Topic: OK I will be the 1st.

[bbcard1]

I really think we can get to 10 wins again with a bowl game win.  I am not sure two conference losses will get us to the championship…sort of doubt it.

[jt]

We have at least four challenging games coming up, any one (or all) of which we could lose. I'll feel much better when we "bank" a couple of those in the win column. Which I will continue to expect. I love my Herd team..  The schedule just gets tougher as the year progresses but our team should do the same and be ready for it.

[MarshallGrad]

BINGO. We are what we are. A watered down CUSA team that plays a horrid schedule.

I think a lot of the debate and  frustration is not over who we are as much as it is about the tendency to blow smoke in spring and summer about who we aren't. We have heard about best recruiting and best players ever for years. If all of the year over year hype were even partially true, we would have surpassed Boise and beyond by now.

The reality is we are just what herdman said we are, and I don't say that in a disparaging or negative way. We have returned to a program that can achieve winning seasons against similar and lesser teams. Our two deep are not the starting squad for everyone on our schedule. We are program that can pull off a win against a lower tier P5, we have normal troubles with MAC and CUSA teams, and a pretty easy time with FCS.

We are what we are. A pretty good team in a competitive conference with a good chance to win a title. We have about as much chance of losing most games as we do of winning. Knowing that when we go in makes a win a pretty sweet thing. Being a fan and loving your school need not include annual overuse of the hype machine.

As herdman put it, we are what we are.

[luvherd]

The problem with playing KS is all over this thread. If we win less than easy or lose it is all negative. If we blow them away no one cares. The loss to VT a few years ago was held in higher regard than this win.

[kjh]

And to follow up on why you don't know what the hell you're talking about:
1. Kent State has the THIRD best defense in the whole damn nation and Kent State has played TWO Big 10 schools
2. Case Litton was in his FIRST start against an FBS school, Second start ever.
3. Devon Johnson, arguably the best running back in Marshall history goes down early (or maybe even before the game) and there goes the big part of the offense. Pittman stepped up in his first extended (when it mattered) playing time.
4. The offensive line lost a ton from last year and is trying to get its feet under it.
5. Marshall has won something like 30 of the last 35 games. You just don't run a coach off when he's winning like that.
6. Moving a coach now -- head coach or assistant -- would screw the program up royally for the next four or five years. About the same amount of time it took to get over Snyder.
7. Maybe the guys Doc let go were head cases. Maybe they were cancerous to the program and what you do with a cancer is cut it out.
8. Unless you are a player (which you aren't), the AD or president (which you aren't), the lockerroom janitor or just a major league jock sniffer, you don't have a clue about Doc losing the team in the confines of the lockerroom.
Folks who go berserk with insipid comments like yours are what makes me have little respect for so-called fans.
Now you can flame.

Love it Gaylen +1

[Greg H]

We were ranked due to being undefeated most of the season because we played probably the worst schedule in division 1.

Then move to Morgantown...fukn not so smart.

[Big Ol' Hillbilly]

"Nope, not getting frustrated and for the most part, I'm staying on the topic. I'm just saying that saying things like that these bigger schools are afraid to play us because we could beat them and that Oliver Luck was the reason we weren't ranked by the committee, etc etc etc is delusional."

So you're saying that Luck joined the committee because he didn't want to influence them? Lobbyist also don't influence Congress either?

Can you tell me why WVU won't play us but they will Liberty? We could play WVU and they keep all of their gate money and we could do the same. WVU's complaint could not be the money, so why wouldn't they play us? Their low overhead would be beneficial playing both games in WV.
,
....and finally why is the committee's ranking so different than the AP, Coaches and other polls, could it be about hoarding the bowl money?

I don't know why they won't play us, maybe they are scared. Another thing  I don't know is how you, sir, turned my posts about the decline in recruiting and our crappy schedule into the "wvu is scared of us" thing.

