Marshall University Athletics
Marshall Football Hosts East Carolina Saturday
9/30/2009 12:00:00 AM | Football
Complete Release in PDF Format 
Sept. 30, 2009
Marshall will host defending Conference USA Champion East Carolina on Saturday at Joan C. Edwards Stadium. Kickoff is scheduled for Noon and the game will be televised nationally by CBS College Sports with Tom Hart play-by-play and Aaron Taylor serving as analyst.
Marshall (3-1, 1-0 C-USA) is coming off of a strong 27-16 win at Memphis last Saturday. The Thundering Herd is being paced by junior running back Darius Marshall who leads the nation in rushing with 166 yards per game.
East Carolina (2-2, 1-0 C-USA) is coming off of a win over UCF in C-USA play and the Pirates only loses this season have come on the road at West Virginia and North Carolina. ECU is led by senior quarterback Patrick Pinkney and a talented defense.
Tickets are available by going online to the www.Herdzone.com ticket link or by calling 1-800-THE-HERD. A large walk up crowd is expected for Saturday's game and fans are encouraged to purchase their tickets in advance.
This week is Homecoming on the Marshall campus and several activities are planned around the game. The annual homecoming parade is set for Thursday night at 7 p.m. in downtown Huntington and former Marshall and New England Patriot star Troy Brown will serve as the grand marshal.
Fans will want to be in their seats early, because the game ball will be delivered by Team Fastrax parachuters.
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Notes:
Television: The game will be televised by CBS College Sports. CBS C is available on DirecTV channel 613 and Dish Network channel 152. CBS College Sports is on channel 174 on Comcast Cable in Huntington.
Parking: All Game Day parking lots will open at approximately 8 a.m. on Saturday.
Homecoming: Marshall will be celebrating its annual Homecoming on Saturday and the school has one of the oldest Homecoming traditions in all of college football. Newspaper reports from prior to 1900 refer to certain Marshall College football games as "Coming Home" games in which alums were invited back to campus around the Thanksgiving holiday. Marshall traces its homecoming roots back to Nov. 28, 1895 and a scoreless tie with Kingsbury High School. Marshall is 56-43-8 all-time in Homecoming games (.561) and prior to last season's Homecoming loss to UCF, Marshall, had won 15 consecutive homecoming games.
East Carolina and Marshall: The Herd and the Pirates will meet for the 11th time on Saturday. The two schools are forever linked by the Marshall plane crash on Nov. 14, 1970; the tragedy that took the lives of 75 persons occurred on the team's return from a game at East Carolina (17-14 loss). ECU holds an 8-3 advantage in the series and the Pirates have won three of the last four since Marshall joined Conference USA. Last year, the Pirates came out on the winning end of a 19-16 overtime game while in 2007, the last meeting in Huntington, the Herd looked strong in a 26-7 win. This series has been tightly contested and in the last five meetings (dating back to the dramatic 64-61 2 OT Marshall win in the 2001 GMAC Bowl) the combined score is remarkably close with MU scoring 155 points and ECU scoring 154.
Tracking The Pirates: East Carolina evened its record at 2-2 with a 19-14 win in their C-USA opener against UCF last weekend. The Pirates began the season with a 29-24 win over Appalachian State before falling in hard fought games at West Virginia and North Carolina. They are led by senior QB Pat Pinkney. Pinkney has averaged 189 passing yards per game and has thrown four touchdown passes. His top target has been WR Dwayne Harris, who has hauled in 22 receptions and a touchdown. On the ground, ECU is led by Brandon Jackson, who has rushed for 206 yards in 2009, good for an average of 51.5 YPG.
National Leader: Junior RB Darius Marshall became the nation's leading rusher thanks to a career-high 203 yards on the ground against Memphis. The performance pushed his average to 166.0 YPG, 18 yards ahead of No. 2 Ryan Matthews of Fresno State. Marshall is also the nation's leader in all purpose yards, averaging 250.0 YPG, just ahead of Torrey Smith of Maryland, who has posted 244.75 per game. The junior's 203-yard, 3-TD effort against the Tigers marked the best game for a Marshall running back since 2006 when Ahmad Bradshaw rushed for 261 yards and 5 TD's against UTEP.
First Connection: In the third quarter of last week's game against the Tigers, Darius Marshall lined up at QB for a play and hit Aaron Dobson for a 27-yard pass completion. It marked the first pass completion for Marshall and the first collegiate reception for Dobson.
Still Perfect: Herd kicker Craig Ratanamorn connected on both field goal attempts and all three extra point tries against Memphis to remain perfect on the season. He is a perfect 5-for-5 in field goal tries and 10-10 in EPA's.
The Great Cody Slate: All-America and John Mackey Award Candidate Cody Slate is one of the top returning tight ends in the nation. Slate, a senior from Chipley, Fla., has accumulated 2,213 receiving yards and 21 TD receptions in his career. He is on the preseason John Mackey Award Watch List and with his performance in the 2009 opener against Southern Illinois, passed former MU standout Sean Doctor's career total of 2,100 receiving yards to become the top receiving tight end in Marshall History. His 2,213 career receiving yards put him 8th all-time at Marshall and his 166 career receptions are the ninth most in MU history.
