Marshall University Athletics
Seniors Tyre Brady and Keion Davis.
Photo by: USA Today Sports Images
MCGILL: Marshall football opens camp after summer of hype
8/2/2018 4:47:00 PM | Football, Word on the Herd
Expectations high for Herd in 2018
By Chuck McGill
HerdZone.com
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. – The Herd football hype machine has been running for months, and for good reason. It is hard to ignore the promise Marshall University football possesses for the 2018 season.
Rich Cirminiello, who wears many hats as an NFL Draft analyst and College Football Today co-host, took to Twitter in May to pump up the Herd. "Don't sleep on @HerdFB in 2018" he said in a tweet, before highlighting the offensive and defensive weapons MU returns this season. He is working with solid information.
This season, after December's New Mexico Bowl win against Colorado State, Marshall is the only FBS program with two 800-yard rushers and an 800-yard receiver as returnees. Those dynamic weapons will work behind an offensive line that returns seven players with starting experience and 103 combined career starts. The defense returns 16 of the top 20 tacklers and 89 percent of last season's sack production. The Team MVP – Chase Hancock – and bowl game MVPS – Tyre Brady and Channing Hames – are back, too.
"I'm more excited now than I've ever been," said Doc Holliday, who is entering his ninth season as the head coach at Marshall. "I like this team."
Well, Doc, it is easy to see why.
Athlon called Marshall the team to watch in the Conference USA East Division in 2018. The same publication put nine Herd players – NINE – on its all-conference team.
Senior running back Keion Davis has been named to the Hornung watch list as one of the nation's most versatile players. Hancock, also a senior, is on the Wuerffel watch list and AllState Good Works Team watch list. The former is recognition known as college football's premier award for community service. Senior defensive lineman Ryan Bee is on the Outland Trophy (top interior lineman) and Nagurski Trophy (top defensive player) watch lists. Junior safety Malik Gant is on the Jim Thorpe Award (top defensive back) watch list, while senior defensive lineman Juwon Young's reputation as a linebacker landed him on the Butkus Award watch list as one of the sport's best at the position. Junior offensive lineman Levi Brown is on the Rimington watch list for the nation's top center, and the aforementioned Brady – offensive MVP of the bowl game – is on the Biletnikoff watch list as college's top pass catcher.
"We're the deepest that we've ever been since I've been here," Holliday said.
That includes quarterback, where redshirt freshman Isaiah Green and sophomore Garet Morrell, who has starting experience, are joined by transfer Alex Thomson in the battle for the starting job. NFL Draft Bible called Thomson "as good as the backup QBs in the NFL right now." Green and Morrell impressed during spring drills.
No wonder, then, did the popular website larrybrownsports.com place Marshall on its list of eight teams that could crash the College Football Playoff party in 2018, joining schools like UCF, Boise State and C-USA division opponent FAU. The Herd has one of its most challenging and attractive schedules in school history, including a road trip to South Carolina, which was picked second in its division of the Southeastern Conference, and North Carolina State, an ACC school that will visit Huntington.
That is why Holliday was so eager to get to work Thursday morning when players kicked off three weeks of camp with compliance and social media refreshers. Practice begins Friday morning, inside of one month until the regular season opener at Miami (Ohio) on Sept. 1.
In that game, Marshall will debut two new coordinators – Adam Fuller on defense and Tim Cramsey on offense. Fuller has been on staff, so there is continuity on defense. Cramsey has guided some of college football's most productive offenses in recent years, and Holliday lauded his new play caller for doing "a great job of adapting our terminology to his offense, to what he wanted to do."
"The formations we are basically calling the same," Holliday added. "That has helped. But also having the entire offensive line back, all the receivers, the running backs, everything in place. That helps the transition."
Cramsey, too, generated positive attention for the Herd this summer. In July, Athlon put together a list of the top 30 coordinator hires in college football. Cramsey was ranked No. 5, as the publication recognized the top offense he guided at Sam Houston State in 2017 and the high-powered offenses he oversaw at other stops in his career.
The four names above Cramsey on the list are all defensive coordinators at Power 5 programs, meaning Cramsey is considered the top offensive coordinator hire and top Group of 5 hire among the 30 names on the list.
