Head First

Sporting News, The, Dec 6, 1999 by Sean Deveney

Though the MAC features talent such as Miami (Ohio) running back Travis Prentice and has produced NFL standouts such as Charlie Batch, Randy Moss and Blaine Bishop, the league is largely a collection of players who are too small and too slow to make it at bigger schools. But Marshall--33-4 over the last three years and heading to the MAC title game in search of its third consecutive conference crown--is a cut above any of recent MAC vintage. That includes the school's two previous league champs and the 1975 Miami team that finished ranked 12th on its way to an 11-1 season. That capped a three-year run in which Miami was 32-1-1.

"If we had a playoff, I think Marshall would win a game or two," Bowden says. "I just think the quality of competition on a week-to-week basis would catch up to them. When I was at Tulane, I didn't complain much about where I was ranked--even though we ended up No. 7--because of my strength of schedule. I had been in the SEC for 11 years; there's a difference between who I was playing at Tulane. And there is a difference in who Marshall is playing and who these other teams are playing. It's hard to justify when you don't play a team in the Top 25.

"(If Marshall played Virginia Tech or Florida State) I think they would play good, but I think they'd wear down. I think they'd play good for a quarter or quarter and a half, maybe a little more than a half. But the other teams would wear them down and eventually be successful."

--Tom Dienhart

Sean Deveney is an associate editor for THE SPORTING NEWS.