Topic: Gazette: Punter hurt in Marshall special-teams scrimmage

[ZackUSAF82]

By Doug Smock
Staff writer
HUNTINGTON — How bad is Marshall’s punting situation?

Unimaginably, Marshall’s punting situation took yet another turn for the worse Wednesday in the Thundering Herd’s special-teams scrimmage.

Jake Fields, the front-runner to hold down the fort while Marty Biagi’s knee mends from a kick-scrimmage disaster in the spring, injured his kicking leg on his eighth punt attempt. His prognosis is uncertain, but he was helped off the field and left the stadium in crutches.

The freshman from Hurricane, via Hargrave Military Academy, fumbled his second snap of the day from St. Albans native Jeremy James. It appeared to be a perfect snap that simply went through his hands and off his gut.

When he tried to kick the ball anyway, a horde of Green team rushers were there to greet him, pummeling him and blocking the kick.

And leaving coach Mark Snyder possibly facing an even bigger problem in “the most important play in football.”

“You drop the ball, you’re going to get the punt blocked if you try to pick it up and punt it,” Snyder said before dashing to “Paint the Capital City Green” in Charleston. “You’ve got to catch the ball. Those things happen. You’re going to get a safety, and you’re going to get hit.”

Fields’ first such fumble resulted in a safety, the Green’s first score in a 32-27 victory. The positive highlight was Anthony Binswanger’s 52-yard field goal (for the Green) and a consistent effort by his backup, Elliott Boyd (for the White). Boyd hit 9-of-10 from 27 yards, with the lone miss blocked at the line. Binswanger also missed one of his 10 tries from 27.

“There were a whole bunch of learning lessons in that little bit we had right there,” Snyder said. “Not fair catching when you’ve got a return on, guys looking at the rush instead of catching the punt. There were some good things on kickoff return, we’ve got to clean up some things there.”

Link: http://wvgazette.com/section/Sports/Marshall/2007081536