(08-28-2018 08:51 AM)MonarchManiac Wrote:  What is different about Marshall this year that has everyone thinking conference title? Weren't they down pretty big last year? Marshall fans care to give outsiders some insight?

I wouldn’t call Marshall “down last year,” but whatever.

18 returning starters, including all 5 starters from CUSA’s best o-line.

We we’re FAU’s toughtest conference foe last year, and now we get both top East teams at home. Both FAU and MTSU have to come to Huntington. Whether people agree or not, it’s a factor.

The talent is there if one of these QB’s can separate.

(08-28-2018 08:58 AM)rileylives Wrote:  

(08-28-2018 08:51 AM)MonarchManiac Wrote:  What is different about Marshall this year that has everyone thinking conference title? Weren't they down pretty big last year? Marshall fans care to give outsiders some insight?

I wouldn’t call Marshall “down last year,” but whatever.

18 returning starters, including all 5 starters from CUSA’s best o-line.

We we’re FAU’s toughtest conference foe last year, and now we get both top East teams at home. Both FAU and MTSU have to come to Huntington. Whether people agree or not, it’s a factor.

The talent is there if one of these QB’s can separate.

Anyone who doesn’t think home field advantage isn’t an advantage is a fool

(08-28-2018 08:51 AM)MonarchManiac Wrote:  What is different about Marshall this year that has everyone thinking conference title? Weren't they down pretty big last year? Marshall fans care to give outsiders some insight?

They were “down” only in the eyes of clueless people. Marshall could have and should have won more games than they did last year. This year was always going to be a great year. Though I personally expected a Senior QB but either way the team is loaded so it’s championships or BUST

(08-28-2018 08:51 AM)MonarchManiac Wrote:  What is different about Marshall this year that has everyone thinking conference title? Weren't they down pretty big last year? Marshall fans care to give outsiders some insight?

If you want to call 8-5 with a bowl win over Colorado State a down year, then yes they were down. The so called down year was 2016s 3-9 season. And that season has been explained by more than one person on here.

There were a few people in the program that sabotaged and torpedoed that year from the inside. All of those people were off the roster come 2017. And the 3 years before that Marshall had won 33 games.

(08-28-2018 08:58 AM)rileylives Wrote:  

(08-28-2018 08:51 AM)MonarchManiac Wrote:  What is different about Marshall this year that has everyone thinking conference title? Weren't they down pretty big last year? Marshall fans care to give outsiders some insight?

I wouldn’t call Marshall “down last year,” but whatever.

18 returning starters, including all 5 starters from CUSA’s best o-line.

We we’re FAU’s toughtest conference foe last year, and now we get both top East teams at home. Both FAU and MTSU have to come to Huntington. Whether people agree or not, it’s a factor.

The talent is there if one of these QB’s can separate.

FAU is coming off a bye that week which gives a huge advantage to the better coach. FIU had a bye the week before they went to Huntington and played an dominated.

(08-28-2018 10:39 AM)owlcountry40 Wrote:  

(08-28-2018 08:58 AM)rileylives Wrote:  

(08-28-2018 08:51 AM)MonarchManiac Wrote:  What is different about Marshall this year that has everyone thinking conference title? Weren't they down pretty big last year? Marshall fans care to give outsiders some insight?

I wouldn’t call Marshall “down last year,” but whatever.

18 returning starters, including all 5 starters from CUSA’s best o-line.

We we’re FAU’s toughtest conference foe last year, and now we get both top East teams at home. Both FAU and MTSU have to come to Huntington. Whether people agree or not, it’s a factor.

The talent is there if one of these QB’s can separate.

FAU is coming off a bye that week which gives a huge advantage to the better coach. FIU had a bye the week before they went to Huntington and played an dominated.

Yeah, that game was terrible for us, another one of those that Litton single handidly lost for us, turnover after turnover. And some ask why we don't think we will drop off from losing him.....honestly, as long as his successor can play ball control offense until they settle in, they sure couldn't do any worse than litton did in 2016 and 2017.

(08-24-2018 11:31 AM)SouthernMiss3613 Wrote:  Of course they are concerned. Any team starting a new QB should be concerned. Lots of highly recruited QBs don't work out. We have had guys put up great numbers in the spring game or in a few regular season games not work out for us

This is 100% accurate. While I do think we will be ok, but whenever a team is starting a new QB there is always those first time jitters and mistakes ARE going to happen. I have full faith in either QB but I really hope it's Green. I feel he can give us the most out of this offense that cramsey runs.

