— By Bill Cornwell
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — The college football weekend starts Friday night in West Virginia this week as Marshall hosts Middle Tennessee State in an early Conference USA East Division showdown.
High school football Friday nights are major community events throughout the nation, but national television opportunities now mean that Friday is also a college football night.
Kickoff at Joan C. Edwards Stadium is at 7:30 p.m and the game is being televised nationally on CBS Sports Network.
Neither head coach is crazy about the disruption in their team’s normal schedules, but Marshall’s Doc Holliday says his club will find a way to adapt.
“We’ve had a couple of Friday night games on the road and our game at Middle Tennessee last year was a Friday night game,” Holliday said. “We played really well in that game (a 38-10 win) and it’s important that we do that again here this year.”
“We can’t control Friday night games … TV does, so we’ll just get ready to go play.”
MTSU’s Rick Stockstill didn’t hide his thoughts when asked if he liked Friday night games.
“Absolutely not,” Stockstill said. “I don’t have a choice, but I think Fridays should be dedicated to the high school games. I understand why we play them and I understand the TV deals and all of that but if you ask me, college football needs to be played on Thursday and Saturday.”
Both teams come into this week’s game after opening conference league play with victories. Marshall (3-1) held off a pesky Western Kentucky team on the road, 20-17, while MTSU (2-2) won at home over defending Conference USA champ and this year’s league favorite, Florida Atlantic, 25-24.
Marshall’s major test this week will be finding a way to contain fifth-year Blue Raiders quarterback Brent Stockstill, the son of Rick Stockstill. Brent Stockstill made several big plays last week as he led MTSU to its comeback win over FAU.
Holliday says he compares favorably with a quarterback the Herd saw just two weeks ago.
“He is similar, style-wise” to the kid from N.C. State (Ryan Finley),” Holliday said. “He makes plays and is very accurate, however I think Stockstill is a little bit different from the kid at N.C. State because when things start to break down, he is going to take off with it.”
“He is very accurate and you can’t give him easy access throws,” Holliday added. “He is a challenge because he can beat you with his feet and run the quarterback runs … he just does it all.”
Rick Stockstill’s major focus is finding a way to slow Marshall’s passing attack, specifically trying to contain Herd senior Tyre Brady, who scored both of Marshall’s touchdowns in the WKU win.
“He’s a good player and it’s hard to slow him down,” coach Stockstill said. “We have to do a good job of tackling in space so we don’t give up big explosive plays to him because he has those capabilities of taking a screen or a short ball and turning it into a big play.”
Brady and Brent Stockstill shared Conference USA Offensive Player of the Week honors for their performances last Saturday.
Marshall has dominated the series against the Blue Raiders, holding a 5-2 advantage. MTSU has never won in Huntington.
Stockstill says there are plenty of challenges playing Marshall in Huntington, some that his club hasn’t handled well in the past.
“It’s hard to get there, plus it’s going to be a great crowd,” Stockstill said. “It’s going to be lively and loud, but we’ve got to do a great job of mentally blocking all of that out and not getting caught up in all of that.”
Although he’s expected to start against Middle Tennessee, Marshall’s redshirt freshman quarterback Isaiah Green was hobbled after throwing the winning touchdown pass at Western Kentucky. Holliday was asked if any continuing injury to Green might open the door to highly-touted junior transfer quarterback Alex Thomson.
The coach made no commitments.
“Alex Thomson is getting close (to 100 percent health),” Holliday said. “We are going to play the best players we can possibly play who gives us the best chance to win, so if Alex gets to the point that we feel that way, then he will be the first one to run out there on Friday and we will sub him in and play him.”
“He is getting close.”