Marshall University Athletics
MCGILL: Herd ground game begins to flourish
10/19/2018 10:11:00 AM | Football, Word on the Herd
Marshall welcomes defending league champ FAU for homecoming weekend
By Chuck McGill
HerdZone.com
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. – If the narrative for the 2018 Marshall football team was going to be centered around how it could not generate a ground game, well, the Herd ran away from that talk the last two weeks.
In Conference USA games against Middle Tennessee and Old Dominion, Marshall rushed 98 times for 528 yards and six touchdowns. Against ODU, the Herd improved to 10-0 under coach Doc Holliday when rushing for 300-plus yards as a team. One running back, senior Anthony Anderson, ran for three touchdowns and as named the team's Offensive Champion. Another running back, sophomore Tyler King, rushed for 195 yards and two touchdowns, and claimed C-USA Co-Offensive Player of the Week honors.
Now, entering Saturday's homecoming game against defending league champion Florida Atlantic (3-3, 1-1 C-USA), Marshall (4-2, 2-1 C-USA) is fourth in the conference in rushing yards. The passing offense ranks No. 8 among 14 teams.
"You get in a situation where you take what the defense gives you," said Tim Cramsey's, Marshall's first-year offensive coordinator. "Credit goes to the offensive line. Credit goes to the way that Tyler and Anthony have been running these last couple of weeks. The receivers have been blocking. We have done a good job of being efficient in the pass game, which has cleared out the box a little bit. We brought the quarterback run game into it a little bit, which has kind of opened things up and forced people to not load the box.
"We're in a philosophy of take what the defense gives, and if they're going to load the box and force us to throw it – we were throwing for almost 300 yards per game the first couple of games – and then they cleared the box out the last couple of weeks and we started to run the ball. You have to take what the defense gives you."
The run game has flourished the past two weeks with junior quarterback Alex Thomson behind center. Thomson rushed for 29 yards on eight attempts against ODU.
"He's a very mature person, in general, and a mature quarterback in that sense," Cramsey said. "He understands the game plan; understands what we're doing. RPO (run-pass option) game, taking the throws when they're there, giving the ball when it's not there. He did a good job in the quarterback run game. Like I thought, he got a little bit more comfortable in Week 1 from the first half to the second half, and I thought he looked very comfortable last week. We've got to keep it going."
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
Marshall first-year defensive coordinator Adam Fuller is tasked with devising a way to limit FAU junior running back Devin Singletary, who leads all FBS runners in touchdowns this season. He enters the Marshall game with three consecutive 100-yard rushing games, something he did in the final 12 games of 2017. That included a 203-yard rushing performance in a 30-25 win against Marshall on Nov. 3, 2017.
Singletary has scored a rushing touchdown in 19 consecutive games.
"He's as good of a lateral cutter as I've ever coached against. He sidesteps tackles and gets vertical all in one step. He's got a toughness to him. You can tell he's a really true competitor. He's a really good player. You like coaching against those guys because they make you work really hard; they make your players play really hard. You have to really be on your run fits, your effort, your tackling, your angles, you name it. Good players make you be really good at a lot of things."
STREAKS
Singletary doesn't have the only positive streak entering Saturday afternoon's game. Keep an eye on the first quarter because the Thundering Herd will have a couple of streaks on the line against the visiting Owls.
Marshall has won 14 consecutive games when scoring first, a streak that was extended in last week's game against Old Dominion. So far this year, the Herd is 4-0 when it scores first, and 0-2 when the opponent breaks the scoreless tie.
Also, Fuller's defense has not allowed a first quarter touchdown in nine consecutive games, which is the second-longest streak among FBS teams. LSU's active streak is 11 games, and Kentucky is third with seven straight touchdown-free first quarters.
The last team to score a touchdown in the first quarter against the Herd: WKU. The Hilltoppers scored on a 6-yard pass from Mike White to Quin Jernighan with 9:54 left of the first quarter in the teams' 2017 meeting. Marshall outscored WKU 30-3 over the next two quarters to put away its annual rival.
FOLLOW ALONG
As always, at home or on the road, the Marshall athletic department will provide in-game updates through social media websites Twitter and Facebook. Please follow me on Twitter – @chuckmcgill or www.twitter.com/chuckmcgill – and Marshall's official football account – @HerdFB or www.twitter.com/HerdFB. Questions are welcome on Twitter or by emailing mcgillc@marshall.edu
Chuck McGill is the Assistant Athletic Director for Fan/Donor Engagement and Communications at Marshall University and a six-time winner of the National Sports Media Association West Virginia Sportswriter of the Year award. In addition to HerdZone.com's Word on the Herd, McGill is the editor of Thundering Herd Illustrated, Marshall's official athletics publication. Follow him on Twitter (@chuckmcgill) and Instagram (wordontheherd).