This Marshall fan is concerned, and that would be the case even if a QB had been chosen by this point or one was the clear leader. Anytime you are starting a new QB, you'd better be ready for trouble. Fact is often a QB looks good in practice, but when thrown into game time for the first time things don't often go as planned. Now, I'm one of those who is glad Litton is gone, and honestly with Litton gone and the new OC, I feel more confident than I'd have felt with Litton and Legg still here. Litton, while talented, never lived up to what he could have been. It's simple to say he had all the physical tools, but something was lacking between the ears. He didn't play when he should have/could have (UL), and often when he did play he made very poor decisions (staring down one receiver, throwing into coverage, etc). I know numbers show he was a top 5 Marshall QB, but I really don't think he was. Made too many bonehead plays, lost too many games to be considered in the Pennington/Leftwich/Cato/Payton argument.

The green colored glasses fan in me sees a ton of talent, many returning starters on both sides of the ball, favorable schedule of home games, new OC, etc and expects/hopes for a double digit win season, including an east/CUSA championship. The realist in me sees a new starting QB, a questionable decision making head coach (not sure if our problems were OC related or HC related for sure, or both), an improving division/conference, etc and is seeing more of a 7-8 win season. Pessimist says that 4-5 wins isn't outside the realm of Doc achieving either, giving his past history. All I know is I'm ready for the speculation to end, and to start seeing some real games played.

(08-28-2018 11:43 AM)forphase1 Wrote:  This Marshall fan is concerned, and that would be the case even if a QB had been chosen by this point or one was the clear leader. Anytime you are starting a new QB, you'd better be ready for trouble. Fact is often a QB looks good in practice, but when thrown into game time for the first time things don't often go as planned. Now, I'm one of those who is glad Litton is gone, and honestly with Litton gone and the new OC, I feel more confident than I'd have felt with Litton and Legg still here. Litton, while talented, never lived up to what he could have been. It's simple to say he had all the physical tools, but something was lacking between the ears. He didn't play when he should have/could have (UL), and often when he did play he made very poor decisions (staring down one receiver, throwing into coverage, etc). I know numbers show he was a top 5 Marshall QB, but I really don't think he was. Made too many bonehead plays, lost too many games to be considered in the Pennington/Leftwich/Cato/Payton argument.

The green colored glasses fan in me sees a ton of talent, many returning starters on both sides of the ball, favorable schedule of home games, new OC, etc and expects/hopes for a double digit win season, including an east/CUSA championship. The realist in me sees a new starting QB, a questionable decision making head coach (not sure if our problems were OC related or HC related for sure, or both), an improving division/conference, etc and is seeing more of a 7-8 win season. Pessimist says that 4-5 wins isn't outside the realm of Doc achieving either, giving his past history. All I know is I'm ready for the speculation to end, and to start seeing some real games played.

^^^THIS. For those fans of other teams...this is as an honest of an assessment of where we are as it gets. Pretty much sums up the whole deal.

(08-28-2018 08:51 AM)MonarchManiac Wrote:  What is different about Marshall this year that has everyone thinking conference title? Weren't they down pretty big last year? Marshall fans care to give outsiders some insight?

Last year we were 8-5 and had two tough losses at the end of the year. The game against UTSA where we took the lead with about a minute to play and lost and the game against USM where we missed an extra point to tie it at the end. So 10-3 was just a few plays off.

If you start with that and then factor in that most fans feel our offense was super stale all year, then you see why there is optimism with a new, high octane OC on board.

Then you take the defense, which essentially returns 9 starters and 19 on the two deep, and look that they gave up less than 20 a game last year.

Simple fact is that the defense should be just as good, or better, and the offense should be fresh and more diverse. As long as whoever is QB isn't a turnover machine then we should win at least 9 games, which will, I believe, put us at 7-1 in conference.

Doc Holliday -- 2018 Game 1 Miami OH Press Conference

Captains for the Game:
WR Marcel Williams
C Levi Brown
S Malik Gant
NT Ryan Bee

If you aren't familiar with the way Marshall does captains, they have "rolling captains". Captains are chosen each week based on performance in practice. Usually 2 on offense and 2 on defense.

Also new this year on Marshall's football roster page they have the players actually saying their name. This will be helpful for a lot of announcers who get confused on a few name pronunciation.

2018 Marshall Football Roster

Could you imagine having to write:

Trent Wilderbraithwaite

on every piece of homework, check, any paperwork sometimes multiple times?