Marshall University Athletics
MCGILL: Senior Day arrives with team goals within reach
12/4/2020 5:44:00 PM | Football, Word on the Herd
Marshall hosts Rice on Saturday at noon on ESPN+
By Chuck McGill
HerdZone.com
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. – Saturday will be an unusual Senior Day for the Marshall football program.
While this will be the 25th time the Thundering Herd has played at home in December, it has never happened in the regular season. Four seniors will be honored, as others are contemplating their futures. In fact, oddly enough, this might not even be the final regular season home game, depending how league schedules shake out in the next week. In 2020, never say never, right?
Marshall (7-0, 4-0), nationally ranked and undefeated, will host Rice (1-2, 1-2) on Saturday at noon in a game that could move the Herd closer to clinching a spot in the Conference USA championship game. Saturday's game will be broadcast on ESPN+. This will be Marshall's first game since Nov. 14, the team's second three-week layoff in the middle of the season. This time, the players stuck together through one holiday with the realization that this football season likely will not include until after the next holiday.
"It's looking like we're not going to get home for Christmas," said sophomore linebacker Eli Neal, "and then you don't get to be with your family on Thanksgiving. But our goal is less than a month away, so we know what we've got to do. We have to lock in and come together as a team and understand what our goal is. We know what we have to do to attain it."
Neal said he was "not going to sit here and lie that this is as easy as it comes," referring to another lengthy absence between games. He then added, "It's hard to go from playing a game to beating up on your own teammates for two or three weeks."
But, Neal added, when a championship is within grasp, that's the only motivation he and his teammates need, especially on a day set aside to honor the seniors' contributions to the program.
"At the beginning of the season we didn't know we'd be a Top 25 team, a Top 15 team," Neal said. "Do we enjoy it? Yes. Do we want to keep it there? Yes. But we all set out to win a conference championship. That's what we set out for from the beginning.
"We all know our goal. It's surreal to know that it's right here but you have to stay locked in."
Marshall's next obstacle is a Rice team that finished the 2019 season on a three-game winning streak, and has two losses this season by 6 points and 10 points. The Owls' lone win this season was a 30-6 victory at Southern Miss.
Rice did not begin its season until Oct. 24 vs. Middle Tennessee, and then played the next weekend at USM. Two off weeks followed, then a game at North Texas, followed by another week idle.
Marshall knows all about those lengthy breaks.
"You have to take it as it comes because (the schedule) changes so frequently," said junior running back Brenden Knox. "You have to change as the schedule does and kind of roll with the punches."
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Marshall's magic number is nine this week. The Herd has won nine consecutive games at Joan C. Edwards Stadium, nine straight C-USA games in Huntington, and recorded nine victories in a row in December home games. That last December loss: 1995 in the I-AA National Championship Game vs. Montana.
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During his weekly coaches show, Rice Owls Insider, Rice head coach Mike Bloomgren singled out Marshall's veteran roster on both sides of the ball, including the offensive line. The Herd has started all seniors along the offensive front in every game this season, a total of six seniors who have covered those spots. Alex Salguero, Alex Mollette, Josh Ball and Will Ulmer have made all seven starts, while Cain Madden has started six games and Tarik Adams one. Those players have combined for 153 career starts at Marshall.
"I can't really say enough," redshirt freshman quarterback Grant Wells said. "I got to give all the credit for my success out there to those guys. When you mention the seniors and you mention the offense, it goes without saying, the offensive line. I've got to give all the credit for my success to those guys up front, and the support they've shown me and how they've got my back through this whole season. Everybody needs everybody's back this season."
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Saturday's forecast is cool and dry, but Marshall offensive coordinator Tim Cramsey said the elements do not matter when preparing the game plan. He, Wells and the offense will be ready no matter how Saturday's weather unfolds.
"The game plan doesn't change," Cramsey said. "What you have to be aware of is what is going on in that moment. Is it raining at that point when you have the ball? Which way is the wind going? You have to be able to play it on gameday as to what the weather is doing right now as opposed to putting a game plan instead of putting a rain game plan in. It doesn't change Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday stuff."
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).
