they better have there A Game...they have been looking forward to this game for a long ass time.
Herd confession: This is special
Leftwich, Pruett say anticipation of Virginia Tech started early
Wednesday September 11, 2002
By Doug Smock
Staff writer
HUNTINGTON ? After all those weeks of hearing ?Our biggest game is our next game,? the truth comes out.
As if anybody really doubted it, Marshall coaches and players have been preparing all summer for Thursday night?s game at Virginia Tech.
?Everybody?s been waiting on this,? admitted Herd quarterback Byron Leftwich. ?We?ve been waiting on it, we?ve been holding it in, trying to take it one game at a time, and we?ve done a great job.
?But ... in the back of all our minds, I?m not going to lie to you, we?ve been thinking about this game. But in the back of their minds, they?ve been thinking about this game, too. It?s going to be two teams, trying to find a way to win.?
The 16th-ranked Thundering Herd battles the 11th-ranked Hokies at 7:45 p.m. at Lane Stadium in Blacksburg, Va. ESPN will televise the contest live.
With Marshall heading to its Mid-American Conference schedule, and all the unranked teams in it, this game is believed to be Leftwich?s big audition for the Heisman Trophy.
And as always, Leftwich takes that theory in stride, even disputing it mildly.
?Everyone?s saying it?s your game to win the Heisman,? Leftwich said. ?If I show up and play a great game and stink it up the other nine games, I?m not going to going to get it. It?s not all on this one game.
?The Heisman is a team award, when you look at it. If my team is doing great in December, I?ve got a chance. I?m not going to try to win the Heisman on every throw; that would be dumb of me.?
Coach Bob Pruett also put the Heisman angle in perspective.
?I think if he plays real well, he?s not a shoo-in,? Pruett said. ?If he plays poorly, he?s probably eliminated. To win that award, you got to play every game on national TV extremely well.?
?That?s a side show. We?re not going in there to win the Heisman, we?re going in to win the football game.?
Leftwich is coming off a 469-yard, four-touchdown performance in a 50-17 victory over Appalachian State. He did that without receiver Darius Watts, who rested a sore shoulder.
Watts will be back for the Herd, which is the healthiest it has been all season. Leftwich is plenty excited about that.
?It?s always good to have the best wide receiver in college football,? he said. ?With the guys we?ve got, we?ve got four guys that can really go, give defenses problems. It?s great to see 40 out there, because he brings fear in people?s eyes. That fear helps gets 82 [Josh Davis] open, helps get 13 [Denero Marriott] open, it can help get himself open.?
Leftwich will face a Tech defense that Pruett calls the best he has faced in his six-plus seasons at Marshall ? that even includes top-ranked Florida, which thumped Marshall 49-14 in last year?s opener.
Pruett expects his team to fare much, much better Thursday night. He, too, admits the Hokies have been on his mind for a long time.
?The game planning and everything was done in the summer,? Pruett said. ?They haven?t changed a whole lot and neither have we. I think we?re better prepared to play a team of that caliber than when we went to play at the University of Florida. We had those suspensions; we had a lot of youth. I think we?re a year older and, hopefully, a year smarter.
?We learned some things about our football program, and we have improved a little defensively. But it?s two different teams at two different times. All there is to be said is go down there and play a game. Like I tell our players, the best players don?t always win but the best team does.?
While Leftwich shrugs off the pressure of Thursday?s game, Pruett seems to use it for energy.
?Regardless of what happens this season, we?ve found ourselves in an arena that I enjoy, because I like to be in big games,? Pruett said. ?You talk about getting fired up, getting the players fired up. The bigger the game, the more excited I want to be, our players want to be. We like to be in that arena.?
While Pruett knows his team, an 111/2-point underdog, faces a big challenge, he never has accepted a ?moral victory.?
?Where I want to get them to, and I don?t want get on the bulletin board of our opponents, I want our players to think it?s an upset if we lose,? Pruett said. ?That?s where I want to be.
?This is not our first rodeo, and it won?t be our last. Thank God we have an opportunity to play in what The Sporting News, Sports Illustrated, ESPN have ranked as one of the top 10 games in America this season.?
