiff’s comments. “With all the ahard work we put in on the offseason until now and the way we’ve gone about it all season long. We feel like we haven’t gotten much credit. To be able to get credit from a coach like that, a great coach like that. We look up to him and admire him. For him to say that about us, we know it’s a blessing.”
Bailiff’s comments offered some validation for a team that has not received much national respect for being one of only two undefeated teams left in the country.
“I think that we believe that within the locker room. We believe that we can play with anybody and now hopefully the nation will see that and get us in the rankings. But that’s out of our control. All we can do is the best we can do in these games and so far we’ve been taking care of business.”
And that will continue to be Marshall’s mentality as it approaches the final two games of the regular season and the Conference USA Championship game on Dec. 6.