The Herd under Charles Huff have looked something like the team that Doc Holiday coached forever this season. They play hard, and have a good running back. This version is clearly not a Holiday team, however, as it is more explosive and is willing to chuck the ball down field when up by 35 points.
That is maybe the difference between winning a title and just getting close to having one. The Herd dominated a terrible North Texas team on Friday night, in front of something like 1200 fans or so in Denton. That the Mean Green are on a two-year campaign to boost every opposition offensive statistical output aside, Marshall dominated from start to finish. They went up 28-0, taking full advantage of the mistakes that NT made, and limiting the fallout from whatever ones that the Herd made themselves.
These kinds of blowouts can be dismissed, but they are good for morale and can be telling indicators of the pulse of a team. When up 21-0, and facing 4th-and-2 inside the NT ten, there was little hesitation for Huff and his staff. They ran stud back Rasheen Ali for the first down and scored a play later. Up big late in the second, they had Grant Wells throw into the wind to look for big yards. That was intercepted, but the tone was clear: the game isn’t over and Marshall is going to keep playing to win.
The Herd move to 2-1 on the season in conference play, with their destiny in hand. The turnover monster creeped back into this one, even in a blow out, and that will always keep this team from being complete favorites. Also that run defense. Poor-to-quite. The defense and the ball handling were top-shelf throughout the contested part of this one so there can be only a few complaints.
Taking care of business is a good thing.
On the other side, Seth Littrell looked like a man without ideas. His team looked awful on both sides of the ball but most concerning was the poor offense. Whatever bright spots there were last week vs Mizzou were gone when it mattered here. Deandre Torrey ran for 179, thanks to a 75-and-51 yard pair of scores. Outside of that the QB play was terrible again and Marshall chased and harassed Aune when they had to.
Littrell was again listed as the highest paid guy in the league this week, and he has a 1-5 record and three losing seasons as his contribution for it. North Texas is 1-5 on the year, and 0-3 in league play.
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