Herd's Marshall, Bembry return to lineup after suspensions
The penance is over for Marshall running back Darius Marshall and cornerback DeQuan Bembry, and both are being welcomed back to the starting lineup with open arms.
Marshall and Bembry, along with reserve linebacker Corey Hart, were suspended for the Thundering Herd's opener for off-field incidents during the offseason. Bembry, generally considered the team's best cover corner, is a much-needed part of the defense when Marshall takes on No. 14 Virginia Tech.
But it was Marshall who was missed more in the Herd's 31-28, much to the surprise of coach Mark Snyder. Martin Ward and Terrell Edwards-Maye combined for just 82 yards on 29 carries, not even 3 yards an attempt. Marshall averages a solid 5 yards over his 347 career carries.
During spring and August drills, the running back spot was considered one of the deepest on the roster. That thought can be debated.
"The biggest surprise to me was the dropoff in the tailback position," Snyder said. "That's just not the product we've been seeing with Ahmad [Bradshaw] and Darius. There was a significant dropoff, and I didn't think that was going to happen. I'm happy to get our corners back [Bembry and the injured T.J. Drakeford] - let's make that perfectly clear - but the biggest difference I saw was at the tailback position.
"I grossly underestimated. There's a reason Darius is 'one.'"
Marshall, a 5-foot-10, 190-pound junior from Milledgeville, Ga., rushed for 1,095 yards last season, following the 1,523 Bradshaw posted two years earlier. The Herd's lack of ground production against Southern Illinois begs a few questions: Was the run blocking poor, or was it the backs?
Or is it a situation where, as seen in the Bradshaw days, the line appears to block better for Marshall because he is simply more talented?
"The truth lies in the middle," Snyder said. "Any time you design a play, you would like to match your running backs up on a corner[back]. And there was about five or six times where we had our back on their corner - and we say all the time, 'no finesse corners,' but they don't tackle a whole bunch, gang. And they tackled us 100 percent of the time.
"You would like to think that one or two of those - they're the last line of defense before the end zone - that we would have an opportunity to maybe break a tackle and make one of them miss, and we didn't do that."
Snyder is not giving up on his reserve running backs, but just the same, he'll be happy to see Marshall's No. 5 in the backfield at Blacksburg.
"You only get so many opportunities in a lifetime," he said of his backups. "Your ship only comes in every so often, and when the ship comes in, you'd better jump on board. They'll still get their opportunities and I still think they're going to be good backs, but there is a difference between Darius and those two right now.
"That was not the same product I've been watching for the last four years out there Saturday."
Bembry, for his part, seemed to be ready to make amends. He said he agonized during the Southern Illinois contest.
"It was definitely frustrating, and definitely heartbreaking," Bembry said. "I made a bad decision, so I had to pay the consequences. I know when my team was out there playing and getting a 'W,' I was definitely a cheerleader.
"I'll mature from it, and know it won't happen again. You do what you've got to do to stay out of bad situations."
With Drakeford also out, the starting corners last week were D.J. Wingate and Ahmed Shakoor, the latter a sophomore who has been converted to safety and back to corner. Redshirt freshman Demetrius Thomas and true freshman Rashad Jackson also saw playing time.They weren't beat deep, but SIU's Chris Dieker did go 22-of-37 for 206 yards and two short touchdowns. The longest pass play was 24 yards.
"Not too bad. We're going to face a lot better wideouts than what we faced, though," Snyder said. "They held their own, but it's going to be nice to have T.J. and DeQuan back."
A third suspended player, linebacker Hart, also returned. He is battling Andre Portis for the No. 2 spot on the weak side behind Mario Harvey.
Briefly
# In the "gotta fix it" department, the defense spent a lot of time on the two obvious situations: third down and the two-minute drill. In the latter, it seems Southern Illinois found one weapon and used it to maximum benefit.
"The weak-side curl, every single one of them," Snyder lamented. "It was a different guy every time. It was a nice new system/scheme for them. I call it the Purdue series, that's what Purdue made their hay with back in the day. They executed it very well, on defense we didn't and we couldn't get off the field on third down."
# Another defensive project is perfecting a simple fundamental: pad level on the line. Often Saturday, the level of the Herd's shoulder pads was too high.
"The good thing is, I started [Monday's] meeting with watching Alabama's defensive line and their pad level, watching how low they play," Snyder said. "When we watched our game, you could see the difference. They had speed, the pad levels were low, and they got off blocks and rushed the quarterback.
"We have the same type of bodies on our line, now we just have to make it happen."
"It's one of those things, when the game gets going, it's easy to stand up. It really is," said defensive lineman John Jacobs. "You're not going to be real successful playing high, especially when you're 250 pounds playing D-tackle, when you're standing straight up."
# Snyder defended quarterback Brian Anderson on his first-half interception by Korey Lindsey, saying a missed block on the pass rush was a contributing factor.
"He knows he should've gone the other way with the ball," Snyder said. "But in his defense, after looking at the film, the corner sat on the sticks and made a good play. So I'm going to protect him a little bit on that one. They had a 200-pound back and he squared up as a linebacker in the hole - we opted to go cut, which we had not taught - he leapt us, hit our quarterback and created a turnover."
# Wide receiver Courtney Edmonson suited up Tuesday but did not practice. True freshman Aaron Dobson received a full day of reps and will travel to Blacksburg.
