Playoffs begin Saturday for the Herd

HUNTINGTON, W.Va. – Marshall’s final two regular-season games have essentially become the Thundering Herd’s playoffs, with another loss ending any chance of repeating as Conference USA champs.

“You can’t look too far ahead or you’ll end up with bad results. We’re treating this like a playoff type mentality. Every game is crucial,” said running back Remi Watson.

An already emotional weekend took on even more importance following the Herd’s 27-24 triple-overtime loss to Middle Tennessee last Saturday in Murfreesboro. Now in addition to Saturday being the 45th anniversary of the 1970 plane crash and the final home game for 18 seniors, it has become a defacto quarterfinal game for the Herd.

“We’ve been in this position before the last two years. We know exactly how this process goes. Everything were playing for is still ahead of us. We control our own destiny,” said center Michael Selby.

The Herd must bounce back from a stinging loss but that is something Marshall has done quite well over the last three years. After the Herd dropped a 51-49 contest to Middle Tennessee in 2013, it rolled UAB 63-13 and went on a five-game win streak to reach the C-USA championship game for the first time. Even after losing to Rice in the title game, Marshall made a statement in the Military Bowl, beating Maryland 31-20.

Last season, Marshall could have folded as its hopes for an undefeated season ended in a 67-66 overtime loss to Western Kentucky. The Herd dropped Louisiana Tech a week later in the conference championship game and went on to beat Northern Illinois in the Boca Raton Bowl.

Now, Marshall must dust itself off once again and trudge forward.

“We have to take care of business this week and find a way to win this game, which is going to an extremely tough game for us because FIU has done a great job,” said Coach Doc Holliday. “Ron Turner has done a tremendous job with that team and they’re playing for bowl eligibility, so we know that we’re going to get their best shot like we do everybody else and it’s a big game because of that. It’s also a big game for us because we have 18 seniors playing their last game here at our stadium.”

His teams have shown resiliency when put in must-win situations and Holliday is not worried about how the Herd will react.

“I think when you’re playing on the anniversary of the plane crash; when you put that 75 on your helmet and all of the things that go into this game, with the seniors being there on their last day, you don’t just go out on Saturday and say, ‘Hey we’re going to play really hard for this because this is happening. That starts during the week because that’s what preparation is all about. When they take that field, they should be taking it with a little extra edge and be excited about getting ready to go play.”





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