Sometime Thursday the rumors of suspensions swirled around this game. Early Friday it was confirmed: QB J’Mar Smith, WR Adrian Hardy and LB James Jackson were suspended because of violating a “department policy”.
Smith and Hardy’s suspensions are for two games, while Jacksons’ is for only one. We joked on twitter that when we wrote that Tech Was Too Good To Lose The West that it was a perfectly jinx-able headline. It was, apparently.
Last night saw Marshall handle Tech fairly easily but there were good moments for red-shirt freshman Aaron Allen. The score was 24-10 early in the fourth and Tech was driving to make it a one-possession game. Tech snapped the ball over Allen’s head, and Marshall went on to put the game completely out of reach.
For Tech fans, there is hope. A full week of practice with the new look offense should produce something better against UAB. The defense did all it could against a talented, but iffy offense. Marshall’s Isaiah Green was solid if unspectacular outside of his big run late in the game.
Winners: Marshall, Southern Miss
The Herd have a head-to-head advantage over the Dawgs when it comes to determining the home location for the conference title game. Southern Miss still just needs another loss from Tech and to win out themselves to grab the division.
Losers: FAU
The Owls needed Marshall to drop a game and this was a perfect opportunity — against a good Tech team. Instead, the Herd were fortunate and now FAU needs help from Charlotte or FIU, okay teams but not on the level of Tech.
For Tech, these were going to be the toughest games and going through these two weeks without the full complement of players is the worst-case scenario. If they can pull out a win vs UAB they will be back to sitting pretty. They did have some buffer, and this set back means they used some of it up.
[…] of the driver’s seat in the final couple of weeks for the second-year in a row. The Herd had just beat Tech last week to put themselves in position to return to the league title game but now needs a win over […]