Marshall Football Coach Holliday Interview 8-23

As camp comes to a close, Coach Holliday talks about preparation with the Herd's matchup with Miami.

Coach Holliday Interview 8-23

Marshall Football Notebook 8-20

Coach's Corner

Coach Holliday opened with talking about the Paint the Capital City Green event that takes place tomorrow evening in Charleston.

"It's huge," Holliday said. "Its a well attended event. There will be a lot of people there, our players, we will take about 20 of our players there for that deal and our fans will get a chance to interact with our players and gives us an opportunity to thank our fan base for everything they do for us throughout the year."

Holliday said he likes what he has seen from his young receivers.

"It's good, its great to be honest," said Holliday. "We didn't get a lot of those plays a year ago. So normally what happens in practice happens in games. So if we can continue to make plays down the road in a game situation we will be alright because we can make them here in practice."

Holliday commented on rookie receiver Angelo Jean-Louis saying he is a talented guy but lets hold off Sportscenter--at least for now.

"He's a talented guy," Holliday said of Jean-Louis. "He may be one of our most consistent guys out here this fall. If he continues to do that, he's going to be a good player."

Holliday talked about the quality of the freshman coming into the program and the number of them that could see action this season.

"I think we have nine true freshman that are going to play a significant role this year," Holliday said. "That being said, we are bringing in good players and that's a tribute to Mike (Hamrick) and Dr. Kopp for providing us with the facilities we have to attract them here. Our coaching staff has done a tremendous job of recruiting. We think we have a pretty solid football team when you have nine freshmen who have a chance to come in and play.

ALS Ice Bucket Challenge

After receiving a challenge from Rakeem Cato, the entire Marshall receiving core took the Ice Bucket Challenge as a unit. It can be viewed HERE.

Senior wideout Tommy Shuler challenged Coach Holliday, Team Chaplin Rev and Athletic Director Mike Hamrick.

Hoskins Injury Holding Him Out

Former Herd tight end has been fighting for a roster spot with the Miami Dolphins through training camp but has also been fighting a hamstring injury. In the first 53 man roster projection, it appears Hoskins is not listed with the tight ends, but it also appears his injury is the only reason.

Read NFL beat writer and columnist for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel Omar Kelly's report HERE.

Scout's Honor...Again.

More NFL scouts attended the Herd's practice session today as reported by Herd Football's Assistant AD Mark Gale's Twitter account. The San Diego Chargers and Kansas City Chiefs were in attendance of today's session making this the 7th and 8th NFL team to visit the Herd's practice sessions. Add these to the list of the Bears, Texans, Bengals, Cardinals, Browns and Patriots who have all attended a Herd practice.

Is a Group of 5 school powerful enough?

Dennis Dodd from CBSSports.com released another article today regarding the Group of 5 which Marshall is listed at the top. Dodd likes the Herd's chances this season but said it takes 12-0 or it becomes a distant memory.

Read his article GROUP OF 5 ARTICLE HERE.

Football Promotional Events Schedule Released

Marshall released the 2014 promotional event schedule for all the Herd's home football games. All games will have some special promotion and can save fans money on tickets. A big announcement for the Rhode Island game all of the first responders for the Morris Building Fire will be recognized.

PROMOTIONAL EVENTS SCHEDULE

Marshall Football Head Coach Doc Holliday 8-20

Coach Holliday speaks about the upcoming Paint the Capital City Green.

Coach Holliday Interview 8-20

Marshall Football Tight Ends Coach Todd Hartley Talks Welcomes A New Member to the Family

Coach Hartley welcomed a new child to the family this morning. Here his story right here.

Coach Hartley Interview 8-19

Marshall Football Head Coach Doc Holliday Post Practice Interview 8-19

Coach Holliday Interview 8-19

Marshall Football Notebook 8-19

Coach’s Corner

Coach Holliday had an official work with the secondary and return unit today mostly to just keep a check on the hands and formations.

“He is just watching their hands mostly within the secondary making sure we were playing clean back there and getting alignments,” Holliday said. “We did some punt return things where we could check out our hold up and blocks.

The official was Kenny Long who attended Marshall and lives in Hurricane. He is a licensed CUSA official but he does not work any of Marshall’s games.

Holliday said that Gunnar Holcombe’s time spent within the program aided in his choice for the backup position.

“He’s making plays and better decisions,” said Holliday. “We stuck him there with the ones a couple times even today and he’s getting better as a player and he’s progressing.  The one thing that Gunnar has that Cole (Garvin) doesn’t have is Gunnar has been here a couple springs. He understands the offense a little better and is executing better at this point.

