Marshall University Athletics
MCGILL: Grassie, Herd men's soccer continue to make history
3/19/2021 10:18:00 AM | Men's Soccer, Word on the Herd
Marshall is ranked in the Top 10 for the first time ever
By Chuck McGill
HerdZone.com
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. – Near the end of 2019, I traveled with the Marshall men's soccer team to Seattle, Washington, for a Sweet 16 matchup with the Pac-12's Huskies. It was one of the best professional experiences of my life, even if it ended on a dour note.
The lesson I took away from that trip was how winning permeates every aspect of one's life. There is no if, only when. And on that trip, Herd head coach Chris Grassie talked to his team in the most definitive terms in regards to advancing in the NCAA tournament bracket. It was clear to me, an athletic administrator at a Division I institution, that we had a coach who believed his team could accomplish anything.
There was no reason to doubt him.
More than a year later, I sat in Grassie's office and we discussed the spring season, delayed from the fall because of the coronavirus pandemic. I asked him about the 2019 Conference USA preseason poll, which was voted on by the league's coaches. Marshall was picked to finish fourth, and only one coach had the Thundering Herd winning it all.
Marshall ultimately finished the 2019 season 16-3-3, was ranked No. 11 nationally in the polls entering and exiting the NCAA tournament, qualified for its first ever NCAA tourney, and won the C-USA regular season and postseason trophies. It was a historic season and only that one league coach predicted it would happen.
So, I asked Grassie: Was that one coach you?
"I'm good at predicting," he said. "Yes, because I thought we were going to win. I thought we were good enough to win. If I don't believe in us, who will?"
I knew what he was going to say, but it floored me all the same. In his third season at Marshall, guiding a program that hadn't had prolonged success since it began in 1979, Grassie believed.
"You can't vote for your own players," he said. "You can't vote for yourself as Coach of the Year. You send in your list, so I put us at No. 1. That was me."
A few months later, the Marshall men's soccer program began receiving votes for the Top 25 poll. Then, the Herd graduated into the Top 25. From the program's inception in 1979 through 2018, Marshall had only spent one week inside the Top 25 – October 1, 2001 – and it lasted for one week. The Herd dropped the next two games and spiraled out of the ranking.
By Week 7 in 2019, Marshall pushed its way into the national rankings at No. 21. It climbed to No. 15, then No. 14, then No. 13 and then No. 11. On Thursday night in Lexington, Kentucky, Marshall played its first game in program history as a Top 10 program. The Herd responded by beating No. 11 UK, on its home field, 1-0, to improve to 6-1-1 overall and 3-0-0 in conference play.
"It's become a different challenge," Grassie said. "It's been so long since we won it, it feels interesting to say we're defending it. It is that next level: can you win back-to-back? Can you be a multi-year team? Can you be a four-year dynasty and not be a flash in the pan? It's been a different set of challenges. We've had guys drafted. Jamil (Roberts) found out he's going to stay for the spring and join Kansas City in the summer. Milo (Yosef), Jamil on the Watch List. They have expectations to go pro.
"They have other pressures. As a team, we're not shocking anybody now. Teams know what we like to do. Every team now when we play Charlotte or FIU or Kentucky, that's the team you want to beat. We're that team now. They're going to want to knock off the champs. So, now it's a whole different set of pressures. We're good now, but we have to act like we're good. That's the challenges of managing professional expectations. You need them to stay grounded here, but we need to defend the title."
Marshall is in control of that destiny after Thursday night's decision in the face of the rain and the wind on UK's campus. The Herd is atop the league standings, which is more important than ever because there is no C-USA tournament this season. The regular season winner receives the automatic berth into the NCAA tournament, so Marshall is in prime position to clinch that bid.
Consider this: Marshall defeated five Top 20 teams from 1979 to 2018. In the past 14 matches, Marshall has defeated five Top 20 programs. It took 39 years for others to accomplish what Grassie and his players have achieved in the past 14 games.
I get it. I get why Grassie was so confident in himself and his team. I get why he believed before others did.
And I'll never doubt what this program can accomplish under his watch.
