— By Bill Cornwell
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — Two desperate teams in need of a win meet Saturday afternoon in Huntington as Marshall hosts Old Dominion in a Conference USA East Division battle.
The game kicks off at 2:30 p.m. and can be seen on Stadium.
Marshall (2-3) is trying to end a two-game losing streak, including last week’s conference-opening 24-13 loss at Middle Tennessee.
The Monarchs (1-4) opened the season with a win over Norfolk State, but have since dropped four straight contests, including last week’s 20-3 home loss to Western Kentucky. The ODU losses included close road defeats to Virginia and Virginia Tech.
The Herd’s loss at MTSU was frustrating for the team and head coach Doc Holliday as Marshall outgained the Blue Raiders by 177 yards, but four turnovers (three interceptions and a fumble) limited the Herd to a single touchdown — a 75-yard 1st quarter connection between quarterback Isaiah Green and tight end Armani Levias.
Marshall fans have wondered if Holliday might consider giving senior quarterback Alex Thomson a chance to start against Old Dominion or share time with Green, who had 460 yards of total offense despite the miscues last Saturday.
But Holliday says that Green remains the starter.
“Right now, we feel like he gives us our best chance to win,” Holliday said. “When you look at his four turnovers, and don’t get me wrong, one turnover is too many … he’ll work to get that fixed. On the first turnover, the receiver ran the wrong route. Sometimes when those things happen, it isn’t all on him but he’s responsible for it. On the last one, he was just trying to throw it up and make a play.
“If you eliminate those two, you have two others that are still two too many. You can’t have any. He’ll work to get that fixed. He takes great pride in what he does. Football is important to him. He’ll bounce back and I think he’ll play great on Saturday.”
The seat is hot in Norfolk for Old Dominion Head Coach Bobby Wilder, the only coach for the Monarchs since the ODU program was re-established in 2009. The Monarchs have gone 5-7 and 4-8 the last two seasons and fans are getting impatient for a return to the winning tradition established in the program’s early years under Wilder.
The Monarchs made changes on both sides of the ball this year and the defensive changes have paid off, as ODU is second against the run and in total defense in Conference USA.
The ODU offense has struggled as the team transitions to a more conservative run-oriented attack after years as a pass-heavy team.
“We just need to play better football on offense,” Wilder said. “We’re young right now on offense, we’ve got some key injuries. But we’ve got to find a way to play better football on offense. Those guys are committed to winning; they want to get better. They had some really strong suggestions, they want to practice harder, they want to practice more against each other.
“The defensive guys are talking to the offensive guys, saying, “hey, let’s practice harder against each other.”
The Monarchs are led on offense by junior college transfer quarterback Stone Smartt.
“He’s a bigger kid than what we’ve played against,” Holliday said. “He’s longer, taller and had tremendous stats coming out of the JUCO ranks. He can run with the football. They like to get him out on the perimeter where he can create some of the issues that we’ve had the last couple of weeks with quarterback runs and that type of thing.”
Two other key performers for the Monarchs are senior running back Kesean Strong and sophomore receiver Steven Williams Jr.
Wilder says his team isn’t getting down despite recent struggles.
“We know this will be a major challenge for us this week and we’ll need a great week of practice, which I know we’ll have, but this is a good football team we have at Old Dominion,” Wilder said. “They’re passionate, they want to do well, but we just need to execute a little bit better in all phases, and we’ll do that as a football team.”
Holliday, meanwhile, had a simple message for his team.
“Just go be yourself,” Holliday said. “Your best will be good enough. We talk all the time about being consistent on the field and off. Don’t try to be anything else. When you get an opportunity to make a play, you have to go do it.
“You’ve heard me say it many times, it’s called competitive excellence. When your number is called to go make a play, that’s what you have to do. The only thing this team needs is a win.”