Above it all

To get a chance to play football, that's all he wants. Well, that and to win games.

Freshman quarterback A.J. Graham has had trouble during his Marshall career, but for him it was always about one thing when he came to Marshall University last year.

"I'm here to play football and I'm here to win games," Graham said. "That's the most important thing I want to do."

Graham had a tough path to join the Herd last year, after almost losing his scholarship because of being charged with armed robbery.

But those charges were dropped and he was able to join the Herd last season. But after all the legal problems, he missed most of summer practice and was behind his teammates.

After being red shirted for his first year, Graham was able to sit back and learn about college football, but it still bothered him.

"Last year I was redshirted so I didn't get the reps I wanted to," Graham said. "But I got behind a little bit in that. But this year with me coming out and getting reps I've been able to learn the system pretty quick."

New head coach Doc Holliday gets a chance to mold the young Florida quarterback and adjust him to Marshall's new offensive system.

Holliday said with a young quarterback, comes a challenge of getting them to learn at a quick pace.

"He's still learning, but you have to remember he's a freshman so he's seeing things for the first time," Holliday said. "I thought he got better as practice goes along. Is he there yet? No, he's not even close. But I thought as practice goes along he gets to see things, which is good."

A good thing for Holliday and the rest of the Herd is that while Graham doesn't have the experience, he has the talent.

Graham was named Mr. Football in the state of Florida and set school records in completions, passing yards and touchdowns at Godby high school in Tallahassee, Fla.

Yet he knows that the college game is completely different from the high school game, and he has to step up to an even more important position: a leader.

"You just come out and learn all the plays that you can get under your belt whatever you can," Graham said. "But you really come out and work on leadership. Me being young that's the most important thing right now, working on leadership and getting chemistry with my team."

With chemistry, Graham has been running with both the first-team and second-team offensives as he splits time with last year's starting quarterback Brian Anderson.

Holliday said, that along with Anderson, Graham has to look ahead to have the Marshall quarterback position as strong as possible.

   "They both have their moments both good and bad, but they're both growing," Holliday said. "I think they're starting to feel more comfortable but they still have a lot to learn and they have a long way to go. But they are taking steps forward."

   At Tuesday's practice Anderson had class, so a majority of the reps went to Graham.

   While it felt weird he knows that this was a chance to help prove himself as a quarterback.

   "It's different," Graham said. "Normally when he's here we alternate between one's and two's. So were both working with the timing of each offense, but today I got to stay with the one's this time and I thought it worked out pretty good."

   And while working with the first team offense is important, so is getting renewed with the physicality of the game.

    But the coaching staff helped with that idea at Saturday's scrimmage, stripping Graham of his red jersey, which meant he was free game for the defense.

   Instead of being a little weary of the contact, Graham embraced it, head on.

   "The last time I was hit was Dec. of 2008, so being able to run down the field and get hit helped to get me back in the flow of things," Graham said.

   For Holliday getting contact on the young freshman was necessary to help get him ready for the 14-game season.

   "The one thing we never want to do is go into a game situation where he's never been tackled," Holliday said. "I thought he was little hesitant at times, but he grew as the scrimmage went on as far as being more physical. But that was good to see that he gets himself tackled and gets right back up off the ground and goes and plays again."

   Graham has a chance to get more physical at this Saturday's Green and White Game. The game will put the first team offense against the first team defense in chance to build the team.

   The Green and White game is at 4 p.m. Saturday at the Joan C. Edwards Stadium.
 

Kyle Hobstetter can be contacted at Hobstetter@Marshall.edu