Herd hangs on for win No. 6
HUNTINGTON - After 31/2 hours of sometimes nerve-wracking football, Mark Snyder received his first cold, wet, uncomfortable but joyful souvenir of head coaching: the bath from the Gatorade bucket, courtesy of his players.
HUNTINGTON - After 31/2 hours of sometimes nerve-wracking football, Mark Snyder received his first cold, wet, uncomfortable but joyful souvenir of head coaching: the bath from the Gatorade bucket, courtesy of his players.
He received his first ceremonial dunking after Marshall won its sixth game for the first time in five years, outlasting Southern Methodist 34-31 before a crowd announced at 19,646 at Joan C. Edwards Stadium.
"I about had a heart attack," Snyder said. "Now I know why all those guys jump like that, when you don't see it coming. I never had one as a head coach, it was my first bath as a head coach, and it felt pretty daggone good. [My last one] was when [Ohio State] beat Michigan to go to the national championship game - [Jim Tressel] got his first, and then I got nailed, with a little bucket."
The Herd (6-5, 4-3) won its first November game since 2007, breaking a six-game drought, and did it with star tight end Cody Slate out for the year and running back Darius Marshall sitting out after going through warm-ups. Nonetheless, the Herd scored 34 points and racked up 475 total yards, both season highs.
That happened because Martin Ward rushed for 136 yards and Terrell Edwards-Maye added 113, both scoring once. And it also happened because freshman Aaron Dobson gained 127 yards on four receptions, all of which were enormous:
Down 7-0 in the first quarter, Dobson plucked a flea-flicker from Brian Anderson out of the sky for 48 yards, putting the Herd on the SMU 2-yard line. That set up Ward's 2-yard run that tied the game.
On the Herd's next possession, he caught a 23-yard pass on third-and-9, setting up Craig Ratanamorn's 50-yard field goal that gave the Herd a 10-7 lead.
The Dunbar native wasn't heard from again until the 5:42 mark of the third quarter, but that was when he caught a 40-yard bomb from Anderson, outleaping cornerback Bennie Thomas.
With 2:01 left, he caught a 16-yard scoring toss to make it 34-24, four plays after an Omar Brown interception.
"Aaron Dobson continues to step up," Snyder said. "We put him in the place of Cody Slate. We did with Aaron tonight what we usually do with Cody. That was the game plan all week, so we are still creating those mismatches that we did with Cody, the entire four years Cody has been here."
Dobson's final score enabled the Herd to absorb one last SMU parry, a 9-yard Zach Line run with 40 seconds left to set the final score, after which Ashton Hall recovered the onside kick to seal the issue.
That set off a large celebration in the Herd locker room, easily audible throughout the Shewey Building. For the first time since 2004, Marshall has attained bowl eligibility, though conditional.
HUNTINGTON - After 31/2 hours of sometimes nerve-wracking football, Mark Snyder received his first cold, wet, uncomfortable but joyful souvenir of head coaching: the bath from the Gatorade bucket, courtesy of his players.
He received his first ceremonial dunking after Marshall won its sixth game for the first time in five years, outlasting Southern Methodist 34-31 before a crowd announced at 19,646 at Joan C. Edwards Stadium.
"I about had a heart attack," Snyder said. "Now I know why all those guys jump like that, when you don't see it coming. I never had one as a head coach, it was my first bath as a head coach, and it felt pretty daggone good. [My last one] was when [Ohio State] beat Michigan to go to the national championship game - [Jim Tressel] got his first, and then I got nailed, with a little bucket."
The Herd (6-5, 4-3) won its first November game since 2007, breaking a six-game drought, and did it with star tight end Cody Slate out for the year and running back Darius Marshall sitting out after going through warm-ups. Nonetheless, the Herd scored 34 points and racked up 475 total yards, both season highs.
That happened because Martin Ward rushed for 136 yards and Terrell Edwards-Maye added 113, both scoring once. And it also happened because freshman Aaron Dobson gained 127 yards on four receptions, all of which were enormous:
Down 7-0 in the first quarter, Dobson plucked a flea-flicker from Brian Anderson out of the sky for 48 yards, putting the Herd on the SMU 2-yard line. That set up Ward's 2-yard run that tied the game.
