There’s improvement on both sides of the ball and for Thundering Herd Head Coach Doc Holliday that is exactly what he wants to see with half of spring practice in the books. Marshall held its first officiated scrimmage of the spring Saturday at Joan C. Edwards Stadium and Holliday was pleased with what he saw.
“I see good things on both sides of the ball, which is extremely encouraging,” Holliday said. “You’re seeing guys showing up on both sides of the ball.”
Defense set the tone early in the scrimmage when linebacker Stephan Houston unloaded a bone-crushing hit on running back Kevin Grooms.
“You watch him and you talk about players that have the physical skills and the ability to make plays and he’s been doing that all spring. He can make the plays in space and he’s going to be a special player,” commented Holliday.
The much-maligned unit in 2012 has made significant strides through the first half of spring drills and played with intensity and aggressiveness on Satuday. Linebacker Derek Mitchell registered eight tackles, 3.5 tackles for loss and had three sacks (even though there was no hitting the quarterback). RaShawde Myers stuffed The Herd’s offense on the goal for a safety while Billy Mitchell and Alex Bazzie each registered sacks in the scrimmage.
“I think the day culminated with the week,” Heater said. “We got better this week. I felt like we got better as a team Thursday and I thought at times today we jumped up and fought pretty well. I’m encouraged by that because we’re going up against an outstanding offense. Every time you make a mistake, they make you pay for it and that’s a good test for us.”
The offense started off a bit sluggish but picked up the intensity toward the end of the session. Rakeem Cato completed 16-of-26 for 160 yards and a pair of touchdowns. Cato was also under pressure on several occasions as the defense worked on a couple of blitz packages.
“They had a hell of a practice today,” Cato said. “Everybody was flying around, making solo tackles in the backfield, assisted tackles and pass breakups. They did a pretty good job today.”
Blake Frohnapfel was equally as efficient hitting 12-of-20 attempts for 162 yards and three touchdowns including a 19-yard scoring toss to Chris Alston, Jr.
“It’s just great to have Froh there,” Holliday said. “We’re going to do some more things with him too that we have to get in the rest of the spring. We’re going to have a package for him because he deserves to play.”
On the ground, the offense rushed for 99 yards on 45 carries. Remi Watson carried the ball 13 times for 60 yards. Kevin Grooms had 30 yards rushing on seven carries including a 12-yard scoring run.
13 different receivers caught passes led by Tommy Shuler who hauled in six passes for 72 yards. Eric Frohnapfel, Chris Alston, Jr, Stefone Grace, and Kevin Grooms all had scoring catches on the day.
NOTES:
– Demetrius Evans may have been nicked up. He went up for a pass along the sidelines and came down awkwardly on his shoulder. He didn’t see much action after that.
– Doc Holliday mentioned after the scrimmage they want to do more with Blake Frohnapfel in the offense this year. Holliday says they’ll have a special package for him. Blake did get a few snaps with the first team offense that included a 25-yard pass to his brother Eric.
– The defense looked aggressive and hungry, both good signs. Defenders broke up eight passes, registered four sacks and 11 stops behind the line of scrimmage.
– Marshall will hold it’s second scrimmage of the spring next Saturday morning at the Joan C. Edwards Stadium before the annual Green/White game on April. 27th.