If you're only as good as your last game, Marshall's defense isn't very good.
If you're only as good as your last game, Marshall's defense isn't very good.
Rick Minter, the Thundering Herd's interim coach, knows that all too well. He is still the team's defensive coordinator, and has spent the last three weeks picking up the pieces from the Herd's 52-21 loss to Texas-El Paso.
Shoot, he even issued a public apology last week for that game, in which the Miners' Trevor Vittatoe passed for 517 yards and five touchdowns.
When the Herd takes on Ohio at 1 p.m. Saturday at the Little Caesars Pizza Bowl in Detroit, it must have the defense back in order. The Bobcats are potent on offense, leaning toward the run but showing explosive speed from their wide receivers.
Part of the plan has been to rebuild the confidence of the cornerbacks, particularly DeQuan Bembry. For much of the season, he has been the Herd's toughest cover corner, but was burned often in the Herd's three November losses.
The Herd was second in Conference USA in pass defense efficiency much of the season, but fell to fifth after the season finale. It was fourth in league games.
"I know it was a mental thing," Bembry said. "Yeah, it was a bad game, but you've got to look past it. You can't dwell on it for so long. Knowing that you're in a bowl game, you've got to prepare for the next team. You've just got to have the motivation to get better every game, and that's what I'm out here doing."
"The corners, while they took their toll on them at UTEP, they've got to get back out there," Minter said. "It's like a fighter pilot getting back in the plane. You've got to say, 'Hey, that's part of it. Forget about the last play, let's play the next play.'
"You'd like to think those kids are anxiously wanting to get on the field to atone, and regain their confidence back as corners. Because he really had good, solid corner play most of the year. It betrays us a little out there [at UTEP], but we've got to do what it takes, scheme-wise, to help those guys, and know when to hold 'em and know when to fold 'em."
Senior Theo Scott operates the Bobcat offense, completing 58 percent of his passes for 2,258 yards and 19 touchdowns with just 10 interceptions. He netted 145 yards rushing, with three more scores.
He shined the brightest on two particular occasions. First, he hit Taylor Price for a fourth-and-15 touchdown to keep the Bobcats alive in overtime at North Texas, and then hit Price for the winning two-point conversion.
More recently, he dissected Temple in a 35-17 victory that gave the Bobcats the East Division championship in the Mid-American Conference. He threw for 324 yards and three touchdowns, and ran for TDs of 17 and 43 yards.
"He worked his way into the starting role [later in 2007], and started for us last year," said OU coach Frank Solich. "But he ended up getting a broken collarbone in the Ohio State game, our second of the year, and missed the rest of the year. So even though he's a senior, his experience is not what you might presume.
"He's gotten better and better as the season has gone on, as he's gotten more experience."
If you're only as good as your last game, Marshall's defense isn't very good.
Rick Minter, the Thundering Herd's interim coach, knows that all too well. He is still the team's defensive coordinator, and has spent the last three weeks picking up the pieces from the Herd's 52-21 loss to Texas-El Paso.
Shoot, he even issued a public apology last week for that game, in which the Miners' Trevor Vittatoe passed for 517 yards and five touchdowns.
When the Herd takes on Ohio at 1 p.m. Saturday at the Little Caesars Pizza Bowl in Detroit, it must have the defense back in order. The Bobcats are potent on offense, leaning toward the run but showing explosive speed from their wide receivers.
Part of the plan has been to rebuild the confidence of the cornerbacks, particularly DeQuan Bembry. For much of the season, he has been the Herd's toughest cover corner, but was burned often in the Herd's three November losses.
The Herd was second in Conference USA in pass defense efficiency much of the season, but fell to fifth after the season finale. It was fourth in league games.
"I know it was a mental thing," Bembry said. "Yeah, it was a bad game, but you've got to look past it. You can't dwell on it for so long. Knowing that you're in a bowl game, you've got to prepare for the next team. You've just got to have the motivation to get better every game, and that's what I'm out here doing."
"The corners, while they took their toll on them at UTEP, they've got to get back out there," Minter said. "It's like a fighter pilot getting back in the plane. You've got to say, 'Hey, that's part of it. Forget about the last play, let's play the next play.'
"You'd like to think those kids are anxiously wanting to get on the field to atone, and regain their confidence back as corners. Because he really had good, solid corner play most of the year. It betrays us a little out there [at UTEP], but we've got to do what it takes, scheme-wise, to help those guys, and know when to hold 'em and know when to fold 'em."
Senior Theo Scott operates the Bobcat offense, completing 58 percent of his passes for 2,258 yards and 19 touchdowns with just 10 interceptions. He netted 145 yards rushing, with three more scores.
He shined the brightest on two particular occasions. First, he hit Taylor Price for a fourth-and-15 touchdown to keep the Bobcats alive in overtime at North Texas, and then hit Price for the winning two-point conversion.
More recently, he dissected Temple in a 35-17 victory that gave the Bobcats the East Division championship in the Mid-American Conference. He threw for 324 yards and three touchdowns, and ran for TDs of 17 and 43 yards.
"He worked his way into the starting role [later in 2007], and started for us last year," said OU coach Frank Solich. "But he ended up getting a broken collarbone in the Ohio State game, our second of the year, and missed the rest of the year. So even though he's a senior, his experience is not what you might presume.
"He's gotten better and better as the season has gone on, as he's gotten more experience."
That was no ordinary collarbone injury, as Scott painfully recalls.
"I thank God every day that I'm still playing," he said. "My injury was very severe. My collarbone broke in two spots - I had the chip of the bone close to my heart, so they had to go in and pick that up, and put a plate in. I'm grateful to go in there and play, and have fun with guys I've been playing with since I got here."
Price and LaVon Brazill are both second-team All-MAC selections, and carry similar stats - Price has 52 receptions for 735 yards and five touchdowns, while Brazill has 50 catches for 689 yards and six scores. Terrence McCrae adds eight TDs among his 33 catches, for 534 yards.
The senior is the school's all-time leader in career receptions (145), and needs two touchdown catches to add to his 14 and lead in that category.
Price has 10 catches of 25 or more yards this season. He caught 14 in a 2008 game against Wyoming, for 137 yards.
"Stretches the field, he's really fast," Scott said. "Gets better as the game goes on. He's a good player."
But Brazill isn't slow, and will greatly factor into special teams - and as you may recall, Marshall lost to Southern Mississippi largely on poor play in the return game, yielding a kickoff return for a touchdown.
Brazill is the punt returner, and has taken three of those to the end zone. He averages 15.1 yards per return, and was named second-team All-American in the discipline by The Sporting News.
He was limited in the MAC championship game because of an injury, but Solich expects him back at full speed Saturday.
Scott said Price is the faster receiver, but Brazill's talents are unique.
"Elusiveness, awareness, just making a play," Scott said.
Ohio's offense will be looking for redemption as much as Marshall's defense, though. In the MAC championship, the Bobcats held Dan LeFevour and the high-powered Chippewas to three second-half points, but managed just 275 total yards in a 20-10 loss.
Reach Doug Smock at 304-348-5130 or dougsm...@wvgazette.com.
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