That’s nine touchdowns and eight extra points to zilch. Hard to find much wrong with that. Marshall got what they needed: some different players to hit, some plays for the new players and of course that W. The Herd also got what they wanted: no major injuries, a lot of good things but enough not-as- good things to keep the players motivated to work hard and some real game video to analyze and learn from.

#1 Star: Michael Clark. It was the big receiver’s coming out party and he made a great debut in his first real football game in about five years. Two touches: a 21 yard TD catch and a 35 yard TD catch from his longtime friend Chase Litton. No football in five years? No problem, even with five family members here to cheer him on. With those two touches, Clark established himself as a problem for eleven defensive coordinators.

#2 Star: Chase Litton. 13 for 16 for 309 yards and 6 TD’s. And no sacks. Litton missed on a pass to Clark, then completed passes to Hyleck Foster, Keion Davis, Justin Hunt and Emanuel Byrd. Litton missed on a pass to Hunt, then threw completions to Josh Knight, Clark (TD), Ryan Yurachek (TD) and Clark again (TD again. His last incompletion of the night (intended for Hunt) opened the second quarter. Then came completions to Deon-Tay McManus (TD), Hunt (TD), Byrd, Willie Johnson and Byrd (TD). That’s mixing it up pretty well, throwing to nine different receivers. Litton’s only gaffe came when he tried to run for a first down on third and one and slid a half yard too soon.

#3 Star: Ty Tyler. The reserve defensive end had a good debut himself. He was Marshall’s second leading tackler with three solo tackles and three assists. Three of the tackles were for losses totaling 14 yards, including a 9 yard sack. Tyler also forced a fumble, recovered it and returned it for a 20 yard touchdown to set the final score.

Honorable mention: Corey Neely. In his second year at Marshall after junior college, Neely started and was a steadying influence in a secondary with many new faces during the game. Chris Jackson, C. J. Reavis, Jaylon McClain-Sapp, Jestin Morrow, Tramell Carey, Dontrell Johnson, Terry Richardson, Jeremiah Maddos and George Davis all saw their first action for the Herd Saturday evening, and Neely (along with Kendall Gant and Rodney Allen) were the experienced veterans among all the new blood. Neely also contributed an interception, 3 solo tackles, 2 assists, half a tackle-for- loss and forced the fumble that Davis returned 95 yards for a touchdown.

More new guys: In addition to Ty Tyler, Michael Clark, Willie Johnson and the defensive backs that I’ve already listed, these players saw their first action for the Herd against Morgan State: Garet Morrell, Anthony Anderson, Brandon Rodgers, Alex Locklear, Levi Brown, Malik Thompson, Milan Lanier, Channing Hames, Omari Cobb, Marquis Couch, Doyle Grimes and walkons Aaron Dopson, Mason White and Zach Wood.

Third And…..: In third down conversions, the Herd went 2 for 11. That doesn’t sound very good, but… in the first drive, on 3 rd and 4, Litton completed a 6 yard pass to Foster but he fumbled and the Bears recovered. On the next drive, on 3 rd and 14 Litton found Hunt for 13 yards. The drive continued when Yurachek ran for nine yards on a fake punt. Litton’s only third down conversion came later on that drive when he hit Knight for 24 yards on another 3 rd and 14. In the second quarter, Davis ran for 4 yards on 3 rd and 7 from the Morgan State 35 but I think Doc had decided before that play that they would go for it on 4 th down. And on 4 th and 3 from the 31 Litton found McManus for an acrobatic touchdown catch. The last non-conversion came on the early Litton slide. So the 1 for 5 on third downs wasn’t as bad as it sounded.

Kicking: This needs some work, as you might expect when you have a new place kicker, new holder, new snapper and new punter. Amareto Curraj’s first two kickoffs were easy touchbacks, but he only had one more touchback out of his other eight kickoffs. Two landed just in bounds and just in front of the goal line, but dribbled out of bounds before reaching the end zone. The five that were returned led to the Bears starting on their 22, 26, 10, 13 and 24 yard lines. Curraj nailed his first 8 extra points but missed the ninth one. His only field goal attempt was tipped at the line and was no good, but Head Coach Doc Holliday was quick to say it wasn’t his fault. Kaare Vedvik had a good first night in that role, starting with a booming 50 yard punt that was high enough to cause a fair catch. His second punt came on an attempt to pin Morgan State inside their 20, but the punt took a bad hop and resulted in a 36 yard punt to the 22. His last two punts were returned; one was a 49 yard punt (41 yard net) and the other was a 43 yarder to the 10. An illegal block nullified a 4 yard return. Vedvik’s holds and Wood’s long snaps were all good.

Penalties: Marshall was called for eight penalties. Ironically, only two of the penalties were called on players in their first Herd game: a 3rd quarter facemask on LB Davon Durant and a delay-of-game in the game’s final drive that was charged to the quarterback (Garet Morrell). The penalties charged to Marshall ‘veterans’ were: a hold on the game’s first drive called on RT Clint Van Horn; two false starts in the same drive on A.J. Addison, who played both offensive tackle positions, a facemask called on LB Chase Hancock later in the first quarter and a false start by LG Nate Devers in the fourth quarter. There was also an offensive holding call on Marshall in the 4th quarter that wasn’t charged to a specific player.