HUNTINGTON, W.Va. – Since Doc Holliday arrived on Marshall’s campus the expectations have grown each year for his football teams. In fact, the standards have now been raised so high anything less than a 10-win season and at least being mentioned in the conversation for an access bowl, seems like a disappointment.
Herd fans are expecting nothing less again this year, even with more question marks at more positions going into fall camp than in recent years.
Outside of the program and Herd nation is a different story.
In the 2016 Conference USA Preseason Media Poll, the Herd is not the pick to win the conference. It’s not picked to win the east division or even finish second. Media covering the league think Marshall will finish third in the conference. Holliday is not losing any sleep over the so-called experts’ opinion of his team.
“Hopefully they don’t know what they’re talking about. I like our team. I like our players,” Holliday commented during a preseason news conference.
“Like I say it is all about preparation. You don’t win games in August, you win games by what happens from the time spring ball is over, which I thought was tremendous, the way you work over the summer going into camp.”
The summer months have been extra important for Holliday and his staff to get to know the incoming freshmen and transfers, who will likely be forced into immediate action and will have a major impact on the early success of the Herd against the likes of non-conference opponents Pitt and Louisville.
“The last couple of years we’ve been able to work with these kids through the summer, so it’s not like it used to be when you came in here in August and the freshmen just showed up and you had no idea what you had.”
The additional contact and teaching time has been invaluable for the trio of freshmen quarterbacks battling to be Chase Litton’s backup. Garrett Morrell, Jackson White and Xavier Gaines have never taken a snap in a college football game, never mind preparing for a game.
Holliday has never been shy about playing freshmen, if they can be trusted, as he says. That is because of Holliday’s insistence that his team be prepared for every game, every practice, every snap. That’s why Holliday won’t waste his time worrying about preseason polls or other prognostications that have Marshall slipping a bit in 2016.
“We’re not going to change what we do,” emphasized Holliday. “We just can’t forget what got us to where we were the last three years and that’s going to work every day.”