By: Jorge Corrales/Staff Writer
The Marshall Thundering Herd will stampede into “The Cage” Saturday, Oct. 18, for the Panther’s annual homecoming game. Kickoff is set for 6 p.m. from Ocean Bank Field and the game will be televised on the American Sports Network.
The Panthers are coming off a heartbreaking loss at the hands of the UTSA Roadrunners. After leading most of the game, the Panthers gave up two late Roadrunners field goals and fell 16-13. The loss dropped them to 3-4 overall and 2-1 in Conference-USA.
Freshman quarterback Alex McGough did not have his best game, throwing for only 141 yards and one touchdown. He also fumbled once and threw two interceptions but will be under center once again on Saturday.
Freshman running back Alex Gardner also struggled, as he rushed for 65 yards on 27 attempts. His most costly mistake came on a rush in the third quarter where he fumbled on the UTSA one yard line. He was stood up on first down and coughed the ball up while trying to fight for the extra yard. It was one of six Panthers turnovers on the evening.
“Alex did get the ball out,” said Head Coach Ron Turner. “It’s first and goal on the two. Just hold the ball tight and go down. We’ll have second and goal on the one. These were things we hadn’t been doing but we gotta focus every single play. When you turn the ball over six times and drop five passes, you’re not totally tuned in.”
The Herd comes into Saturday’s game ranked No. 25 in the nation. They are 6-0 overall and 2-0 in Conference USA. Their offense is near the top of the leaderboards in every major category; ranked 23 in passing yards per game and 10 in rushing yards per game. The Herd offense is currently number two in the nation with an average of 595 yards per game.
The leader of the juggernaut offense is a Miami native– senior quarterback Rakeem Cato. Cato attended Miami Central High School and since making the move from Miami to West Virginia, he has been one of the most consistent players in all of college football. He has thrown a touchdown pass in 38 straight games and with a touchdown pass on Saturday, Cato would break Russell Wilson’s record for most consecutive games with a touchdown pass.
“He’s really good. I mean really, really good,” Turner said. “He’s smart. He makes great decisions. He gets the ball out quick. He may not be the best runner that we’ve seen, but he can still beat you with his legs. When he steps up in the pocket, his eyes are always down field. They’ve got some elite guys over there; but I think we have some guys that are gonna be in that category at some point.”
On Saturday, Cato will face his toughest test of the season thus far. He’ll be going up against a Panthers defense that has the most takeaways (24) of any team in the nation. They’re also towards the top of the nation in points against; holding opponents to under 20 points per game.
Junior cornerback Richard Leonard leads a talented Panthers secondary with four interceptions on the year, two of which were returned for touchdowns. Senior safety Demarkus Perkins is also having a solid season in the secondary. He leads the team with 50 tackles and has one of FIU’s eight interceptions on the year.
Juniors Michael Wakefield and Denzell Perine lead the Panthers up front. Both are tied for the team lead with 5.5 sacks. Wakefield leads the Panthers with 9 tackles for a loss. It will be important for them to get pressure up front if the Panthers hope to contain Cato.
The Panthers have already had some experience containing a high-powered offense. In week five, they visited a University of Alabama at Birmingham team that was averaging over 40 points a game. The Panthers held them to just 20.
“UAB has a really good offense,” Turner said. “They put up 56 last week on North Texas. These guys [Marshall] are better because they’re more talented at all positions. They have a better offensive line. Their receivers are better, even though UAB’s receivers are really good. And their quarterback is definitely better, even though UAB’s quarterback is good. It’s not a knock on those guys but [Marshall] has no weakness. They have speed, they have strength, they have size and they’ve got power. Most importantly, they have a great quarterback. You can be very marginal at every other position but if you have a great quarterback you’ll always have a chance to win.”
The Panthers have lost three homecoming games in a row. Their last homecoming win was a 42-35 double-overtime victory against Louisiana-Monroe. A victory against the 25th ranked Herd would be huge for both the football program and the fans.
“They [the players] know the importance of the homecoming game,” Turner said. “But they know they importance of every game. We’ve got 12 opportunities. They know the importance of every one of them. It’s not like basketball where you have 82 chances or baseball where you have 162. You’ve got 12. But homecoming is very important. We’ve got a lot of people coming back and there’s a lot of school pride. We wanna go out there, play well and put on a good show.”
Photo by Vicente Cardenas/ The Paisano