Gameday: Eagles provide 'Golden' challenge

Mario Harvey wants a break. He wants a simple, traditional, drop-back quarterback to deal with. Not another new age, dual-threat, “Wildcat”-type like the ones he’s been chasing all year.

He wants Southern Miss’ Austin Davis to emerge from the visiting Joan C. Edwards Stadium tunnel Saturday. Instead, he’s getting the Golden Eagles’ Martevious Young.

Sorry, “Thump.”

“(Davis) was only going to sit back and run when he needed to,” Harvey said. “This other guy (Young) is probably going to take off and run whenever he wants.

“I would have rather faced (Davis), but it’s all good. We’ve already faced someone who runs harder than Young anyway in (UAB’s) Joe Webb, so we’ll be ready for him.”

Excuse Harvey for sounding confident. It’s just his defense has had to track down running quarterbacks all season, and now it’s becoming second nature to them.

In week two, it tried to put the GPS system on Virginia Tech’s dynamic Tyrod Taylor. Three weeks later, it was handed the assignment of corralling the intelligent running style of East Carolina’s Patrick Pickney. Then came West Virginia’s Jarrett Brown and finally, Webb.
Of the four, the Herd put clamps down the best on Pickney, who was held to 161 total yards. Marshall kept the sixth-year signal caller contained in the pocket, with the exception of a 30-yard touchdown run in the third quarter. It struggled the most with Webb, who went off for 239 total yards, including 129 yards on the ground.

It gave its best shot to Brown, who was knocked out with a concussion after a first quarter hit delivered by Herd safety Ashton Hall.

And now, almost unexpectedly, it has Young to keep tabs on.

If Marshall and Southern Miss played two months ago, Davis would have been the Herd’s defensive target behind center. The reigning C-USA All-Freshman Team member was well on his way to another banner season when he suffered a season-ending foot injury Oct. 1 in a 30-17 loss at UAB.

When Davis went down so did his 1,165 passing yards and 10 touchdowns. His replacement was Young, who at that point in his career had attempted just seven passes.

But Golden Eagle head coach Larry Fedora didn’t fret.

“It really won’t change what we do,” Fedora said Oct. 4 after the extent of Davis’ injury was officially announced. “Martevious has been preparing every week. He has known he’s just an ankle away from being the starting guy. He’ll give up some experience, but he’s prepared and he’ll be ready to go.”

And he went.

Making up for lost time stemming from a 2007 early-season injury, Young has not only kept the Golden Eagles (5-4, 3-2 Conference USA) relevant in the conference title hunt, he’s put up Davis-like numbers.

In four starts, Young’s tossed for 845 yards and six touchdowns. He’s also run for 139 yards and a score. Two weeks ago at No. 15 Houston, he accounted for 404 total yards and four touchdowns in a wild 50-43 loss.

“I think he’s done an excellent job of taking care of the football,” Fedora said. “I would have to say (he’s earned) a B+ or A- in the way he’s performed.

“He’s taken care of the football and put us in a position to be successful in each game that he’s started in. He’s got great arm strength and can make all the throws.”

It helps to have all the weapons. Next to Young in the backfield is perennial All-C-USA running back Damion Fletcher. On the flanks is reigning C-USA Freshman of the Year, receiver DeAndre Brown.

The trio has played a major role in the Golden Eagles averaging over 40 points per game in their last three contests.

“Coach Fedora has brought a little bit of the Oklahoma State influence with him to Hattiesburg,” Marshall head coach Mark Snyder said. “But the thing that everyone has overlooked is the fact that they still have that toughness left over from the (former Golden Eagle coach Jeff) Bower era.

“They are running the ball extremely well. They are very balanced on offense, and they have the ability to score a lot of points.”

With so much talent on the offensive side of the ball, Southern Miss offers Marshall plenty of options to stop. But which will provide the stiffer challenge? The running game led by the bruising Fletcher or the passing game anchored by the physically gifted, 6-foot-6, 231-pound Brown?

Hall goes the with former.

“From knowing Fletcher all three years, he’s a great player, a great ball carrier,” Hall said. “He’ll be tough to stop.”

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Other game notes: The game will kick-off at 4:30 with live coverage to be made available through Herd All-Access on herdzone.com … With a win, Marshall (5-4, 3-2) will become bowl eligible for the fist time since 2004 …. The Herd beat Southern Miss 34-27 last year at M.M. Roberts Stadium in Hattiesburg, Miss. … In three game against the Herd, Fletcher has rolled up 385 yards and five touchdowns … The game will be played on the 39th anniversary of the Marshall plane crash that took the lives of 75 members of the Herd football family. Marshall is 2-1 all-time playing on Nov. 14 since the 1970 tragedy.

Andrew Ramspacher can be contacted at ramspacher@marshall.edu.