Consistency! Where are you? During the first half of the NC State game we saw a wide-open, pass happy attack that led to 20 points. In the second half of that game it seemed like the reins were drawn back. Fast forward a week to the Kent State game and the offense seemed terribly sluggish. Fast forward another week and the offense was dominant on the road against a Cincinnati team that couldn’t seem to stop the Herd offense. Fast forward one more week to Charlotte and the offense was nothing but a tease. Although the offense amassed over 400 yards of offense, they were only able to put 14 points on the board. Moving forward, head coach Doc Holliday’s offense will need to be more consistent if they wish to push towards their second conference championship. With Marshall returning home this weekend for the first time in a month, I’m looking forward to seeing the offense come out focused and putting up big numbers.

I was surprised last week when Tyler King walked out on the field for the first snap of the game instead of Keion Davis. That’s not because I think Tyler King isn’t worthy of starting, but more so because I thought Davis earned the right to start following the Cincinnati game. With that said, we don’t see what goes on at practice all week or behind closed doors in meetings. Going into this weekend’s matchup with Old Dominion, I’ll be surprised again if King gets the start. Davis was very effective last week totaling 146 yards of offense. King didn’t have a bad game (71 yards), but seemed to have trouble holding onto the ball. If there’s anything I’ve learned from watching Marshall Football during Doc’s tenure, it’s that if you put the ball on the ground, then you won’t see the field. It’ll be interesting to see who gets the start, but either way I’m certain that both backs will get carries.

Most of the time when you talk about “rotations” in football it’s in regards to the depth chart. This time, I’m talking about the receivers’ production through the first five games. Marshall has had a different leading receiver (Willie Johnson, Ty’re Brady 2x, Marcel Williams, Ryan Yurachek) each week. Last season many Herd fans complained that Chase Litton didn’t spread the ball around enough, but there’s absolutely no way that stands true in 2017. Going forward, I’ll be interested to see if Litton can continue spreading the ball around or if he’ll lock into one or two receivers. My bet is that it doesn’t happen because you can see the growth in Litton’s decision making. Given his ability, I’d be taking Ty’re Brady every week if I were playing fantasy college football.

In recent weeks, Marshall’s offensive line has been one of the youngest in college football. Last week against Charlotte, Marshall started two freshmen, one sophomore, and two juniors. Throughout the game, there were often times that offensive line coach Alex Mirabal trotted out three freshmen (Will Ulmer, Alex Mollette, and Tarik Adams). Adams has started every game of the season at right tackle, but last week was Ulmer’s first start. Mollette has filtered in across the line of scrimmage as a utility man. Holliday even stated that Mollette has seen time at tackle in practice recently. With the injuries to seniors Sandley Jean-Felix and AJ Addison, depth has been limited so Mollette’s growth at tackle could be crucial moving forward. Doc did say Addison has been going through practice this week and could play, but it wouldn’t shock me to see Adams and Ulmer in the starting lineup again.

Entering the 2016 season, there were questions surrounding just about every aspect of the Marshall defense. Will Ryan Bee’s move to defensive tackle help or hurt the defense? Will the secondary improve with a year’s experience under their belt? Can the linebackers become better playmakers? Well, through five games, all three of those questions have been answered in Marshall’s favor. Bee has been dominant. The secondary has only allowed one passer to eclipse 300 yards (Ryan Finley – NC State), and the linebackers have played as well or better than ever during Holliday’s time in Huntington. Figure their play in with the debut of Juwon Young and that group could be SPECIAL going forward. Marshall’s defense currently leads Conference USA in points/game (17.4) and I don’t look for that number to rise any this week against an ODU offense reeling from injuries. I haven’t even mentioned the play of Brandon Drayton and Malik Gant at safety, but just know that each of those guys have been named to the C-USA All-Defensive Team in separate weeks. If this defense can continue to build chemistry and the younger players (Jaquan Yulee, Omari Cobb, etc) can improve with experience then this could be the best defense we’ve seen in kelly green in quite some time.