Topic: Gazette: Herd notebook: Fifth-year seniors a rarity this year

[ZackUSAF82]

By Doug Smock
Staff writer

HUNTINGTON -  John Jacobs scanned the lobby of Twin Towers East during Marshall's move-in day Wednesday and came to the realization: He's one of a rare breed.

That being, a fifth-year senior in the Thundering Herd's camp.

The defensive end from Broadway, Va., was hard-pressed to name others from his recruiting class of 2005 - the last class to sign before coach Bob Pruett's departure.

"We're dinosaurs, man," Jacobs said. "There's me, Albert [McClellan], James Burkes [a walk-on, originally] ... there's a couple of other guys - I can't remember now. Daniel Baldridge, umm ... Fifth-year guys, there's only five to seven of us, something like that. Not a lot."

No, there aren't. Add in defensive back Zearrick Matthews, long-snapper Sean McClellan and safety John Saunders and th-th-that's all, folks.

And there weren't that many from the recruiting class of 2005 that played their four seasons in four years - just Brian Leggett and C.J. Spillman. There were four junior-college signees, three who contributed. A whole bunch of others fell by the wayside.

That's probably just as painful as the Herd's 16-31 record over the last four seasons.

Link: http://www.wvgazette.com/Sports/200908050981