About Oliver Luck. I would say that he joined the committee #1 because he was asked, and #2 because they pay him a lot of money. I doubt he filled out an application and put the following in the "Why do you want to be on the committee?" Section. "To hold Marshall University down". I honestly think some of you "WVU is obsessed with us conspiracy" guys are out there sometimes.  I'd say he had a lot more to focus on than that, and also he was just one member of the committee and there were a lot more than him in those meetings.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again, WVU's athletic director is not to blame for not getting any respect by that committee. Marshall's athletic director is.

And finally, why is the committee's poll different from the AP, Coach's, and other polls? Simple, because in 2014, it became the only one that amounts to a hill of beans and means anything.

[kjh]

We should win every game, because We Are Marshall.!

Shame on you Doc Overholt Holiday, Shame on you Bob Pruett. Shame on you Stan Parrish, George Chaump, not to even to mention Cam Henderson.

We are 3-1 and playing a very improved competition from years gone by. Let's Play tOsu 10 times each year and we fellow Presdents feel certain we are playing the best. After a good classy drink along with the best cigar we can shake hands on our bull%^&* agreement. Let us enjoy our fake admiration one for another since the 1920's.. And drink to a crock of b/s.

Let's realize we are a rebuilding program. Let's realize we are not tOSU. Let's remember... We are Marshall...and that's pretty damn good....

Fwiw, no one reading or lurking can ever become a son of Marshall. The greatest thing that ever happened in my life. An opportunity that is open to all. The high, the low, the rich nor poor. Female or male, you can become a Son of Marshall.

Last paragraph says it all Carolina. Thanks

[kjh]

Lets be honest here...if you are happy with read option 75% of the time, in which I can teach 5 year olds, then Legg is your guy.

chezdog30 your a real schmuck. I'm so happy for those fans that you woke up. Pour it on brothers.

[Big Ol' Hillbilly]

This is the most I've posted in over a year. I've missed stirring the pot on here. LOL!

[rvntx]

Why respond to flaming!!!!!!

[chris88]

I stated they couldn't control the conference. They can control the OOC schedule while playing in a very weak conference.

I have no doubt they watered the schedule down. Purdue, NC State, ECU are not top or many time not even middle of the road teams. They are good not what we used to play.

Again, I firmly believe a lot of this is by design. If Doc played even Snyder's his record would likely look a lot different and would look different if CUSA was still in tact.

 

You are backtracking IMO (dissing ECU, NC state, Pitt etc).  So those schools are not good enough to play in regular season but we should, at all costs, go play them in bowl games even if they are 6-6? So now you want to play money games vs upper level P5 teams with the hope that we can occasionally steal one of those or play them close like OSU and UGA?  Teams that are always at top of their respective leagues? What good is that?  We still lost several conf games that year and didn't win league...which would have eliminated us from Access bowl contention in today's world.  Doing so also gaurentees more 1-aa games. Doc's team came closest to beating VT and closest to beating WVU than anyone else did as HC.  The 39k that showed up for Purdue showed that fans wanted better OOC home games.  The crème of crop P5's don't do that.  Those teams on future schedules will.  

I think next years schedule is perfect 2 home/home vs P5's Louivsille and Pitt.  Akron at home as part of a 1-1 and a game to be announced.  maybe a 1-1 with another G5 or even a 1-aa.  The league is going to get better but it will take time

[luvherd]

You are backtracking IMO (dissing ECU, NC state, Pitt etc).  So those schools are not good enough to play in regular season but we should, at all costs, go play them in bowl games even if they are 6-6? So now you want to play money games vs upper level P5 teams with the hope that we can occasionally steal one of those or play them close like OSU and UGA?  Teams that are always at top of their respective leagues? What good is that?  We still lost several conf games that year and didn't win league...which would have eliminated us from Access bowl contention in today's world.  Doing so also gaurentees more 1-aa games. Doc's team came closest to beating VT and closest to beating WVU than anyone else did as HC.  The 39k that showed up for Purdue showed that fans wanted better OOC home games.  The crème of crop P5's don't do that.  Those teams on future schedules will.  

