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MARSHALL SPORTS
Herd not taking this year's I-AA opponent lightly
The Marshall University football team will open its 2008 season Saturday against Illinois State. Kickoff is 4:30 p.m. Thundering Herd players say they are not overlooking this year I-AA opponent.
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HUNTINGTON -- Band-Aids were ripped off early this week, removing the elephant from Joan C. Edwards Stadium.
Nobody within Marshall University's football family was exactly angling to talk New Hampshire this week, but the obvious storyline was addressed Monday, clearing the way to focus on this week's season-opening opponent.
New Hampshire famously delivered the rock bottom moment of last year's 0-7 start, shocking the Thundering Herd, 48-35. It was Marshall's first loss to an NCAA Division I-AA opponent since joining I-A ranks in 1997 and a setback that lingered.
Illinois State, a member of the I-AA Missouri Valley Football Conference, seeks such an upset Saturday at Joan C. Edwards Stadium. Kickoff is 4:30 p.m. and WOWK (Huntington-Charleston), WVNS (Beckley-Bluefield) and WBOY (Clarksburg) will televise the game.
"You just look at it regardless of who you play, anybody can be beat," Marshall free safety C.J. Spillman said. "It doesn't matter how good or how bad you are.
"Never underestimate your opponent. Someone's always capable of being beat."
New Hampshire, led by steady, confident quarterback Ricky Santos and a surprisingly effective run game, totaled 502 yards in offense before a stunned Edwards Stadium crowd.
"They were a very good football team," Thundering Herd defensive end John Jacobs said. "Whether they were I-AA or not, they were a good football team. They had a very good quarterback. They had a good running back, and they executed.
"We just have to start faster, no matter who we're playing -- especially against a team like that that comes into your house and does something like that. You have to start fast and not let a team hang around and gain more confidence."
Perhaps a bit of overconfidence from the home team factored as well. Fans surely assumed a victory coming off a strong first half showing against No. 3 West Virginia. Rumor has it a sports writer had the gall to essentially write a bulk of his game story three hours prior to kickoff at an eatery across from "The Joan."
"I think we just came out with the mindset that we already had the game in the bag; that we really didn't have to do too much," Spillman said. "In that case it shows you that we didn't. It's one of those lessons to learn to get better and never repeat the same thing again."
The manner of last year's New Hampshire matchup was the real shock as opposed to the final score. This was no fluke; UNH led 24-0 at halftime, resulting in awkward silence in the stands, within the press box and on the Thundering Herd sideline.
"I don't really know what was going on last year," Marshall wide receiver Darius Passmore said. "I was shocked too. I really couldn't believe it to tell you the truth."
Spillman offered the same recollection.
"I'd probably say the sideline was dead for the fact that we were trying to figure out what was going on," the senior said.
Illinois State seeks to again silence Marshall fans with a power running game and an active, athletic defensive front. The Redbirds are 3-29 all-time against I-A opponents, and last year's 38-17 setback to No. 25 Missouri extended their I-A losing streak to 17 games.
"We approach these games the same," Illinois State free safety Tom Nelson said. "Obviously we never go into a game thinking we're going to lose. We approach it like any other game and game plan like it's any other opponent.
"They have more scholarships, but we're not going to let that cross our mind."
Marshall's 85 scholarship players, compared to the I-AA limit of 63, aren't lost on Nelson's teammate, defensive end Doni Phelps.
"Every one of these games is just as important," Phelps said. "We're going to battle as we would if the opponent was not I-A. We're going in with the intention to win even though the level of competition is higher than Division I-AA.
"They're going to get better athletes and we completely understand that."
