Throughout Huntington and the Tri-State, Marshall University football has evolved into a year-round discussion. Thundering Herd spring practice wrapped last week, but fans and casual observers continue to speculate on the coming season, while coaches and players settle into offseason routines.
A sense of change and newness surrounds the program, entering its fourth season under head coach Mark Snyder. In a wide-ranging question-and-answer session with sports writer Anthony Hanshew, Snyder offers opinions including his new starting quarterback, a new-look coaching staff and whether 2008 marks a “make or break” year.
H-D: It’s a few days removed from spring drills. What are your general reflections? I’m sure you’ve been watching a lot of film the last few days and meeting with your coordinators. What’s your general assessment?
SNYDER: I think the kids’ attitudes are good. We’ve had our post-spring meetings with the kids and the coordinators and the feedback has been very good. I think these guys are focused and they know the task at hand as to what has to happen here over the next couple of months.
As I look back to spring ball we made tremendous strides — I think — on both sides of the ball. And I think a lot of that has to do with how young those guys are. They’re just going to continue to get better and better and better.
You know you kind of peak in your sophomore or junior year and that’s where you really have to push it. It’s kind of like between game one and game two, you always hear (about) making big strides. For us this year, because of all of the youth that was out there, I saw those guys make tremendous leaps.
Now they still have a long way to go, but if they continue to progress like that I think we’ll be ready.
H-D: And they’re pushing your seniors, your juniors. They recognize those guys behind them.
SNYDER: I was pleased with athleticism that I saw out there. We had a bunch of good players out and we still looked pretty athletic. That was exciting to see.
Now obviously we’ve touched on numbers (depth) more than once now. That goes without saying — it’s nice to have numbers. I saw a tremendous amount of leaps and bounds. We still have a long way to go. But I was pleased seeing numbers out there.
H-D: Coachspeak aside, the quarterback situation. You didn’t declare a starter. (Redshirt freshman) Mark Cann obviously took a good majority of first-team snaps. Where does that stand now?
SNYDER: We felt like he earned them. Not that those other guys can’t earn them come two-a-days (August preseason camp). Those reps are earned. And maybe mentally a little bit and calmness and running the offense he maybe showed a little more poise. But that doesn’t mean that that won’t come with the other guys with the more reps they get.
H-D: Do you feel comfortable giving me a pecking order of quarterbacks right now?
SNYDER: You know — no. We’ll go in just like we did in spring. Obviously Mark will probably start with the ones to begin with, the first day. And we’ll evaluate it every day just like we did this spring.
H-D: How different did the team look during spring drills compared to your last practice in November? And how different will the team look in August compared to spring?
SNYDER: Good question. We couldn’t forecast all of the injuries we were going to have last year. I felt decent coming out of spring last year, (but) we had a slew of injuries and we couldn’t recover from them. It took us halfway through the year to recover.
But like I said there are more numbers out there, a little more athletic. I think the biggest factor you see is the youth. We’re plugging a lot of young guys in there and they made a bunch of mistakes. But you know what, they made them fast. That’s what’s good to see.
Speed overcomes a lot of things, and that will have to be our case the first couple of games.
H-D: That being said, leading into August you’re going to have a bunch of new players. Another recruiting class, plus some possible (academic) non-qualifiers from last year will be in. How different will the team look?
SNYDER: It will be different again. It’s exciting. But you can’t count on freshmen. I don’t care what anybody says, you can’t count on freshmen (as a whole) to come in and help a football team. Now will there be a few who come in and help us? Sure.
H-D: And the non-qualifiers. You can’t necessarily count on that but. ...
SNYDER: It’s going to take them a while. They’re going to have to take every rep they get in two-a-days and get back in shape. I think you’ll start to see them flourish about game two, game three, game four. Just like the junior college kids we have coming in, they’re in the same boat. They’ve been playing college football but not at this level.