I think next years schedule is perfect 2 home/home vs P5's Louivsille and Pitt.  Akron at home as part of a 1-1 and a game to be announced.  maybe a 1-1 with another G5 or even a 1-aa.  The league is going to get better but it will take time

Agree but don't schedule a 1aa.

[chezdog30]

My 1st post in a year and we are up to 5 pages lol. Folks we are all on the samr team..I lead the way with holding people and coaches accountable.  I have read the excuse that Kent State has the third best def in the country...and if you believe that you are my hero. Fact is this: we have a young team and a bunch of injuries.  But, that doesnt warrant calling read option every play for 3 consecutive quarters. Not til the 4th did we even attempt to throw the ball without the read play action. My 9 year old would say "read option" dad.

Im glad we won..and the best part is our qb grew up and we are developing a running back. But the play calling was pathetic as usual with zero creativity..not even a Legg patented bubble screen.

Lets see how Doc handles our prob with play calling.

[Greg H]

My 1st post in a year and we are up to 5 pages lol. Folks we are all on the samr team..I lead the way with holding people and coaches accountable.  I have read the excuse that Kent State has the third best def in the country...and if you believe that you are my hero. Fact is this: we have a young team and a bunch of injuries.  But, that doesnt warrant calling read option every play for 3 consecutive quarters. Not til the 4th did we even attempt to throw the ball without the read play action. My 9 year old would say "read option" dad.

Im glad we won..and the best part is our qb grew up and we are developing a running back. But the play calling was pathetic as usual with zero creativity..not even a Legg patented bubble screen.

Lets see how Doc handles our prob with play calling.

You held coaches accountable.   Hahahahaha.

[ShawHerd]

"This is the most I've posted in over a year. I've missed stirring the pot on here. LOL!"

Well if that is what you were doing then well played...lol!

[gtrman4herd]

Dumbest thread in the history of the www's

[Big Ol' Hillbilly]

Then move to Morgantown...fukn not so smartbag.

No thanks, lived there from 2002-2005. I'll pass.  Thanks for your response, bub. Now that you got this thread out of the way, maybe you can go into another thread and call people stupid and retards. You're really awesome at that. I'm very impressed with all of your well thought out responses. I bet you wake up every morning and pee intelligence. You're so much smarter than all of us "stupid people" and "fukn not so smartbags" and "retards" that post on here.

[Gaylen]

My 1st post in a year and we are up to 5 pages lol. Folks we are all on the samr team..I lead the way with holding people and coaches accountable.  I have read the excuse that Kent State has the third best def in the country...and if you believe that you are my hero. Fact is this: we have a young team and a bunch of injuries.  But, that doesnt warrant calling read option every play for 3 consecutive quarters. Not til the 4th did we even attempt to throw the ball without the read play action. My 9 year old would say "read option" dad.

Im glad we won..and the best part is our qb grew up and we are developing a running back. But the play calling was pathetic as usual with zero creativity..not even a Legg patented bubble screen.

Lets see how Doc handles our prob with play calling.

It will be the best defense we play against all year. And, from looking at the NCAA statistics, it was ranked No. 3 in the country. I don't know if it is the best but, by God, it was ranked No. 3 when we played against it. So, yes, I must be your hero since the NCAA numbers bears it out.
And I noticed it was the Marshall players dancing off the field after the game with the victory. That's despite calling a lot of read option plays.

[FlyHawk98]

I think FIU's defense will be just as good if not better. FIU has a good enough secondary that they can lock us up man and play the run.

Play calling is suspect at best right now. Why not get Foster on a Jet Sweep, we did that in the bowl game last year. Why not a screen pass, like a regular slow screen, not the WR screens. How about a dang draw? Instead of lining up in trips, line up in quads and motion to it? Or vice versa, start out in trips and motion to quads or any other look, why does it always have to be so vanilla? A simple reverse couldn't hurt, or throw the bubble screen and then let him throw it (double pass,) heck even pump fake the bubble and throw it deep.

Just very frustrating, especially the lack of jet sweeps and motions.

