What’s your problem with Marshall? Herd’s success doesn’t hurt anybody

If this was March and we’re talking college basketball, then it’s a completely different narrative. 

March Madness craves underdogs, immortalizes upsets and embraces George Mason, VCU and Butler. Sure, strength-of-schedule is questioned, but only as it pertains to seeding.  

College football in November couldn’t be more different. Marshall (8-0) stands alone as the only undefeated Group of 5 school with five weeks left until the other “Selection Sunday.” Not everbody is a fan. 

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The Thundering Herd are prematurely shoved aside as the little-team-that-can’t or the little-team-that-shouldn’t-be-allowed. Marshall’s schedule is social media target practice. The College Football Playoff committee didn’t even have the Herd in the first or even second set of playoff rankings. 

Marshall quarterback Rakeem Cato saw those rankings and read those tweets. Last weekend, he sat on the GameDay bus in front of all those raving West Virginia fans in Morgantown, the one fanbase that will never show the Thundering Herd any love. None of that seems to matter. 

“The coaching staff has done a great job of keeping everybody highly-motivated and keeping the work ethic where it needs to be,” Cato told Sporting News. “It’s about making everybody truly understand that we can’t get knocked down by our schedule.” 

How does Marshall coach Doc Holliday respond to that criticism?   

“I will be the first to tell you that we’re better off right now than we’ve ever been at Marshall University,” Holliday said “Call us non-Power 5, Group of 5, whatever. We’re better than off than we’ve ever been.”

So go ahead, fire away. “We aren’t Marshall” on Twitter, but that doesn’t matter one bit in Huntington, West Virginia, where it’s always “We are Marshall. Perhaps more imporantly, it’s “We don’t care what you think.” 

Perhaps no Group of 5 program is more comfortable in its own skin; a pride built from rebuilding a program after a plane crash killed 75 players, coaches and boosters in 1970. That pride radiates from Cato, who dealt with a father in prison and losing his mother at 12 years old while growing up in Liberty City. 

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That’s a nice story, but you still want the Thundering Herd to play a tougher non-conference schedule. Middle Tennessee State (5-4) is the only team with a winning record in the rear-view mirror, and Rice (5-3) and UAB (5-4) are the only teams with winning records left before a potential date in the Conference-USA championship game. 

Marshall prefers a schedule designed for a vocal fanbase that can be close enough to travel to the games. With a C-USA budget and zero margin for error, that will always make more sense. 

Not that the Herd haven’t tried to address the schedule. Marshall had a home game with Louisville this season pushed back to 2016 to accommodate the Cardinals’ move to the ACC. The Herd scheduled Purdue in 2015 and Pittsburgh and N.C. State in 2016. 

“With realignment, the one thing you look at is some of these teams the closest game is 900 miles away,” Holliday said. “Our conference comes back to us geographically so our fanbase has the opportunity to see us play.”

So it’s not designed for your enjoyment. It’s designed for a Marshall fan’s enjoyment. Why sacrifice a road game for a trip to Arizona State or Nebraska that will never be returned? 

No thanks, the Herd would rather stay home and ride the same formula that helped the program win a pair of I-AA national championships in 1992 and 1996 before entering Division I in 1997.

From 1997-2002, Marshall owned the Mid-American Conference. The Herd compiled a FBS-best 65-13 record, a run that featured future NFL players Randy Moss, Chad Pennington and Byron Leftwich. That included an undefeated season in 1999 and a 38-1 record at home. 

No power conference team was going to schedule a home-and-home into that trap game then. Marshall was essentially the precursor to Boise State; only the payoff then was almost non-existent. 

“We had a team in 1999 with Chad Pennington that finished 10th in the country and ended up in the Motor City Bowl,” Holliday said. “With this new system, that will never happen again.”

Holliday, of course, is talking about the reserved spot in the playoff bowl for a Group of 5 school, a goal that is well within sight. Stop looking at the schedule. Appreciate the accomplishments instead. 

Marshall beat Maryland 31-20 in the Military Bowl last season. Aren’t the Terps third in the Big Ten East division right now?

Cato has a touchdown pass in a FBS-record 40 straight games. The Heisman longshot also owns a 160.1 quarterback rating.

Running back Devon Johnson ranks third in the nation with 150.4 rushing yards per game. The Herd are third in the nation in points per game (45.9) and have the highest margin of victory (29.4). 

With continued success, Marshall still might not make the four-team playoff anytime soon. But it can increase the program profile and then some. That didn’t hurt Boise State, TCU or Utah in the BCS era one bit. Look at the Horned Frogs and Utes now.

That’s what those transfixed on strength of schedule can’t see. The new playoff setup might just turn out to be the best experience possible for its fanbase, the next step. An undefeated season would earn a shot at a big boy in a big bowl. A win would get that embrace from the rest of us (see: Boise State, 2007 Fiesta Bowl). A loss would continue the narrative (see: Hawaii, 2008 Sugar Bowl). 

Holliday sees the bigger picture. 

“Going into the season expectations were high and we embraced those expectations,” Holliday said. “Along with those expectations comes a responsibility to go to work every day of every week. Every game is like a playoff game at this point. You’re remembered for November. It’s a critical month for us.” 

Holliday and Cato see the big picture, the one that’s easy to see from a Huntington-based viewpoint. It’s not about you. It’s about Marshall. 

“It’s not only for me,” Cato said. “Each and every day just to prepare is not just huge for us, but it’s for Marshall University. It’s about how much adversity we’ve been through and far we came. As long as we’re out there having a good time at practice, everything else will take care of itself.” 

‘What’s sounds so wrong about that? 

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