HUNTINGTON -- It's a life of anonymity where hard work seemingly can go unnoticed.

Instead of your assigned jersey number, the number on your team shorts usually reaches triple digits. Reps are few in practice, and it takes a little longer for everyone to know your name.

It's the life of a college football walk-on, a pay-your-way journey that can appear thankless. Take solace Marshall University walk-ons; coaches do notice the hard work and it is appreciated.

"It's a rough road for them," Thundering Herd head coach Mark Snyder said. "They're paying their own way to school, and you're relegated to scout team work. And you've basically got to make a way out of no way.

"But what we've found is that most of the time those guys become great leaders, because they've had the adversity. They don't take things for granted.

"Those kids have done a great job. They've worked hard, and I'm glad they're on our football team."

Chris Bowers is among several freshmen beginning their careers on the dirt road. The former Cabell Midland High School standout has made a move this week, earning third team reps at center.

"Chris is doing well," Snyder said. "All of the walk-ons are doing well. It's vital to any program.

"And we've had a great run here with players helping all the great teams we've had here at Marshall. They've been walk-ons and earned a scholarship. There will be a couple here that will have earned one this year."

Bowers wore a broad smile Friday after wrapping his first Thundering Herd preseason camp. It's an enduring stretch, particularly for a newcomer just months removed from high school.

Still, the 6-foot-2, 280-pound lineman hardly was complaining.

"It's a privilege certainly," Bowers said. "There are a lot of guys who would have loved to have been down here. They gave me the privilege and the shot to come down and show them what I can do.

"I'm really grateful for the opportunity. It's a strange perspective since I've been around it all my life, basically. Actually being on the field with the guys you've been watching for a couple of years, it's a strange perspective."

Snyder, an Ironton High School graduate, appreciates the bonus of adding local walk-ons to a roster. Tri-State student-athletes, walk-ons and scholarship players, long have emerged as impact players and leaders within the Thundering Herd locker room.

"Your recruiting base is your recruiting base," Snyder said. "Recruiting is the heart and soul of any program. And it's been my experience that the guys who are from the area of the school, no matter where you're coaching, take a lot of pride, because mom and dad's right there. Everybody from high school is right there.

"They just take a tremendous amount of pride, because they are so close to home. There's nowhere for them to hide."

Former walk-on Matt Altobello, a Keyser, W.Va., native, is now Snyder's starting right guard as a fifth-year senior. Former Capital High School standout James Burkes arrived as a walk-on, but started eight games last season and is now on scholarship. Sophomore Demetrius Thompson, a high school teammate of Burkes, remains a walk-on but performed well during spring drills and is working into the defensive end mix.

"Matt Altobello is a great (guy), and I really look up to him," Bowers said. "He's a great role model for me right now, because we're from similar situations.

"And as a walk-on I know it's going to be really difficult, because I don't have to be a little bit better than the guy in front of me. I have to be a lot better, because they brought him in for a reason."

Altobello isn't shy about his modest start as a Herd lineman. Actually, he wears his former walk-on status with pride.

"He's done a great job with that," Snyder said. "We have senior speeches and the guys get up and talk about some things about team-building. And that was part of his talk this year.

"His hero or winners happened to be the walk-ons, because he's been there and done that and persevered."

With one preseason camp now in his pocket, Bowers hopes to do the same.

"Learning the offense right now is going to be my greatest challenge," Bowers said. "Technique kind of develops through individual drills. But learning the actual offense and the technicalities of the game, that's going to be my biggest mountain to climb, because I don't get as many reps as the ones and twos.

"It's going to be a tough battle but I hope I'm smart enough to do it."

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