Marshall University Athletics
BOGACZYK: Herd Bowls Over Huskies in Boca
12/24/2014 12:00:00 AM | Football
By JACK BOGACZYK
HERDZONE.COM COLUMNIST
BOCA RATON, Fla. – Happy Holliday!
Marshall football had reason to celebrate more than one season here Tuesday night.
The Thundering Herd used a 93-yard kick return touchdown by Deandre Reaves to get started, and then really finished off Mid-American Conference champion Northern Illinois, 52-23, in the inaugural Boca Raton Bowl at FAU Stadium.
The win, making the Herd (13-1) only the third team in Marshall history with at least 13 victories, came only hours after it was reported that Coach Doc Holliday would be receiving a contract extension with an undisclosed financial sweetening.
Holliday confirmed postgame that he and MU Athletic Director Mike Hamrick are in discussions, and Hamrick said that while there are parameters to an extension for the fifth-year coach, there “are still some hoops to get through,” and an announcement would be forthcoming after New Year’s Day.
In what many considered the de-facto Group of Five championship, the Herd got its fourth consecutive bowl win – only two teams in the country have longer streaks – and Holliday is 3-0 in bowls after Marshall returned to the kind of dominating performance it turned in early in the season against MAC teams in non-conference play.
It also was an emotional performance for the Herd, which played the game with a “SJK” decal on the back of its helmets – a memorial tribute to late MU’s President, Dr. Stephen Kopp, who died of a heart attack last Wednesday night at his home.
“It was a tremendous setting,” Holliday said, as Marshall put about 3,500 fans in the seats of an announced sellout crowd of 29,419. “I thought our fan base showed up and they were tremendous.
“We were playing with heavy hearts this week. We lost Dr. (Stephen) Kopp in the last week and what a special person he was, and this football team meant everything to him. I’m just happy we’re going to be able to deliver a game ball – a winning game ball, to his wife, Jane.”
Reaves’ TD return down the right sideline answered an NIU score of 14 second earlier and tied things 7-7, and when the Herd scored 3 1/2 minutes later, it had the advantage for good.
Playing their final collegiate games, the Miami-to-Marshall buddies – quarterback Rakeem Cato and slot receiver Tommy Shuler – provided plenty to down the Huskies (11-3).
Cato threw for three scores and ran for two more. Shuler caught 18 passes – one short of his 2012 school record at Purdue – for 185 yards and with 322 career receptions, gained the Conference USA record and the Marshall career record.
Shuler’s 18 receptions were the most in any bowl game in 32 years, since Norman Jordan of Vanderbilt caught 20 in a Hall of Fame Bowl loss to Vanderbilt in 1982. The only other receiver with more than Shuler’s 18 in a bowl also had 20 – Walker Gillette for Richmond in a Tangerine Bowl win over Ohio in 1968.
“Reaves’ return was huge, and when it came, it gave us a chance to gain some momentum,” Holliday said. “We’ve been close all year on kickoff returns, getting that thing blocked up.”
And while Cato was the bowl’s offensive MVP, the defensive MVP honor went to another Herd senior in his final game – middle linebacker Jermaine Holmes. The Valdosta, Ga., native had eight tackles, including 1 1/2 sacks. Safety Taj Letman led a resurgent Herd defense with 11 tackles.
“That defense has played well all year,” Holliday said. “Northern Illinois converted some third-and-longs early, but our guys stepped up. That’s a physical football team we played, but so are we, and we take pride in that.
“One thing I thought was critical was when (the Huskies) got down there in the score zone, we gave up field goals, not touchdowns. That’s huge.”
Holmes, who finished his career with 296 tackles, including 35 1/2 tackles for loss, appreciated his award … and more.
“It feels great, especially doing this in your last game, because you don’t know if you’re going to make it or not at the next level,” Holmes said. “I just put everything in this game. I know the rest of our 19 seniors did, too.
“It might be the last time you play. You want to go out special, go out a winner.”
It was 24-13 at halftime, but NIU managed only 150 second-half yards, going 1-of-6 on third-down conversions. At halftime, the Huskies had run 51 plays to 27 for Marshall, and had a time-of-possession bulge of more than 10 minutes.
It was a different game after that, as not only did Cato and Shuler keep moving the chains. Herd junior running back Devon Johnson finished with 131 ground yards – his 10th 100-yard game of the season.
Cato’s three-TD night took him to 46 consecutive games with a scoring pass – now not only the major-college record, but tying the NCAA’s all-divisions record previously owned by Mike Reilly of Division II Central Washington (2005-08).
His three scoring passes also gave him 40 for the season, a Marshall record, topping the 39 he threw last year in tying Chad Pennington’s 1997 mark.
“My message to (Cato) was that I love him and I’ll miss him,” Holliday said of the quarterback who owns all of Marshall’s career records. “He’s a special kid.
