Depth a Luxury for Snyder, Talent Not

Herald-Disptach: Depth a new luxury for Snyder

Those folks in Huntington sure are an optimistic bunch. The newest ray of light comes in the form of competition at every position across the Marshall lineup. Nevermind the fact that there is the same competition down the road at Wayne County High School.

Here are a few excerpts from Anthony Hanshew's article...

Marshall University's third-year head football coach obviously is pleased with the recent talent upgrades to the program, a sentiment he shared during Friday's Football Media Day at Joan C. Edwards Stadium. Coordinators Larry Kueck and Steve Dunlap echoed Snyder's take at the media day podium, saying veterans simply can't assume starting roles.

The veterans weren't any good, so this is probably a good thing. The term "returning starter" in Huntington is a definite negative.

"Kids aren't dumb," Snyder said.

They are at Marshall.

"You try to sell what you have, and we tried to sell competition but we were down numbers -- huge numbers. And we're still down a little bit, but it's a far cry from where it was."

Marshall went 4-7 in 2005 and 5-7 in 2006. In 2007, College Football News has predicted a record of 6-6, including a win over Colonial Athletic Association powerhouse New Hampshire. You're actually right where you were before.

No one on Snyder's coaching staff is complaining about too many players at too many positions.

Thank you Cpt. Obvious. I doubt even Mack Brown or Jim Tressel could even say that with a straight face.

"We've got more competition here than we've had the last several years," said Kueck, the Thundering Herd's veteran offensive coordinator. "We're still not where we're going to be, (but) offensively this was a tremendous recruiting class."

"Now when you start stacking those recruiting classes, you've got a chance to really build a football program here."

Now, I am not one to put a whole lot of faith in recruiting rankings. But just to bring down Larry Kueck's excitement level a little bit, last year's class at Marshall was ranked 71st by Scout.com. Just to give you an idea how bad that is, both Duke and Troy tied for 64th. Baylor almost snuck into the top 50 at 52nd. So if Kueck is talking about stacking 71st ranked recruiting classes, the football program he is building looks to be Temple...which was just behind Marshall with the 75th ranked class.