COMMENTARY
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. – On paper, Saturday’s season opener for Marshall should not be much of a battle. Morgan State lost its first game of the season 54-21 to Holy Cross, allowing nearly 500 yards.
So this matchup should be a cakewalk for the Herd, right?
Don’t tell that to Marshall offensive coordinator Bill Legg.
“Holy Cross has a good team. That’s a good Patriot League, I-AA team. They’ve got some smart kids who adjust on the run,” said Legg.
“I’ve got a couple of friends of mine who coach up there and I talked to them before the season started and they felt like they had a chance to have a good team because they had a lot of experience. You add smart, tough and experience and you give yourself a pretty good chance to be good at any level.”
Doc Holliday is certainly not letting his team buy into the idea that Morgan State will just roll over.
“Every week somebody gets beat that shouldn’t, just ask Virginia, who lost to Richmond a week ago,” Holliday said.
In some instances the Bears were their own worst enemy in the loss, racking up 14 penalties for 115 yards.
It has been a long nine months for Morgan State, which is just two years removed from winning the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference. Head coach Lee Hull left the program in February to become receivers coach for the Indianapolis Colts.
Then in April, Morgan State was one of five programs in the country banned from postseason play by the NCAA for failing to meet a satisfactory score in the Academic Progress Rate. Additionally, the Bears lost four hours of practice time and one day of practice per week during the season. The team also lost four hours of practice time out of season, with spring practices are prohibited.
It all adds up to an unenviable situation for interim-coach Fred Farrier but Holliday isn’t buying that Marshall can simply show up on Saturday and win.
“They have some guys who can run at the receiver position. They have a back, who is not their starter, that was, at one time, a 1,000 yard rusher and player of the year in the conference. They have some good skill kids and if we don’t execute they will create problems for us,” said Holliday.
So long as Marshall executes on Saturday, the Herd should not have any problems with the Bears.