MURFREESBORO, Tenn. – Before most of the Thundering Herd players had hit the showers Saturday night, Doc Holliday was ready to move on from the stinging 27-24, triple-overtime loss to Middle Tennessee.
“You can’t let one loss beat you twice. You’ve got to back and get ready to play,” Holliday insisted.
The Herd (8-2, 5-1) let slip multiple opportunities to pull out the comeback win.
Holliday’s teams have been in this position before and responded positively. In fact, following a 51-49 loss at Middle Tennessee in 2013, Marshall won six of its final seven games, including the Military Bowl. Last season, the Herd saw its undefeated season come to a crashing end during a 67-66 overtime shootout with Western Kentucky. The Herd responded by winning the Conference USA championship the following week 26-23 against Louisiana Tech and blowing out Mid-American Conference champ Northern Illinois 52-23 in the Boca Raton Bowl.
“We still control our own destiny as far as the conference goes and everything that we set out for this season is still ahead of us,” tight end Ryan Yuracheck said.
Marshall’s situation didn’t change much, despite the loss to Middle Tennessee (4-5, 3-2). Marshall needed to win its final two games against FIU and at Western Kentucky to play in a third straight conference championship game.
“Our goals and dreams are still out there. We got to go win this next week and you’re still playing the following week against Western [Kentucky] for the championship,” Holliday said. “If you dwell on what happened here, you’ll get beat again.”