Senior Day ceremony doesn’t always mean ‘goodbye’

The Herd did just that, but in addition to 13 seniors who participated in Senior Day for the Herd last weekend, there were five non-seniors who went through the pageantry.

“I tell these guys, if you don’t know if you’re coming back and you still have some decisions to make, then go ahead and walk,” Marshall coach Charles Huff said when asked about a handful of players who aren’t listed as seniors but were recognized Saturday.

Names like Owen Porter (DE), Eli Neal (LB), Micah Abraham (DB) and Corey Gammage (WR) are all listed as juniors, some with a redshirt designation. Steven Facheux (OL), listed as a redshirt sophomore, also walked.

“If you look last year, (Steven) Gilmore walked but he came back and didn’t walk this year,” Huff said. “I tell them, ‘If you don’t know, if you’re in flux and want to get with your parents, make some decisions, just go ahead and walk.’”

If they do come back, they don’t walk in the next year’s ceremony. Take, for instance, that in addition to Gilmore, Abraham Beauplan and Koby Cumberlander walked last year.

“We had guys who exhausted eligibility and then we had three or four guys, Corey Gammage, Eli Neal, (Owen) Porter, who don’t know what the future may hold, so they went ahead and walked so they had that experience of, ‘I played my last game in the Joan,’ even if it wasn’t,” Huff said.

Because of the extra year gifted to each student-athlete by the NCAA because of COVID-19, it has made things like Senior Day more complicated to understand for those who follow the program, because for many of the student-athletes, fifth- and sixth-year options are on the table.

Huff said he won’t make those players who walked decide whether they are staying or going until they are ready, and then will evaluate the areas they need to address on the recruiting trail.

“I think you have to have that kind of mindset. I don’t pin guys down to where it (becomes), ‘Hey, you walked. Does that mean you’re going?’ I don’t think that’s fair,” Huff said. “We’ll give these guys some time off to think about it and talk to their families and make some individual decisions, and then from there we’ll be able to recruit to manage where we’re at or what’s left.”

Those decisions will be made after Marshall’s bowl game, which will be announced Sunday afternoon.