Halloween came a few days early at Joan C. Edwards Stadium. Marshall’s performance against the Knight was nothing short of a nightmare as UCF humiliated The Herd 54-17 on a chilly and rainy night in Huntington.
“It’s obvious we didn’t play well all night in any of the three phases,” said Doc Holliday. “It’s unfortunate and disappointing. Give Central Florida credit they’re well coached and came in here and beat us.”
The Herd was simply outplayed in all phases of the game. UCF scored 14 points on special teams thanks to a pair of kickoff returns for touchdowns by Quincy McDuffie. McDuffie opened the scoring for the Knights with a 97-yard touchdown return in the first quarter. He would duplicate the feat again on the second half opening kickoff as he returned it 98 yards. It marked the first time UCF has ever returned two kicks for touchdowns in a game.
“Missed tackles,” emphasized Holliday. “You’ve got guys right there to make a play and they’ve got to make them. Last week we made them all. This week we didn’t make near enough.”
Defensively, Marshall couldn’t find an answer for UCF’s Latavius Murray. The senior rushed for touchdowns of two, 75 and 42 yards on his way to rushing for 156 yards on the day. Murray also caught a touchdown pass in the third quarter one of two scorings passes thrown by Blake Bortles on the day. Bortles also hit Shawn Moffit for a 16-yard touchdown in the waning moments of the first half.
“A lot of the big plays were missed tackles or there were a couple of third down conversions there that we didn’t make the play,” explained Holliday.
Offensively, Marshall never could get any rhythm going and looked out of sync all night long. From the start The Herd was its own worst enemy on offense. Even though Rakeem Cato was finding receivers open in the UCF secondary, drops plagued The Herd’s receiving corps. Sure-handed receivers such as Tommy Shuler and Aaron Dobson failed to corral passes that hit them in the hands and could have been third down conversions.
Rakeem Cato had his worst game of the season by far throwing, failing to eclipse the 300-yard mark for the first time all year. Cato finished the night 35-of-62 for 298 yards and two touchdowns.
“We just killed ourselves,” said Cato. “The pressure they were sending could’ve been picked up but we weren’t focusing enough.”
To compound the problem the running game could gain any traction on the damp turf. The Herd gained only 36 yards rushing against C-USA’s top ranked defense. Remi Watson was The Herd’s leading rusher with a meager 29 yards on seven carries. Kevin Grooms was only able to find 25 yards on the ground.
Meanwhile, UCF had no trouble moving the ball on the ground and through the air when necessary. The Knights were led by Murray’s 156 yards as it rushed for 298 on the night. Bortles was effective throwing for 265 yards and two touchdowns.
Marshall falls to 3-5 on the season and 2-2 in conference play. Meanwhile the Knights improve to 6-3 overall and remain a perfect 4-0 in C-USA.
The Herd will be back at Joan C. Edwards Stadium next week as is welcomes Memphis to Huntington. Kickoff is set for 2 p.m