— By Bill Cornwell
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — Marshall gets a chance to see if it can live up to high preseason expectations in Conference USA when the Herd begins league play Saturday afternoon at Middle Tennessee.
Marshall enters the game with a 2-2 record, but is coming off its worst performance of the season in a 52-14 loss to Cincinnati.
The Blue Raiders are 1-3, with non-conference road losses at Michigan and Iowa and a home loss to Duke.
Saturday’s game at Johnny “Red” Floyd Stadium in Murfreesboro, Tennessee kicks off at 3:30 p.m., and can be seen on Facebook.
This will be the ninth meeting between the schools and Marshall has a 5-3 series lead.
The Blue Raiders beat the Herd in Huntington last season, 34-24, on the way to winning Conference USA’s East Division.
Marshall was the consensus pick of media and coaches to win C-USA this season, while Middle Tennessee was predicted to finish in the middle of the pack in the conference’s East Division.
Both teams are coming off lopsided losses last week as the Blue Raiders were on the wrong end of a 48-3 drubbing against the Hawkeyes.
Last week’s performance against the Bearcats was a disappointment for Marshall fans, players and MU head coach Doc Holliday, who says it’s now time to turn the page and focus on eight consecutive conference games.
“It’s going to be about us,” Holliday said. “We have to go find a way to be our best us, our best team, on Saturday night. It’s a conference game. Anytime you get into conference play, every game is important. We set goals early on this season and they’re still all out there.
“At the end of non-conference play, your season sort of starts over. Not only for us, but Middle Tennessee is sitting there saying the same thing. They are 1-3 and lost to three really good football teams. They were 2-2 a year ago and ended up playing for a conference championship. That’s what it’s all about. We have to find a way to get better this week.”
Blue Raiders head coach Rick Stockstill is also looking for a fresh start for his team.
“Conference play is always an exciting time,” Stockstill said. “Three of these first four have been a top-10 team, a top-15 team, a top-25 team, so we’ve played a gauntlet of out-of-conference guys. I’d put Marshall up there with anybody that we’ve played this year — that’s a good football team.”
The quarterback matchup could be interesting in the game as Marshall sophomore signal caller Isaiah Green faces off with the new MTSU starter, sophomore Asher O’Hara.
Green had a rough go of it against Cincinnati, throwing for only 131 yards and no touchdowns.
Things were no better for O’Hara, who had only 110 yards through the air against Iowa.
Still, Holliday is impressed with O’Hara, who is replacing one of the program’s all-time top quarterbacks in Brent Stockstill — the son of Rick Stockstill.
“If you watch him, he doesn’t run out of bounds and he isn’t going to slide,” Holliday said. “He’s going to jump over people and he takes a lot of shots. He gets hit a lot and bounces right back up, throws the ball to the official and goes right back and does it again. If he had number 12 on, that’s who you’d think it was (Brent Stockstill).
“Put any of those tapes in and you’ll see the same thing. He can play. You have to get him on the ground and tackle him because he’s going to take off, with the ability to throw the ball as well.”
Stockstill’s biggest concern about Marshall is putting a halt to the Herd’s normally productive running game.
“They’re averaging over 200 yards rushing a game, so that’s where it starts,” Stockstill said. “Their quarterback is looking to pass first, but he can extend plays with his feet. He can get outside of the pocket and create some things in the run game off of pass plays, so we’ve got to be cognizant of him once he gets out of the pocket that we don’t lose sight of the receivers, because he’ll throw it over the top.
“To me, that’s where it starts — we’ve got to stop the run, limit the big play.”
Holliday believes another key is for Marshall’s receivers to make plays. The Herd receivers were stymied all night against Cincinnati and the coach says it’s time for the young, but talented group to win one-on-one battles with defenders.
“They have to accelerate (their learning curve) quickly, because that’s who we have,” Holliday said. “We have good players, they just have to continue to grow and make plays now. We need it. And they will. I like those kids. They’ve made some plays. They’ll work hard and (wide receivers coach) Dallas (Baker) will do a great job with them.
“Some of our older receivers aren’t out there right now. Artie (Henry) is out for the year and Obi (Obialo) has struggled with some injuries. Those young guys have to step up like (tailback Brenden) Knox did a year ago.”