Time To Rebound

Published 4:21 am Friday, September 18, 2009

HUNTINTON, W.Va. — Maybe it’s Yogi Berra’s quote, “It’s déj vu all over again,” or it could be another episode of “The Twilight Zone.”

Marshall head coach Mark Snyder is seeing some eerie similarities between the start of last season and this year, and he would like to write a different ending.

The Herd beat a I-AA team (Illinois State) to start last season, then suffered a lopsided loss to a Division I power (Wisconsin) before coming back home and starting a two-game winning streak.

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Coming off a 31-28 win over Southern Illinois and then getting spanked 52-10 at Virginia Tech, the Herd looks to add a happy chapter Saturday night against the Bowling Green Falcons.

“Life is 10 percent what happens to you, 90 percent how you react to it. We were in the same situation last year,” said Snyder.

“We just got to make sure we come back with the same attitude and once we get on that run, we have got to stay on that run and there’s the message right there. This is a good football team. Now we have to go play like we are capable of playing and to date we have not done that.”

The Herd will have to bring its “A Game” against the Falcons who opened with a 31-14 win over Troy and then lost in the closing minutes of the game at nationally-ranked Missouri 27-20 last Saturday.

“They are very efficient in what they do. Bowling Green has some good playmakers,” said Snyder.

“Freddy Barns is their guy on offense. Their back is a low to the ground kind of runner. He’s got great balance, good speed and the quarterback reminds me a lot of the kid from Southern Illinois.”

Quarterback Tyler Sheehan is 61-of-90 for 545 yards and three touchdowns. He has had just one interception.

On the primary end of Sheehan’s passes is Barnes with 25 catches for 227 yards and two scores. Chris Wright is next with eight grabs for 64 yards.

“Barns is an ex-quarterback and he’s the racehorse guy when they get in the wildcat formation. He is a guy that we looked at here when we first got here,” said Snyder.

On the running side of the offense is Willie Geter with 29 attempts for 148 yards and a score.

Defensively the Falcons are coach by co-coordinator Shannon Morrison who was at Marshall two years ago. Snyder said there are some similarities in what the Falcons do and what the Herd did.

“He’s back into his comfort zone with what he’s done in his past. They are a big undersized on defense, but they run around well and try to create confusion with all their movements up front,” said Snyder.

The BGSU defense is led by P.J. Mahone with 21 tackles. Cody Basler had 17 stops and Jahmal Brown 15.