HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — The Herd will be without starting safety C.J. Reavis for the first half of their game at N.C. State on Saturday.
Reavis, ejected from the home opener against Miami (Ohio) for a questionable controversial call, caused confusion for fans and media this week by tweeting that he was reinstated.
Marshall had appealed the suspension and C-USA officials overturned the ejection. Yet because the targeting call was made in the review booth, not by the grounds crew, the NCAA has jurisdiction over the decision, not conference officials.
In place of Reavis, sophomore Malik Gant will get the start, Doc Holliday confirmed at his news conference Tuesday.
“Malik Gant went in there and played extremely well,” Holliday said. “He played 29 plays and had 24 production points, so he is a guy that we like a lot. He will be fine.”
Gant will replace the only upperclassman in the secondary, making an already young group even more so.
Freshman safety Brandon Drayton, who led the team in tackles and forced a fumble in his first game for Marshall, is confident Gant will meet the challenge.
“Malik Gant is always ready to go,” Drayton said. “He was ready from that first snap last week even though he didn’t get the start, he runs with the 1s in practice sometimes. So it’s not like there is a big drop off — it’s just next man up.”
Back to the Wolfpack
Holliday will return to face his former team in Raleigh, North Carolina this weekend where he worked as the associate head coach and wide receivers coach from 2000 to 2004.
While with the Wolfpack Holliday coached some of the most prolific receivers in their program’s history, including former NFL starter Jerricho Cotchery.
“If you haven’t been there, what they have done with their facility is beautiful, and they have a tremendous fan base,” Holliday said. “It doesn’t matter who goes and plays, their stadium is always filled up to the max. So it’ll be a great atmosphere I’m sure our kids will enjoy playing in.”
Holliday said there are plenty of memories that stand out to him from his time in North Carolina.
“There was a pretty good quarterback there for about four years named Phillip Rivers,” Holliday said with a chuckle. “There were a couple receivers, (Koren) Robinson, Mario Williams, we had three first rounders there on that defensive front.”
While Holliday was extremely complimentary of the program and what N.C. State head coach Dave Doeren has done with the program, he said that doesn’t change anything come game time.
“Once the whistle blows it is between the lines,” Holliday said.
Couch’s big promotion
Defensive end Marquis Couch was named the defensive captain this week as they head into one of their toughest games on the schedule.
Couch saw action in just one game last year as a freshman, logging one tackle in the 62-0 opening-day thumping of Morgan State.
This season he finds himself starting on a newly structured defensive line, and Holliday said it was all due to hard work.
“The biggest thing he did was keep working,” Holliday said. “A lot of kids today, they get a little bit of adversity and they run and hide— they run away instead of looking it right in the eye and saying you know what i’m going to be the best I can be— he kept working until he got the opportunity and then he took advantage of it.”
Couch did not disappoint in the first game. He delivered six tackles, one tackle for a loss, the team’s only sack, and two quarterback hurries.
“That is what good players do,” Holliday said. “He is a tremendous kid, a great student academically, and we are talking about a guy who never saw the field, but that is just development of players.”
Looking for the upset
Many of the players acknowledged the sizable challenge N.C. State will present after losing their season opener against South Carolina.
“This is the best team we are going to face all year,” quarterback Chase Litton said. “That is no disrespect to anyone else on the schedule, that is just a whole lot of respect for (N.C. State),”
Center Levi Brown will be tasked with blocking one of the top defensive lines in the nation.
“They have a lot of explosive players who can really cover east to west and fill the A and B gaps very quick,” Brown said.
Brown said on the road against a good home crowd the biggest thing will be setting the tone early.
“Whoever starts the game—whether it be offense, defense, or special teams—they need to set the tone fast like we did last week,” Brown said. “If we do, that will hush the crowd up and let them know that we are here to play.”
Holliday explained his philosophy on games where the opponent is heavily favored.
“We have played power five schools. We played a Maryland team that was in the ACC at the time in the Military Bowl and matched up pretty well. We played Perdue and beat them. We played Louisville when they won the Big East and beat them at Louisville,” Holliday said.
“We have done it, we will never go into a game where we don’t expect and have the opportunity to win it, that is why we play them, we have to prepare, go play our tails off and see what happens.”
Holliday pointed to the multiple upsets from the first week of NCAA action as examples.
“Howard was 45-point underdogs, no one thought they were going to win. Liberty and Baylor,” he said. “Every week you can pick up the paper and find two or three teams that won that nobody thought would. That is the way it works.”
— Troy Alexander