COLUMN
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. – For almost any college football team in America, a 10-3 season that concludes with a bowl victory, is a very successful season. Heck, the head coach may even be in line for a raise and a contract extension.
For Marshall, 2015 was supposed to be a “rebuilding” year after losing greats such as Rakeem Cato and Tommy Shuler to graduation. However, somebody forgot to tell Doc Holliday and his staff that, which has resurrected the Thundering Herd football that now considers a 10-win season and a bowl championship the standard.
Marshall has now won 33 games in the last three seasons, has won five consecutive bowl games, and now has the highest bowl winning percentage in FBS.
The 2015 season was full of its share of unexpected challenges and surprise stars. Coming into the season, Marshall was expected to lean on returning All-Conference running back Devon Johnson and tackle Clint Van Horn to guide the offense until new starting quarterback Michael Birdsong settled into his role. By the third week of the season, all three were on the sidelines with injuries.
Freshman Chase Litton stepped into the starting job and never gave it up, throwing 23 touchdowns, a Marshall freshman record, to just eight interceptions.
With injuries piling up in the backfield, slot receiver Hyleck Foster switched to running back halfway through the season and ended up rushing for 484 yards and averaging 4.5 yards per carry.
Deandre Reaves, who had been known as a special teams star, became one of Litton’s favorite targets, grabbing 56 passes for 705 yards and four touchdowns.
And, in the St. Petersburg Bowl, needing to chew up the clock and solidify the 16-10 win over UConn, Marshall turned to Keion Davis, who had only 63 carries all season. Usually the final man in the Herd’s running back rotation rushed for 73 yards on 10 carries, including the game’s longest play, a 41-yard run, to salt away the victory.
On the defensive side of the ball, redshirt-freshman Ryan Bee worked his way on the field and became a nuisance for opposing offenses. Bee finished the season second on the team with four sacks and third on the team with 8.5 tackles for loss. Sophomore Kendall Gant earned more and more playing time in the secondary and ended his season with nine tackles and an interception in the bowl game.
In fact, Marshall found itself relying on the defense to keep it in games while the offense worked through growing pains and built chemistry.
It was not always pretty or as flashy as 2014 but the bottom line is Marshall found a way to win ten games and a bowl championship during what was supposed to be a rebuilding year.
However, the Herd fell short of its goals of winning Conference USA and being the best team in the non-power five conferences.
Those are two goals Marshall wants to put a check mark next to in 2016.