No wonder ticket sales have been brisk in Huntington these days. Marshall seems destined for a big season, and it seems everyone can see it coming.
HerdZone.com
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. – The Herd football hype machine has been running for months, and for good reason. It is hard to ignore the promise Marshall University football possesses for the 2018 season.
Rich Cirminiello, who wears many hats as an NFL Draft analyst and College Football Today co-host, took to Twitter in May to pump up the Herd. "Don't sleep on @HerdFB in 2018" he said in a tweet, before highlighting the offensive and defensive weapons MU returns this season. He is working with solid information.
This season, after December's New Mexico Bowl win against Colorado State, Marshall is the only FBS program with two 800-yard rushers and an 800-yard receiver as returnees. Those dynamic weapons will work behind an offensive line that returns seven players with starting experience and 103 combined career starts. The defense returns 16 of the top 20 tacklers and 89 percent of last season's sack production. The Team MVP – Chase Hancock – and bowl game MVPS – Tyre Brady and Channing Hames – are back, too.
"I'm more excited now than I've ever been," said Doc Holliday, who is entering his ninth season as the head coach at Marshall. "I like this team."
Well, Doc, it is easy to see why.
Athlon called Marshall the team to watch in the Conference USA East Division in 2018. The same publication put nine Herd players – NINE – on its all-conference team.
Senior running back Keion Davis has been named to the Hornung watch list as one of the nation's most versatile players. Hancock, also a senior, is on the Wuerffel watch list and AllState Good Works Team watch list. The former is recognition known as college football's premier award for community service. Senior defensive lineman Ryan Bee is on the Outland Trophy (top interior lineman) and Nagurski Trophy (top defensive player) watch lists. Junior safety Malik Gant is on the Jim Thorpe Award (top defensive back) watch list, while senior defensive lineman Juwon Young's reputation as a linebacker landed him on the Butkus Award watch list as one of the sport's best at the position. Junior offensive lineman Levi Brown is on the Rimington watch list for the nation's top center, and the aforementioned Brady – offensive MVP of the bowl game – is on the Biletnikoff watch list as college's top pass catcher.
"We're the deepest that we've ever been since I've been here," Holliday said.
That includes quarterback, where redshirt freshman Isaiah Green and sophomore Garet Morrell, who has starting experience, are joined by transfer Alex Thomson in the battle for the starting job. NFL Draft Bible called Thomson "as good as the backup QBs in the NFL right now." Green and Morrell impressed during spring drills.
No wonder, then, did the popular website larrybrownsports.com place Marshall on its list of eight teams that could crash the College Football Playoff party in 2018, joining schools like UCF, Boise State and C-USA division opponent FAU. The Herd has one of its most challenging and attractive schedules in school history, including a road trip to South Carolina, which was picked second in its division of the Southeastern Conference, and North Carolina State, an ACC school that will visit Huntington.
That is why Holliday was so eager to get to work Thursday morning when players kicked off three weeks of camp with compliance and social media refreshers. Practice begins Friday morning, inside of one month until the regular season opener at Miami (Ohio) on Sept. 1.
In that game, Marshall will debut two new coordinators – Adam Fuller on defense and Tim Cramsey on offense. Fuller has been on staff, so there is continuity on defense. Cramsey has guided some of college football's most productive offenses in recent years, and Holliday lauded his new play caller for doing "a great job of adapting our terminology to his offense, to what he wanted to do."
"The formations we are basically calling the same," Holliday added. "That has helped. But also having the entire offensive line back, all the receivers, the running backs, everything in place. That helps the transition."
Cramsey, too, generated positive attention for the Herd this summer. In July, Athlon put together a list of the top 30 coordinator hires in college football. Cramsey was ranked No. 5, as the publication recognized the top offense he guided at Sam Houston State in 2017 and the high-powered offenses he oversaw at other stops in his career.
The four names above Cramsey on the list are all defensive coordinators at Power 5 programs, meaning Cramsey is considered the top offensive coordinator hire and top Group of 5 hire among the 30 names on the list.
No wonder ticket sales have been brisk in Huntington these days. Marshall seems destined for a big season, and it seems everyone can see it coming.
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