Holliday said he has a good idea of who will start the season returning punts with some addition hands joining the unit at a later time.

“I think there’s no doubt that Shuler and Reaves have both done it and can do it and there are two young freshmen in Gator Green and Hyleck Foster that both have tremendous ball skills back there,” said Holliday. “Early on it will be more Reaves and Shuler and then as we go along we will see how Foster and Green do. All four of them have the ability to get that done.”

One of Doc’s favorite things on a field is competition among players and he has a major battle brewing between the kickers. Justin Haig has been pushed all camp by Nick Smith which has actually stretched Haig’s distance out farther than it’s ever been and even farther than Holliday ever imagined.

“He (Haig) has more range now than he ever had,” Holliday said. “I didn’t realize he had it and he hadn’t had the range the last two or three years that he has right now. That’s a tribute to him because he has worked and Nick (Smith) has given him a battle and Justin isn’t backing down he is sticking in there and kicking right with him. It’s a good battle but Justin has responded and he’s kicked pretty well.”

In other news from former Herd player Blake Frohnapfel and him being named the starting quarterback at UMASS, Holliday said he was not surprised that Blake won the job.

“There were schools that Blake was interested in that wasn’t interested in him and I couldn’t understand why,” Holliday said. “We wish him the best, he’s an excellent kid and I’m sure he’ll do well for them.”

Ice Bucket Challenge

After being challenged by current New England Patriot and former Herd wide receiver Aaron Dobson, Rakeem Cato took the Ice Bucket Challenge today after this mornings practice. Cato challenged his entire receiving unit at the conclusion of taking the bucket of ice water. View Cato’s Challenge HERE!!!

If you can’t beat them, join them

Shawn Petty officially joined the team today after transferring to Marshall from Maryland. Petty is listed as a 6-1 235-pound linebacker and will play the same position at Marshall. Petty attended Eleanor Roosevelt High School before heading to Maryland where he spent time as a linebacker on the scout team before moving to quarterback during the 2012 season after the team became depleted with injuries. Petty played four games as the Terps signal caller going 39-84 for 500 yards with 6TD’s and 2 interceptions. Petty played in 13 games last season for Maryland as he recorded 24 tackles, 4 for loss, 2 sacks (-26 yards) with one pass breakup and deflection each. Petty will sit out this season (transfer) and will be a redshirt junior next season. Petty will have two years of eligibility remaining.

Welcome to the Herd Family

Tight ends coach Todd Hartley and wife Jessica welcomed the birth of their third child at 10:15 a.m. this morning. Teagan Elizabeth Hartley weighed 5-pounds 13-ounces and was 19 inches long. Mother and baby are doing fine.

Coach Hartley said the outpouring of support from everyone has been tremendous.

“The good part about being part of something like this it truly is family,” Hartley said. “We’ve had coaches wives coming by and all kinds of texts and tweets and Facebook and its been unbelievable just because of the Marshall family. We’ve got our family back home in Georgia but the Marshall family is just unbelievable.”

Hartley said with child number three his wife Jessica has become more accustomed to the life of a football coach, unlike the birth of his first child when the couple was still in Georgia and one of the biggest games of the season was on the schedule.

“I was working for Georgia and I missed about three days of work,” explained Hartley. “We were playing Florida that we, Georgia-Florida game and I was on the plane on Friday to down to the game on Saturday. She was upset because I was gone after three days.”

 With the birth today, Hartley missed only the morning practice.

Congratulations to the entire Hartley family on their new addition.

Turn up the music

At 4:17 p.m. today, somewhere between 3^rd and 5^th avenues and approximately around 20^th street in between McDonalds and Tic Toc Tire, Thunderstruck was heard filling the air over Huntington. Have you…?

You’re not worthy

After a lengthy discussion with ESPN’s Scott Van Pelt (@notthefakesvp) today, he made it perfectly clear that anyone who does not have a win over a Power 5 team. He basically said that should Marshall go 12-0, it was pretty much meaningless due to its terrible schedule. Even with every other team in the nation going 11-1 and Marshall going 12-0, he says Marshall has no chance.  View the conversation on my Twitter feed at @CollierSZLive.

Brotherly Love

Keep a look out for an upcoming article featuring Eric and Blake Frohnapfel and football life after Marshall. This will be the first season they will place on different teams after Blake transferred to UMASS after obtaining his undergraduate degree at Marshall. The interview covers football life and life away from the field including some brotherly love humor.

