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Mickey Mouse, cover your eyes. This one might get ugly.
In the shadows of Walt Disney World, Marshall will take on UCF at 8:15 p.m. Sunday at Bright House Networks Stadium.
ESPN will broadcast the game, but don’t expect the folks on SportsCenter to show any highlights.
There will be nothing wrong with the product on the field. The Thundering Herd (5-3, 3-1 Conference USA) and the Knights (4-3, 2-2) will actually be competing for position atop C-USA’s East Division standings.
It’s just how this one will be played out.
Marshall and UCF find themselves in the top-half of nearly every C-USA defensive category. The Herd is yielding a league-best 13.5 points a conference game. The Knights have allowed one opponent to score over 30 points in a game this season and their 19.1 scoring average is tops in C-USA.
Can you say “first to 20 wins?”
“This game is about the fronts,” said Marshall head coach Mark Snyder. “These are two pretty good fronts on both sides of the ball — offensively and defensively. The key is, who is going to win the line of scrimmage battle and who is going to hold onto the ball.
“That’s what this game is going to come down to.”
In other words, if Marshall plays sound, old school football, it will be bowl eligible come midnight Monday.
The Herd certainly has the weaponry to do just that. To keep the ball in its hands for long periods at a time, it can turn to workhouse running back Darius Marshall. To keep an edge in field position, it can turn to punter Kase Whitehead, who is coming off his best performance of the season last week against UAB. To keep control of the line of scrimmage, it can rely on center Chad Schofield to anchor a veteran offensive line.
“We know what we’re getting ourselves into because most of us played against them last year,” Schofield said of the Herd’s forgettable 30-14 loss to the Knights, ruining Homecoming 2008. “Their front four is active and that just makes room for their linebackers and their safeties roll down in the box and make tackles.”
UCF’s been doing that with a purpose this year. The Knights’ aggressive style has them being frequent visitors to the opposing teams’ backfields.
Senior defensive end Jarvis Geathers leads 19 UCF players who's recorded a tackle for loss. In all, they’ve made a C-USA-best 60 tackles for a loss of 279 yards.
“It would be like talking about (Marshall senior defensive end) Albert McClellan and talking about (Marshall junior defensive tackle) Vinny Curry,” Snyder said. “There are a bunch of them up there, but (Geathers) is a really good player.
“You can just keep going, there are about four of them. They bring in guys on third down that come off the edge too. They just create tremendous pass rush.”
UCF can pressure a quarterback with the best of them, evident by its C-USA-best 23 sacks. But it can also give up the pass with the worst of them, evident by the 243 yards it yields a game through the air.
Last year, pass defense was the least of Knight head coach George O’Leary’s worries.
UCF had four seniors starting in the defensive backfield and they produced 18 interceptions.
This year, new starters have produced new results. Through eight games, the Knights have just five picks.
“(The UCF secondary) is hard to exploit because their front seven in so good,” Snyder said. “They do have some youth back there, but they are holding on because of their front seven.”
That combination of a youthful secondary, but stout defensive line, which leads C-USA in run defense, points the finger to Marshall’s Brian Anderson to produce.
D. Marshall may not have much room to run, but Anderson should have plenty of chances to throw.
Well, that’s if the Knights don’t to get to him to add to their C-USA-leading 23 sacks.
“If you’re not going to get time to throw it, then you really can’t take advantage of what’s going on in the secondary,” Anderson said.
Schofield’s out to create some déjà vu from last week. UAB, much like what UCF is projected to do, stacked the box to try to stop D. Marshall, the nation’s second leading rusher.
Ahh, but the Blazers forgot about Anderson.
B.A. was able to pick apart UAB for 315 yards and two touchdowns.
“We take great pride in protecting when Brain has to pass,” Schofield said. “And when Brian has time, he’s going to find open receivers. And as you saw last Saturday, he can make some plays.”
Other game notes: Sunday’s game will be the only time this regular season that Marshall will appear on ESPN’s family of networks … The Herd has yet to beat the Knights since joining C-USA … Twenty-one Marshall players hail from the Sunshine State, making the fight for tickets quite competitive this week. “They’ve been saving up for this game all year,” Snyder said. “The bartering that goes on during the season is comical, but, for our Florida kids, this Sunday is big.”
Andrew Ramspacher can be contacted at ramspacher@marshall.edu.
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