H-D: This is kind of along the same line, but the influx of new players and how that steps up the competition. Like at cornerback with DeQuan Bembry and T.J. Drakeford and those guys. How do you see that amping up competition? Terrell Edwards at running back; we’ve gone through all of these names several times.
SNYDER: Yes. The offensive linemen. The linebackers, don’t forget them. Kellen (Harris) and Corey (Hart), and you can throw Andre Portis into that mix.
The attention to detail definitely goes up when you have competition. And I think it’s healthy. I’ve always said that. It’s a very healthy byproduct. You don’t have to go as long with certain guys and that keeps you from getting certain injuries.
You know how when guys get tired, they get injured. This is going to allow us to roll people in practice and roll people in the game and keep them fresh. Especially in this league defensively, I think that’s very important. Those who are deep on defense (succeed).
That’s why so many points are scored.
H-D: How about the overall buzz around campus? With the dorms coming in, the rec center, you can see it. It’s tangible. What’s the buzz around campus? It’s seems like there’s a different vibe with so much construction happening.
SNYDER: It really is.
H-D: And how that’s going to reflect to (the football program). You’re going to have two new sets of dorms right there at your stadium.
SNYDER: And a nice rec center. It’s been needed for a long time. It’s been needed since I went to school here.
And I think our guys are excited that we’re renovating the Shewey (Building). We’re going to have new meeting rooms. We’re going to have an actual team meeting room instead of a classroom. The coaches are going to have nice meeting rooms with nice, aesthetic, pleasant surroundings — big chairs, comfortable, theater-style seating. Right now we’re kind of in and out of meeting rooms, offices. We’re meeting everywhere. I think they’re excited about that too.
H-D: With three new coaches on the staff, two new coordinators — forget about football — personality-wise, how do you think everybody blended? Hello, I’m (new offensive coordinator) John Shannon. Good to meet you, I’m (new defensive coordinator) Rick Minter. After that initial meeting, how has it been with that dynamic?
SNYDER: I think today with teen-agers in general trust is a big factor. And trust comes over time. That’s a relationship that has to be built, and we’re in the process of doing that. I felt that spring was that way and we made strides toward that, especially with the kids that were practicing.
The hard part about that — if there was one negative — that would be it, that the guys didn’t get to intermingle and be coached by those guys and be coached hard, because they weren’t practicing.
We all know they can play, so that’s not the issue. But the one dynamic missing with those 20 or so on the sideline was that they were not being coached by the new guys. That’s a bit of a concern that we’re going to have to adjust to and overcome once we get to two-a-days.
H-D: You hear a lot about, or I get asked a lot, about make-or-break year. How do you react to that? You can’t really go into a season with that mentality I would imagine, but do you hear that and does it affect you day to day?
SNYDER: No it doesn’t at all. You know, I don’t hear that much. I think the people that know, know. They know what challenges we’re up against. Let’s be realistic here. I’ve been here three years and one month.
Rome wasn’t built in a day. Not that we were building Rome, but there was some rebuilding to be done. As opposed to how many years it took to get a winning season in (1984) — it’s not like that. But there was a process here.
I think any coach needs to have a chance to coach his own team, coach his own players. To answer your question, though, no I don’t hear that much. And again, I put more pressure on myself than anybody could ever put on me. That’s part of our business. I knew that. Since I’ve been in this business it’s been like that.
H-D: What about returning players who missed most or all of last year with injuries? They’re almost like incoming recruits. Guys like (2006 Conference USA Defensive Player of the Year) Albert (McClellan, out last year with a knee injury).
SNYDER: The exciting thing is, we get him back for two more (seasons), him and (defensive tackle) Montel (Glasco). That’s awesome. Those guys aren’t looking down the barrel of a senior year.
They’re going to be able to let the game come to them. The big thing to them is going to be, early, let the game come to them. Don’t push. Don’t press, because you make mistakes and things like that when you press.
H-D: How close is Albert to being back?