“He means so much to me and he’s done so much for our program and I’m just so happy for him that he finished up the way he did. Whatever this kid gets, he deserves because he’s overcome so much adversity to be successful in life.”
Cato said he thought “the offensive coaching staff had a great game plan since Day 1. I was just out there playing football, trying to execute the calls the best I can. Anybody knows Shuler is the best one-on-one matchup on earth to me, to our team.
“I’ll just continue to throw at him until they show me something different and they never showed me anything different.
However, it all began for the Herd with Reaves’ first career touchdown return, and the first for Marshall since Troy Evans took one back 100 yards in a loss at Southern Miss in October 2010 – Holliday’s first season.
“I can’t even explain it; it felt so good,” said Reaves, a junior from Sterling, Va., who has 1,752 kick return yards in the last two Herd seasons. “I told my guys this past week, ‘You guys have been busting your butt, and we’ve been close, and if you just hold your blocks three seconds, I promise I’ll get you one.’
“Once I made their kicker miss, I knew I had it. I just had to turn on to second gear. It’s always been the kicker or some other guy back there getting me. I can’t count the times there’s been one guy to get past and he’s gotten me. But our guys blocked it up so well, it made it easy for me this time.
“The kind of season this team had, and to finish off with this return … That return was a game-changer. We started out kind of slow and they went down and scored. We needed it. We got the return, went down and stopped them on defense, scored another touchdown and kicked a field goal and we were on our way.”
Cato and Shuler finished their careers as they played for much of their time in Herd uniforms.
“They went out with a bang, didn’t they?” Holliday said. “Those two guys are special. We’re going to miss them. We’re going to miss all these seniors.
“I’m so proud what they brought … They changed the culture in this program and got it back to winning championships. They won three bowls, three-time bowl champions, won a conference championship and we should end up in the Top 25 when it’s all said and done.”
Holliday’s last two teams are 23-5. The Herd has won 20 of its last 22, and Holliday’s five MU teams are 21-6 in late-season games. And now Thundering Herd nation can exhale, after holding its breath that it might lose the coach to a Power 5 conference school.
“I’m not concerned about myself,” Holliday said when asked if the news about his extension may have helped produce a relaxed Herd. “I’m just proud to be the head coach at Marshall. I’m as happy now as I’ve ever been coaching football, and that’s a long time.
“I’m just looking forward to going to the mountains with my wife (Diana) and relax for a couple of days.”
SEEN ‘N’ HERD:
The other Marshall teams with 13 wins were the 1996 Division I-AA national champions (15-0) and the 13-0 club of 1999 that finished No. 10 in the national polls. Marshall’s 13 victories also tied the C-USA record set by Houston in 2011 … Shuler’s 322 career receptions leave him at No. 5 among major-college receivers in history. His 92 catches this season – while short of his goal of becoming the first to have three 100-catch years – made him the only Herd receiver with 80 catches in more than one season. He did it three times … Center Chris Jasperse made his new Marshall major-college record 53rd consecutive start in the Boca Raton Bowl. Only two players in major-college history have made more consecutive starts -- Hawaii center John Estes (2006-09) and Northern Illinois offensive tackle Trevor Olson (2008-11) made 54 straight starts, the NCAA record. Among offensive linemen, LSU’s Ciron Black (2006-09) made 53 starts … In his final game, place-kicker Justin Haig of nearby Lake Worth not only had a team-high 28 tickets to the game in bartering with teammates, but he also had a hand in three Herd records. With 10 kick points (seven PATs and a field goal), Haig finished with 346 to wipe Tim Openlander’s 337 (1994-96) from the books. He closed with 82 PATs this season, tying Openlander’s single-season mark (1996) and he also broke Openlander’s single-season kick points mark of 130. Haig had 133. His career included two PAT streaks of 102 consecutive makes … Johnson’s 10th 100-yard rushing game of the season tied the Marshall record set three times by Chris Parker (1993, ’94, ’95). Those were Division I-AA seasons, so Johnson has the school’s major-college record. Johnson, a converted tight end, finished his first running back season with 1,767 yards, passing two of Parker’s single seasons in the bowl. Parker’s 1,833 ground yards in 1995 remains the Herd record … The Herd finished with 638 points, ranking second in MU history to the 658 in 15 games in 1996. The 7,829 yards is the season total offense record, as is the 559.2 per game average … The only two schools with longer bowl win streaks than the Herd’s four are Florida State and Ole miss, at six … Marshall’s 9-3 all-time bowl record (.750) is topped among teams that have played at least 10 games by only Utah (14-4, .778) … Cato’s two second-half TD passes to freshmen Angelo Jean-Louis and Deon-Tay McManus give Marshall 17 TDs receptions by freshmen this season, leading Virginia Tech by one as the Hokies face Cincinnati in the Military Bowl on Saturday. Herd freshmen caught 82 passes for 1,315 yards … In going 4-0 against MAC teams this season, Marshall outscored its former conference foes, 186-81.
