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SPORTS
MU Notebook: Can Herd do a Houston against Rice?
Referencing Marshall University football's victory over Houston while previewing Saturday's Rice matchup is en vogue.
Houston and the Owls feature offenses posting PlayStation stats and suspect defenses. Much has been made of the Thundering Herd containing UH quarterback Case Keenum through three quarters in a 37-23 victory. Marshall's offense, however, proved equally effective, totaling 406 yards and averaging 5.1 yards a play.
Darius Marshall sparked his run of three-straight 100-yard rushing games, gaining 102 on 15 carries. Quarterback Mark Cann enjoyed a clean performance, completing 15 of 25 passes for 157 yards and two touchdowns without an interception. Darius Passmore totaled 71 yards on three receptions and added 42 rushing yards on eight attempts.
The Herd offense since has struggled, leading to consecutive losses. A reversal is needed Saturday for an upset performance at Rice. Marshall (4-6, 3-3 Conference USA) and the Owls (7-3, 5-1) kick off at 3:30 p.m. in Houston. CBS College Sports will televise the game.
"We're moving along," Thundering Herd head coach Mark Snyder said. "We're progressing on offense. As I look at our offense, I think we're running the ball a lot better. We ran the ball -- that was the one bright spot -- we ran the ball well against UCF (in last week's loss).
"The running backs are running hard. I see our young offensive line getting better each week. That's going to have to continue this week as we go to the West."
Darius Marshall leads Marshall with 883 rushing yards and five touchdowns on 182 carries (4.9 yards a carry). Chubb Small is averaging 4.2 yards a carry, totaling 325 yards and three TDs.
Cann, meanwhile, has experienced a redshirt freshman slump during the two-game skid. For the season, Cann has thrown for 1,684 yards and 13 touchdowns against 12 interceptions.
The first-year signal-caller's recent troubles are attributed somewhat to facing two of C-USA's top defenses in ECU and UCF.
"Well that's part of it," Snyder said. "Anytime you play better teams, as you've seen, it seems like that's been the tendency. When you look at his bad games he's been going against good defenses.
"I think the real key for him, as we've discussed, he's got to quit being afraid of making a mistake and go play football. We've got a running game going so that should take some of the burden off of him.
"Darius Passmore has been double-teamed a lot lately. A lot of his success was going to Darius, so we need to make sure we need to improve in other areas there."
SMITH SPARKS HERD: Marshall's offense especially stumbled during last week's first half against UCF. Prior to the Herd's initial second half possession, tight end Lee Smith was spotted actively engaging teammates during a sideline huddle.
A 61-yard Darius Marshall sprint followed, setting up Cann's 15-yard touchdown pass to tight end Cody Slate.
"He was just saying 'Let's go. It's time. It's time to get going. We've been too sluggish. We've already made all of our mistakes. Our mistakes are out of the way. We've got to get going'," Small said. "He was just stressing the fact that it's time to step it up."
And was the talk effective, leading to crisper play?
"It did," Small said. "We should have kept the momentum, but the wind just wasn't blowing our way -- too many mistakes."
Anthony Hanshew covers Marshall football for The Herald-Dispatch. He can be reached at 526-2766. His e-mail address is hanshew@herald-dispatch.com.