SNYDER: We’ll see. Physically he’s probably about one more month away from being full tilt. And when we get back in pads there will be that (process) mentally, getting back in, working his game. And that’s why I said, let the game come to them. Don’t press because they’ve got two more years left. They’re not going to have to press.
Nobody here’s going to pressure on them to be all-world on day three. Again, there’s going to be a little bit of that process of getting him back into that thing where he’s at full speed and he has the confidence factor that he’s had.
H-D: Bigger picture, how about the whole learning-to-win thing, the whole culture of the program? It’s been three consecutive losing seasons. Just the mentality of getting that ingrained into them because I’ve talked with so many recruits who seemed so fired up to be part of the change, to be part of that turnaround. That seems to be a big part of it.
SNYDER: It is. If you look back at our recruiting classes we try to target kids for the most part who are coming out of winning programs. They know how to win and I think my staff here knows how to win.
That’s not as big a concern as it was the last couple of years. Now is it a mental barrier we still need to get over? Absolutely. But I still haven’t forgotten how to win. And I don’t think these guys have either. And that’s why it’s nice to have fresh blood.
H-D: Season ticket sales. Obviously last year was a huge record-breaker, but this year West Virginia isn’t on the (home) schedule. What’s your message to fans about how important it is to maintain instead of having it up and down?
SNYDER: We have some really good football teams coming into Huntington. And it’s going to be an exciting brand of football. Obviously we have to do our job, our part. But the schedule, there are a lot of bowl teams on that schedule.
H-D: Talk about the schedule overall and the challenges it presents.
SNYDER: It is challenging but I will say this — as you look at the schedule, it’s busted up a little bit. You don’t go back to back to back (against BCS opponents). You start with a I-AA team, then you play a Big Ten team and then we move into (Conference USA) a little bit. Then you come back and play a Big East team in West Virginia. Now we do play (Big East teams Cincinnati and WVU) back to back but (Cincinnati) is going to be a Friday night game (Oct. 3). It’s a short week, but we feel we need to be on TV. It’s great exposure for us.
It’s busted up a little there where we have conference teams between the BCS teams.
H-D: How important is it to get off to a good start with Illinois State (the Aug. 30 season opener)? I’ve mentioned Wisconsin (Marshall travels to Wisconsin the following weekend) to a lot of players and their response has been, ‘no, it’s not Wisconsin. It’s Illinois State.’
SNYDER: They’re a very good I-AA team. You can’t take anyone for granted these days.
H-D: With spring practice wrapped, everyone can enjoy some relative time off from the routine. Touch on some aspects of the program — beyond the game — that readers might not be aware of.
SNYDER: I’ve got a list here on my desk. Fifteen to 17 guys, in summer school or in December, are going to be graduated (with remaining athletic eligibility). That’s a heck of an accomplishment in my book. We’re in finals now and we’ll see how we fare there. I feel good about our APR (a national academic rating system
) and the guys have put in together between 250 and 275 community hours this year.
H-D: Now that you’re a couple of years into it, what has been tangible impact of former players coming back to the program and coming back consistently? It’s hasn’t been a one-and-done deal. Randy (Moss) has been visible. Chad (Pennington) always is. Troy (Brown) has always been here. You’re seeing so much of that and it’s going to be here again with the Bartrum and Brown Camp (May 17 at Edwards Stadium). And you’re seeing more recent players coming back.
SNYDER: I don’t know if fans know it but we have an honorary captain before every game that’s a former player, and that’s a way to get those guys back in the fold and make them feel welcome so when we do have a spring game or practice they feel welcome. We had the second-highest attended spring game in Conference USA (6,107) and it continues to grow along with bringing the former players back.
H-D: I’m sure they enjoy coming back and walking through the Shewey Building and seeing the trophies, but I know the current players enjoy it too.
SNYDER: They do. And it’s the confidence factor you just brought up. Those guys won when they were here. They won big. That stuff is contagious.
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