[elginherd]

I think FIU's defense will be just as good if not better. FIU has a good enough secondary that they can lock us up man and play the run.

Play calling is suspect at best right now. Why not get Foster on a Jet Sweep, we did that in the bowl game last year. Why not a screen pass, like a regular slow screen, not the WR screens. How about a dang draw? Instead of lining up in trips, line up in quads and motion to it? Or vice versa, start out in trips and motion to quads or any other look, why does it always have to be so vanilla? A simple reverse couldn't hurt, or throw the bubble screen and then let him throw it (double pass,) heck even pump fake the bubble and throw it deep.

Just very frustrating, especially the lack of jet sweeps and motions.

I'm going to defend Coach Legg to a certain extent...IMO much of this year's 'watch-the-paint-dry' offense is because our receivers don't run good routes. Coupled with (a) new starting QB(s) & receivers who turn perfect passes into interceptions when throwing between the hashes, I can understand his choices. In addition, we didn't exactly dominate the LOS on O. Unless you can establish an offensive edge on jet sweeps, (another WR issue) you're going to lose 3 yds. His play calling has to account for the offensive deficiencies in skill sets.

One could argue that the spread system doesn't match what we can do very well, but establishing another sytem at this point would be very difficult.

I've seen enough of Coach Legg & Coach Holliday to say that I'd rather lose a few more games this season than abandon what they do. I see a special '16 campaign. We just have to get into a bowl this season to help that come about.

[herd2win]

As the offensive coordinator it is Leggs responsibility to make sure the receivers run the proper routes.

[Thunders77]

"Nope, not getting frustrated and for the most part, I'm staying on the topic. I'm just saying that saying things like that these bigger schools are afraid to play us because we could beat them and that Oliver Luck was the reason we weren't ranked by the committee, etc etc etc is delusional."

So you're saying that Luck joined the committee because he didn't want to influence them? Lobbyist also don't influence Congress either?

Can you tell me why WVU won't play us but they will Liberty? We could play WVU and they keep all of their gate money and we could do the same. WVU's complaint could not be the money, so why wouldn't they play us? Their low overhead would be beneficial playing both games in WV.
,
....and finally why is the committee's ranking so different than the AP, Coaches and other polls, could it be about hoarding the bowl money?

It is absolutely about hoarding the bowl money and the Playoff money. The whole system is designed to reward the Power 5 conferences with 90% of the revenue and deprive the bottom half and keep them as non-competitive as possible. Unfortunately, that 10% carrot is more than the bottom 50% can make on its own so they march like lemmings and agree to it, because of the power of the almighty $$$$$.

Basically, half of the student-athletes (and institutions) in Division I FBS football are treated like second-class citizens and are not given equal-opportunities to bowl access and slices of the revenue pie. This is the ONLY NCAA sport where that happens. In every other NCAA sport, student-athletes at the start of a season have a path forward to compete for a National Championship.

Meanwhile, College and University Presidents, the NCAA and Congress do nothing about it.

[elginherd]

As the offensive coordinator it is Leggs responsibility to make sure the receivers run the proper routes.

Not that easy...it's up to the players to execute.

[kjh]

This is the most I've posted in over a year. I've missed stirring the pot on here. LOL!

Hillbilly, I agree Luck has played a part in the Herd's problems but for a different reason. Luck saw the handwriting on the wall at the Joan when we should have beaten them and he then used all kind of excuses following the storm shortened final game of the series to not reschedule. Excuses included: Needed seven games home to support athletic program, no 1 for 1's which MH insisted  upon, WVU's SOS would be weakened, then turns around and schedules JMU, GSU, Liberty, Towson, etc. The Herd's schedule makers (MH) had a hard time recovering and in 2016 our OC will be good for the future. Luck's role was tantamount in reducing our strength of schedule, thus what happened with the position we were in regarding  the Access Bowl Bid in 2015. How would our SOS been with a victory over WVU? We would have probably played them in the Joan that year, and we were the better team both years.