The penance is over for Marshall running back Darius Marshall and cornerback DeQuan Bembry, and both are being welcomed back to the starting lineup with open arms.
Marshall and Bembry, along with reserve linebacker Corey Hart, were suspended for the Thundering Herd's opener for off-field incidents during the offseason. Bembry, generally considered the team's best cover corner, is a much-needed part of the defense when Marshall takes on No. 14 Virginia Tech.
But it was Marshall who was missed more in the Herd's 31-28, much to the surprise of coach Mark Snyder. Martin Ward and Terrell Edwards-Maye combined for just 82 yards on 29 carries, not even 3 yards an attempt. Marshall averages a solid 5 yards over his 347 career carries.
During spring and August drills, the running back spot was considered one of the deepest on the roster. That thought can be debated.
"The biggest surprise to me was the dropoff in the tailback position," Snyder said. "That's just not the product we've been seeing with Ahmad [Bradshaw] and Darius. There was a significant dropoff, and I didn't think that was going to happen. I'm happy to get our corners back [Bembry and the injured T.J. Drakeford] - let's make that perfectly clear - but the biggest difference I saw was at the tailback position.
"I grossly underestimated. There's a reason Darius is 'one.'"
Marshall, a 5-foot-10, 190-pound junior from Milledgeville, Ga., rushed for 1,095 yards last season, following the 1,523 Bradshaw posted two years earlier. The Herd's lack of ground production against Southern Illinois begs a few questions: Was the run blocking poor, or was it the backs?
Or is it a situation where, as seen in the Bradshaw days, the line appears to block better for Marshall because he is simply more talented?
"The truth lies in the middle," Snyder said. "Any time you design a play, you would like to match your running backs up on a corner[back]. And there was about five or six times where we had our back on their corner - and we say all the time, 'no finesse corners,' but they don't tackle a whole bunch, gang. And they tackled us 100 percent of the time.
"You would like to think that one or two of those - they're the last line of defense before the end zone - that we would have an opportunity to maybe break a tackle and make one of them miss, and we didn't do that."
Snyder is not giving up on his reserve running backs, but just the same, he'll be happy to see Marshall's No. 5 in the backfield at Blacksburg.
"You only get so many opportunities in a lifetime," he said of his backups. "Your ship only comes in every so often, and when the ship comes in, you'd better jump on board. They'll still get their opportunities and I still think they're going to be good backs, but there is a difference between Darius and those two right now.
"That was not the same product I've been watching for the last four years out there Saturday."
Bembry, for his part, seemed to be ready to make amends. He said he agonized during the Southern Illinois contest.
"It was definitely frustrating, and definitely heartbreaking," Bembry said. "I made a bad decision, so I had to pay the consequences. I know when my team was out there playing and getting a 'W,' I was definitely a cheerleader.
"I'll mature from it, and know it won't happen again. You do what you've got to do to stay out of bad situations."
With Drakeford also out, the starting corners last week were D.J. Wingate and Ahmed Shakoor, the latter a sophomore who has been converted to safety and back to corner. Redshirt freshman Demetrius Thomas and true freshman Rashad Jackson also saw playing time.They weren't beat deep, but SIU's Chris Dieker did go 22-of-37 for 206 yards and two short touchdowns. The longest pass play was 24 yards.
"Not too bad. We're going to face a lot better wideouts than what we faced, though," Snyder said. "They held their own, but it's going to be nice to have T.J. and DeQuan back."
A third suspended player, linebacker Hart, also returned. He is battling Andre Portis for the No. 2 spot on the weak side behind Mario Harvey.
Briefly
# In the "gotta fix it" department, the defense spent a lot of time on the two obvious situations: third down and the two-minute drill. In the latter, it seems Southern Illinois found one weapon and used it to maximum benefit.
"The weak-side curl, every single one of them," Snyder lamented. "It was a different guy every time. It was a nice new system/scheme for them. I call it the Purdue series, that's what Purdue made their hay with back in the day. They executed it very well, on defense we didn't and we couldn't get off the field on third down."
# Another defensive project is perfecting a simple fundamental: pad level on the line. Often Saturday, the level of the Herd's shoulder pads was too high.
"The good thing is, I started [Monday's] meeting with watching Alabama's defensive line and their pad level, watching how low they play," Snyder said. "When we watched our game, you could see the difference. They had speed, the pad levels were low, and they got off blocks and rushed the quarterback.
"We have the same type of bodies on our line, now we just have to make it happen."
"It's one of those things, when the game gets going, it's easy to stand up. It really is," said defensive lineman John Jacobs. "You're not going to be real successful playing high, especially when you're 250 pounds playing D-tackle, when you're standing straight up."
# Snyder defended quarterback Brian Anderson on his first-half interception by Korey Lindsey, saying a missed block on the pass rush was a contributing factor.
"He knows he should've gone the other way with the ball," Snyder said. "But in his defense, after looking at the film, the corner sat on the sticks and made a good play. So I'm going to protect him a little bit on that one. They had a 200-pound back and he squared up as a linebacker in the hole - we opted to go cut, which we had not taught - he leapt us, hit our quarterback and created a turnover."
# Wide receiver Courtney Edmonson suited up Tuesday but did not practice. True freshman Aaron Dobson received a full day of reps and will travel to Blacksburg.