Watson Hopes His New Direction Leads to Paydirt

Ask Marshall football running back Remi Watson the two best pieces of advice first-year running backs coach Chris Barclay gave him and his answer may shock you, a compass and a toilet.

Remi Watson 

No Barclay was not playing a practical joke but rather providing Watson with valuable tools to help the redshirt junior perform to his expected potential.

How is Watson supposed to use these two items to make himself a better runner? It all started after a straight forward talk from his coach.

“The best thing I’ve told him (Watson),” Barclay said. “It’s a revolutionary statement. I said I don’t know if you know this Remi but the end zones are north and south. The quicker you can get north or south, the faster you can get in the end zone. I would hate for you to run 20 yards east and west to gain three yards or five yards.”

Barclay may know a thing or two about scoring after finishing a stellar career at Wake Forest where he was named the 2005 ACC Player of the Year and the Offensive Player of the Year. Barclay also set seven school records including rushing yards (4,032), scoring (240 points), rushing touchdowns (40), total touchdowns (40), all-purpose yards (4,930), 200-yard rushing games (3) and 1,000 yard rushing seasons (3).

Running Backs Coach Chris Barclay

So what does Watson attribute his sudden surge thus far in camp? Listening to his coach’s advice and putting it to use in practice.

“I told myself once again like I do every day when I come out to practice, north and south, north and south, north and south, as quick as possible,” Watson said.

Entering his third season with the Herd, Watson said past experience meant nothing and Coach Barclay was very clear on what was expected from the junior.

“He (Barclay) gave it to me how it is with no beating around the bush,” Watson said. “No just thinking you have arrived because I played as a freshman. I got to work every day when I come out here.”

Watson understands there is work to be done, especially if he plans on rebounding from a sub-par 2013 season. Watson’s rookie season in 2012 saw the kid from Lakeland, Florida rack up 380 yards on 79 carries and seven touchdowns while averaging 4.8 yards per carry. His best performance in 2012 came in a 54-51 win over Rice when he finished with 14 carries for 84 yards and two touchdowns.

However, Watson’s rookie production did not continue in 2013. Watson struggled finding his place in the depth chart behind Essray Taliaferro, Steward Butler and Kevin Grooms largely in part to his running style consistently running him sideline to sideline with little to no gain, therefore stalling the Herd’s high-octane offense.

Watson played in only nine games in 2013, none of which he started, after playing in 11-of-12 in 2012 and starting four. Watson’s 2013 stats plummeted to 120 yards on 30 carries with no touchdowns and his best game of the season did not come until Marshall’s Military Bowl victory over Maryland when he gained 42 yards on six carries including a 19-yard run.

So what does Watson have to do this season to find increased opportunities in an extremely crowded backfield? For starters, he must heed to his coach’s advice.

“Coach Barclay laid it on the line,” explained Watson. “If you want to play, you’ve got to add this to your game. If you don’t, it’s not that you aren’t talented enough to do it, but if you chose not to add that to your game, we will find someone else who will.”

Watson works during a drill in camp

Watson seemed to take Barclay’s advice after having a decent performance in Saturday night’s scrimmage. Watson tallied 11 carries for 51 yards (4.6 yards per carry) and a touchdown including a five-play 25-yard drive that Watson carried the ball five times.

Watson started slow in the scrimmage with runs of 1-yard and no gain. However, Watson stayed the course stringing off runs of three and nine yards in back-to-back carries. More importantly, Watson never seemed to lose his composure on the field.

That must be music to Barclay’s ears.

But while Watson’s numbers appear to be returning to those of his rookie year, Barclay demands him to play the next play and forget what happen on the last, or simply flush the toilet.

“Coach Barclay always tells us when something doesn’t go your way you have to flush the toilet,” Watson chuckled. “If you have a bad run, he wants us to do the same thing. You’ve got to take what you are given. I can’t get mad and frustrated I just have to stay with the program and my runs will come.”

Watson said he starts fresh every day, no matter the previous outcome.

“Even if you have a good practice when you come out the next day he’s going to ask you about it,” said Watson. “He will ask me how did I practice yesterday. I just tell him, I don’t know coach I flushed the toilet.”

Leading up to and during the scrimmage, Watson’s running lanes were much different than that off old. He worked largely between the tackles and often waited for a lane to develop before attacking at just the right time. As represented by last season’s team production, a solid running attack makes Rakeem Cato’s high-powered air attack even more effective.

