Marshall vs. Uconn

[the Blades]

Front page article & first look of the Marshall O vs the Uconn D by Ethan and the Uconn Report (link)

Also of note: like Uconn( except over 12-1, #14 ranked Houston, with both teams missing their #1 QB most of the game) Marshall doesn't have many wins vs. good teams. Marshall's best win of the year was over a 9-4 Southern Miss squad. Six of their 9 wins were vs, a 4-7 FCS team and 5 FBS teams, none who had over 3 wins on the year.

Should be an interesting match-up to see how the offense does....as a preview of next year.....with Sheriffs back healthy and with only 1 SR (Samra who should be replaced by injured Remington watch sophomore OL Ryan Crozier who missed the entire year) on that side of the ball. And if Shirreffs dual threat run option of 400+ yards will be affected or limited by the coaching staff coming off the injury.. Marshall is known for a good D which could be a big challenge for the young Uconn offense in year 2 of Diaco's rebuild. Also FWIW....Vegas currently lists Marshall as a 4 or 4 1/2 point favorite. ....And last games depth chart.... though Sheriffs didn't play..... should look the same: DEPTH CHART

 

[Mike Gwinn]

Consistency has been a challenge in what is a rebuilding year for the Herd. Injuries haven't helped. Here are a few highlights from the FIU game which was probably the first time this season that the Herd was hitting on all cylinders in all three phases of the game.

 

[the Blades]

Consistency has been a challenge in what is a rebuilding year for the Herd. Injuries haven't helped. Here are a few highlights from the FIU game which was probably the first time this season that the Herd was hitting on all cylinders in all three phases of the game.

You don't know what a challenge is (LOL ! ) until you've gone threw what we have lately with 3 years of program killer Paul Pasqualoni and then have a rookie coach come in and strip the team down to about 60 scholly players by season end, while playing about a dozen true FR last year... and bringing in another 25 or 30 this year. Thanks for the Marshall promo film. I'm just hoping that Uconn's youngin's continue to take baby steps. I have alot of respect for Marshall ( still can't believe Aresco chose Tulane or Tulsa over them, he's a TV and markets guy) but they aren't anything us Uconn fans haven't seen before. So good luck and I know your fanbase doesn't think much of Uconn Football.... so it is... what it is.

 

[Mike Gwinn]

It took Doc about 2-3 years to right the ship after the Mark Snyder era. Doc came in and cleaned house but not down as far as 60 scholarship guys. That is tough.

We had to replace arguably the best QB/WR tandem in the history of Marshall football this season. And that's saying something with the likes of Pennington, Leftwich and Randy Moss being on past rosters. Losing Devon Johnson was the biggest hit though. The Herd operates on a completely different level with him in the line-up.

I think UConn is going to present a much tougher challenge match-up wise than some of our fans who just look at the record.

In C-USA we don't see much if any pro-style offenses. I can't think of any team that lines up under center and motions like UConn. I think that, in and of itself, will present a challenge. The Marshall offense and defense is built to attack smaller, faster offenses and defenses so the size differential at the line of scrimmage is of interest too. Purdue was bigger on both lines and had success against us running the football.

 

[meego1963]

The o- line will b the diferentes if they can pick up blitz something they havent been able to do all season Keep qb clean uconn should get the w Marshall is a much smaller Team powerful Football go huskies

 

[the Blades]

In C-USA we don't see much if any pro-style offenses. I can't think of any team that lines up under center and motions like UConn. I think that, in and of itself, will present a challenge. The Marshall offense and defense is built to attack smaller, faster offenses and defenses so the size differential at the line of scrimmage is of interest too. Purdue was bigger on both lines and had success against us running the football.

I'm sure Ethan will do a flipside article on the O's and D's but it should be an interesting match-up. One thing I can tell you is Diaco, since he was a DC at Notre Dame, loves to run the clock and play the time of possession game, to a fault at times. Everything is slow it down and they had a ton of penalties coming out of the huddle to late or just barely getting plays off. And Uconn seems the anti-Marshall that Ethan mentioned "specifically due to their efficiency and success on long drives and in the red zone." Uconn struggled in the red zone all year ahead of only UCF in the AAC. And somehow lost a 28-20 game to USF despite putting up 528 yds of offense on the Bulls.

Also he referenced Marshall with a Houston type plan on O in his Scouting Report: Marshall Offense.......but with Ward and Postma ( a wideout) with almost 1200 yds of run offense from the QB spot, they seemed to play completely different . Compared to Marshall's Litton who had 39 run yds total. Would it be a fair guess to think that Litton is more a pro type passer than a dual threat like Ward?

 

[Mike Gwinn]

I'm sure Ethan will do a flipside article on the O's and D's but it should be an interesting match-up. One thing I can tell you is Diaco, since he was a DC at Notre Dame, loves to run the clock and play the time of possession game, to a fault at times. Everything is slow it down and they had a ton of penalties coming out of the huddle to late or just barely getting plays off. And Uconn seems the anti-Marshall that Ethan mentioned "specifically due to their efficiency and success on long drives and in the red zone." Uconn struggled in the red zone all year ahead of only UCF in the AAC. And somehow lost a 28-20 game to USF despite putting up 528 yds of offense.

Also he referenced Marshall with a Houston type plan on O in his Scouting Report: Marshall Offense.......but with Ward and Postma ( a wideout) with almost 1200 yds of offense from the QB spot, they seemed to play completely different on offense. Compared to Marshall's Litton who had 39 run yds total. Would it be a fair guess to think that Litton is more a pro type passer than a dual threat like Ward?

Litton can run but he doesn't do it very often. He's a lanky 6'6", long strider. He might pull down and run a zone read type option once or twice a game or scramble out of the pocket for a few yards when protection breaks down but he is definitely not a dual threat. He would rather move the pocket and throw instead of pulling it down and running.

The Marshall offense utilizes tempo to take advantage of situations. If it were up to Doc and Bill Legg we would run 90-100 plays a game but with a freshman QB they've had to tap the breaks a little so to speak. We're averaging more like 70-75 plays per game in 2015.

It's a bowl game so anything is possible, but generally speaking, you're not going to see Doc take many chances. Though he likes to run tempo he has a great punter that's near the top in the nation in number of punts downed inside the 20(27).

He is more than happy to punt the ball away and hang around to have a chance to win at the end of the game. The offensive mantra is to take what the defense gives them so what you see on film is pretty much what you're going to get.

Defensively, Marshall has been a bend but not break defense. They give up a ton of yardage(372 ypg) but are only allowing 18.4 ppg.