On the Herd's next possession, he caught a 23-yard pass on third-and-9, setting up Craig Ratanamorn's 50-yard field goal that gave the Herd a 10-7 lead.
The Dunbar native wasn't heard from again until the 5:42 mark of the third quarter, but that was when he caught a 40-yard bomb from Anderson, outleaping cornerback Bennie Thomas.
With 2:01 left, he caught a 16-yard scoring toss to make it 34-24, four plays after an Omar Brown interception.
"Aaron Dobson continues to step up," Snyder said. "We put him in the place of Cody Slate. We did with Aaron tonight what we usually do with Cody. That was the game plan all week, so we are still creating those mismatches that we did with Cody, the entire four years Cody has been here."
Dobson's final score enabled the Herd to absorb one last SMU parry, a 9-yard Zach Line run with 40 seconds left to set the final score, after which Ashton Hall recovered the onside kick to seal the issue.
That set off a large celebration in the Herd locker room, easily audible throughout the Shewey Building. For the first time since 2004, Marshall has attained bowl eligibility, though conditional.
"It's huge," Snyder said. "It's not something we have done since we have been here. This senior group was the first group that came in and said that we're going to do it, and they did it."
Ratanamorn hit two field goals, the 50-yarder and a 42-yarder in the fourth quarter that gave the Herd its first 10-point lead at 27-17. Anderson finished 13-of-22 for 213 yards and the two TD tosses to Dobson.
The Herd outgained the Mustangs 475-331 and hogged the ball for 34:24. Marshall's defense gave up 71 first-half rushing yards to Shawnbrey McNeal and was burned for a 43-yard scoring pass from Kyle Padron to speedster Emmanuel Sanders, but that side turned in several big plays.
Among them were five sacks and Brown's interception, which gave Marshall a short field for its final touchdown drive. Padron went 18-of-32 for 225 yards, and McNeal had just 11 second-half yards to finish with 82 on 20 carries.
"I thought we were a little bit lethargic on defense starting the game. I just didn't feel it," Snyder said. "That game plan going in was to get on these guys and play some man. I thought we did that well. When we backed off and played some zone, that's when they started making some hay.
"For the most part, I was happy. I was frustrated with the fact that we got in their backfield but couldn't sack their quarterback. It became very frustrating. He is no Joe Webb [Alabama-Birmgham's 1,000-yard rushing QB], but he is much more elusive than we had thought. I now know why June [Jones, SMU's coach] went with that guy."
The Mustangs (6-5, 5-2) entered the game atop the West Division of C-USA, and fell into a first-place tie with Houston. The Cougars own the tiebreaker and play Rice next week, so SMU appears headed to the Hawaii Bowl, barring unusual developments.
Jones said his team didn't play as well physically as he expected, and pointed to the Herd's pass rush. He also acknowledged that injuries hampered the defensive effort - particularly in what has been a solid secondary, as Thomas was starting his first game in place of two injured-for-the-season cornerbacks.
"We did what we could do, but we didn't play well enough," Jones said. "We made a stop with five minutes to go, then went three-and-out offensively. That was disappointing. We gave the ball right back to them and they score. There are certain points in the game when you have to step up and get it done, but we just didn't do that."
Marshall had felt that in agonizing losses to Central Florida and Southern Mississippi.
"After the last couple of weeks, the hard losses we've had, we'll take this hard win any day," Snyder said. "That's the way this league is, week in and week out, and we're excited to get to six."
Reach Doug Smock at 304-348-5130 or dougsm...@wvgazette.com.
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When he's gone we'll return along with about 10K other unhappy fans. Thats just how things are. If you want to get a REAL feel of the sentiment, browse over to herdnation.com and read the 95% angry posts against Snyder.
Unless one is looking for drugs or some other illegal activity in Huntington, I don't think it's too much of a safety issue. Just like Charleston, notice the people involved are hanging with the wrong people or frequenting the wrong places.