Marshall University Athletics
MCGILL: Road to C-USA title game more challenging than ever in 2020
12/16/2020 2:03:00 PM | Football, Word on the Herd
Marshall and UAB meet Friday night at Joan C. Edwards Stadium
By Chuck McGill
HerdZone.com
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. – The 2020 Ryan Conference USA Football Championship Game is Friday at 7 p.m.
The road to get this point, for both Marshall and visiting UAB, was a long one. The idea that this college football season could be considered illegitimate because of the number of contests, or the players who were either sidelined or opted out, or because of the numerous cancellations, postponements and rescheduled games, doesn't seem to sit well with any coach or player who endured the struggles to get here.
Marshall's football players, for example, returned to campus May 20 – nearly seven months ago. They were isolated, tested and then began off-season workouts in June. By July, preseason camp had started. Protocol mandated at least three tests per week for the coronavirus that has spread throughout the world in 2020. Of the 17 weeks of the college football season – from Week 0 on August 29 until now – only four weekends went as scheduled for the Thundering Herd football program.
"Every coach, and Doc (Holliday) would say the same thing, would say this was probably tougher than we thought it was going to be," said Bill Clark, UAB's head football coach. "Coaches are the kind of people who say 'Hey, we're going to get it done; we're going to find a way no matter what.' We all wanted to play; we wanted to play for our kids; we wanted to play for our country.
"With COVID, the testing three times per week, if not more, the contact tracing, the opting out … all the things we've gone through."
In Conference USA, 10 of the 14 programs played at least eight games. Only Marshall (7-1 overall, 4-1 C-USA) and UAB (5-3, 3-1) managed to navigate conference play with only one loss. That's a task more challenging than most years because of the lack of certainty. Seldom did coaches know which players they'd have available, or who'd show up on gameday on the other side of the ball. Schedules were constantly shuffled, and sometimes there was only days to prepare for an opponent, and other times an opponent had weeks to prepare for a team.
Even on the game day, games were getting called because of a lack of depth at key positions or fears of a coronavirus outbreak.
"I want to talk about how proud I am of my football team," Holliday said. "These kids have gone through an awful lot. I hear people at times talk about how there should be an asterisk besides this championship game, whether it's ours or somebody else's. Let me just say this to you, there shouldn't be an asterisk, it should be a star for what these kids have had to go through.
"I don't think people understand what these kids have had to go through to get to this point. I'm proud of our players, I'm proud of our coaches. The biggest thing is the unknown. Now there are so many unknowns. We want to control everything, but this is one year where there's a lot of things that are out of our hands and that's frustrating."
Marshall won its first seven games, climbing into the top 15 in the national rankings for the first time since 1999. The Herd also spent multiple weeks in the College Football Playoff rankings for the first time in program history. Holliday was added to the Bear Bryant Watch List for National Coach of the Year, and this week was honored as the American Football Coaches Association Region 4 Coach of the Year, which automatically makes the 11th-year Marshall coach a finalist for the AFCA National Coach of the Year.
Holliday was quick to deflect credit to the coaching staff and players.
"It means a lot because we came through a lot," Marshall senior safety Nazeeh Johnson said of reaching the championship game. "People missing COVID. Us missing games. To cap what we've gone through this season with a championship would mean a lot."
The Herd faces a Blazers program competing in its third consecutive C-USA Championship Game. UAB missed four consecutive weekends of football – games against North Texas, UTEP, Southern Miss and Middle Tennessee were wiped from the schedule and not able to be made up – before returning last week to defeat Rice.
Saturday will be the Blazers' second game since Halloween.
"No matter which way this game goes this is one year we're never going to forget," Marshall freshman quarterback Grant Wells said. "With all the tests we've had to go through and the precautions and everything this year has brought upon us. It would be something special to go out here with a win Friday and cap the season off with all the crazy stuff we've gone through this year."
Friday's game is at Joan C. Edwards Stadium, has limited capacity and will be broadcast on CBS Sports Network.
Chuck McGill is the Assistant Athletic Director for Fan/Donor Engagement and Communications at Marshall University and an eight-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).
