Herd expects physical matchup with Purdue

HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — Ask anyone on the Marshall offense to describe the Boilermakers and two words are repeated over and over: big and physical.

“Everything is bigger in the Big Ten,” said senior tackle Clint Van Horn. “ They’ve got two big defensive tackles so it’s a challenge for out guys inside and their linebackers are going to downhill guys. They’re going to be looking to stop the run and we’re going to be looking to run the ball.”

It’s appears the paradox of what happens when an immovable object meets and unstoppable force may be answered Sunday afternoon at Joan C. Edwards Stadium when Marshalls run game goes up against Purdue’s run defense.

The strength of Purdue’s defense is its linebackers. All three starters, Ja’Whaun Bentley, Danny Ezechukwu and Jimmy Herman are return. The Boilermakers are one of just three schools in the country to retain all three starting linebackers and have all three with remaining eligibility beyond the 2015 season.

“They’re physical, very physical big kids who can play in space. Those three linebackers provide a lot of stability for them in there. That’s the strength of their defense.” assessed coach Doc Holliday.

Sophomore Ja’Whaun Bentley led the Boilermakers with 76 tackles last year and was named to ESPN-dot-com’s and USA Today’s True Freshman All-America teams.

Purdue may try to take a page out of UAB’s playbook for today’s game. The Blazers stifled Marshall’s offense last season and Clint Van Horn has noticed Purdue did something similar to UAB to other teams, such as Wisconsin and Minnesota.

“They clogged up both ‘A’ gaps,” explained Van Horn. “They made it really hard for our guys to get any movement inside. They did a lot of movement with their down linemen. It was something different that we hadn’t prepared for but we’ve been preparing for a bunch of different things during the spring and summer so we’re going to be ready for anything they throw at us.”

Marshall’s defense will also have to face a physical bunch. Purdue returns all five starters across the offensive line with a combined 91 starts between them. Purdue is going to try to be the aggressor and establish the running game.

“I feel like we’re physical,” said linebacker D.J. Hunter. “Tiquan Lang is a physical safety. He’s going to come down and hit you every time. Evan McKelvey is going to hit you every time. We’ve got the best d-linemen in the conference. We’re going to be physical. We’ve got to respect them but I feel like they’re going to respect us too in the end.”

In the end, respect is exactly what Marshall is looking for Sunday. A win over a Big Ten team, and being able to out-physical a team from the Big Ten, which prides itself on being tougher than any other league, will go a long way to gaining respect around the country.





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