Perhaps this truly is a new version of Remi Watson that has heeded Coach Barclay’s advice and turned over a new leaf in his style of running. But take caution should Watson revert to his old running ways as the outcome could get messy in a hurry.

Hopefully for Herd fans Watson has flushed the toilet of his old ways for good and there are no clogs along the way in the system.

Eric Frohnapfel Interview 8-19

Frohnapfel speaks about football life after his brother Blake's transfer to UMASS, as well as him getting the starting nod at quarterback plus some good brotherly love humor.

Eric Frohnapfel Interview 8-19

Stefan Houston Interview 8-19

Houston talks about battling back from injury last year and how that has helped motivate him for this season.

Stefan Houston Interview 8-19

Marshall Football Notebook 8-18

With the open sessions of Marshall football practices in the books for this season, it means the camp part of the fall is nearing a conclusion and the prep for Miami is soon to begin. While the two-deep will not be released until next Tuesday, Coach Holliday did comment about the race between the players today at the conclusion of practice.

Coach's Corner

Coach Holliday was upbeat after today's workout and spoke about the grind that leads the team into week three.

"We come to practice every day and its important that we get better," Holliday said. "Right now there's a lot of teams that have to make a decision of whether they want to be average or want to be great."

As the team reported to practice today, it finds itself 12 days away from the season opener at Miami. Holliday said its important to make every practice count.

"They have to understand they have 29 practices before the first game and you have about the same amount the whole rest of the season," said Holliday of his team. "If you are going to have a good football team you have to get everything out of those 29 practices leading up to that first game. This is when teams are made. We have to make sure we come out and take advantage of every practice we have and get better as an individual and a team."

While the official team two-deep chart will not be released until next Tuesday, Holliday did comment on how positions were playing out.

"The two deep is starting to sort itself out," Holliday said.  "We aren’t giving reps to the three’s anymore and some of the threes might become twos."

Holliday said the younger guys are forcing the vets to step up or step aside.

"They work really hard or they get beat out," Holliday explained. "Its really pretty simple, we are going to play the best players regardless of the class. Anytime you’ve got a lot of competition at one position everyone gets better."

Everyone who started camp with red stripe on their helmet still has it to this point but Holliday said it was possible a few would come off tonight. For more on the meaning of the helmet's red stripe and how it comes off, check out my article HERE.

Holliday continued to praise the freshman class and said he expects several to find a way on the field.

"I'm not sure I've had this many since I've been here ," said Holliday. There could be six or eight that may play and that’s true freshman. That’s probably one of the higher numbers since I've been here and that’s a good thing because that means we've got more talented players coming in."

Holliday has 27 true freshman on this season's roster.

Holliday also spoke about the team enjoying some entertainment last night before meetings.

"We had a little fun last night," Holliday said. "We had a musician come in and he was pretty good so they enjoyed it. We have a little fun every night around 8 o'clock before going into meetings. This is a team that likes each other, they work extremely hard and they are fun to be around."

Back it up

At the end of his interview today, Holliday officially named redshirt sophomore Gunnar Holcombe as Cato's backup. Holcombe was 11-of-22 for 151 yards with 2TD's and an interception in Saturday's scrimmage.

The Hype is nationwide

Several columnists released preseason rankings and predictions today with Dennis Dodd ranking the Herd as high as No. 8 by season's end. Simply put, several around the country are sipping the Kool-Aid but not many have taken a big drink. However, the consensus seems to be if the Herd loses one game, any chance of a major bowl is gone. Three of the seven CBS Sports experts had the Herd ranked in the Top 25.

CBS Sports Projections

Everybody's favorite person from last season, Jerry Palm released his Bowl Predictions today with the Herd headed to the Heart of Dallas Bowl for a match up with Minnesota December 26th.

Jerry Palm's Bowl Projections  

CollegeFootballPoll.com released its season projection's today with the Herd picked to finish 12-0 and a No. 10 ranking. It also shows how favored Marshall is entering each game.

CollegeFootballPoll.com

A backup no longer

Former Herd backup quarterback Blake Frohnapfel has won the starting job at UMASS and will start the season opener against Boston College. Frohnapfel transferred after obtaining his undergraduate degree from Marshall. Frohnapfel finished 35-of-45 for 386 yards with 5 TD's and 2 interceptions. He also had 164 yards on 24 carries and 2 TDs.

A new addition to the Herd family

Coach Todd Hartley announced today via his Twitter account that he and his wife will welcome their third child to their family tomorrow.