Written by Darrell Wilkinson
The Marshall Thundering Herd (one of my favorite names in all of sports) and the Northern Illinois Huskies were the two teams chosen to participate in the Boca Raton Bowl hosted in beautiful Boca Raton, Florida. A vacation trip for most, these two teams will surely be all business on the field in what's promised to be a physical game.
The Marshall Thundering Herd (12-1) were champions of conference USA and for quite awhile looked like they were going to go undefeated until they lost 67-66 on the last game of the regular season to Western Kentucky. The Thundering Herd have benefitted from record setting quarterback Rakeem Cato having his best season. Cato broke Russell Wilson's FBS record of 38 games in a row with at least one touchdown pass. Cato's record now stands at 45 games in a row and has a chance to increase it against an average Husky pass defense(61st in the nation) and will look to lead the number five scoring offense in the nation at 45 points per game with his 3,622 pass yards on the season. While Cato spreads the ball around, his most important offensive compatriot is running back Devon Johnson who has 1,636 yards on the ground alone. Marshall's offense is going to have to run effectively to set up more effective pass plays.
The Northern Illinois Huskies(11-2) have won 3 of the last 4 MAC conference championships including this years current campaign and are no strangers to bowl games and would be comfortable in the even larger bowl games as they played FSU 2 years ago in the Orange Bowl. Confidence isn't lacking. NIU is a run first team, racking up 253 yards per game on the ground on the season while sprinkling in some passes slightly for balance but more to keep the defense honest. Drew Hare at quarterback heads the NIU attack bringing 850 yards rushing to his 2,000 plus yards passing on the season. If Hare isn't the man with the ball it's usually either runner Cameron Stingily, or wide receiver Da'Ron Brown because it's these three who basically make this offense go.
The Boca Bowl looks to be a fight between teams with similar style attacks and stats on the offensive side and less than stellar numbers on either side defensively. So good ole fashioned game planning seems to be the catalyst here. Marshall should be focusing on trying to stop the NIU run game and force Drew Hare to use his arm instead of his legs. If Hare can consistently run around in the backfield and gain chunks of yards out of the pocket it'll be a long game for Marshall. NIU on the other end needs to force its rushing game down Marshall's throat offensively to minimize Rakeem Cato's time with the ball on the other end and get pressure on Cato defensively. Cato puts up big numbers but once he gets frustrated he can become inconsistent. A good way to frustrate quarterbacks at any level? Big defensive lineman and linebackers driving them into the turf.
It's a toss up but I have NIU coming out victorious. The stat gods tell me to pick Marshall with the experienced and seasoned guy behind center but there's something about the way NIU play and they have been in closer games and as the loss to Western Kentucky showed, Marshall doesn't like to play it close.
41-37 NIU over Marshall.
The Boca Raton Bowl will be aired live at 6:00pm/EST December 23rd on ESPN.
-Darrell Wilkinson TheSkyBoat.com
-Twitter: @Darrell_Canes
The Marshall Thundering Herd (12-1) were champions of conference USA and for quite awhile looked like they were going to go undefeated until they lost 67-66 on the last game of the regular season to Western Kentucky. The Thundering Herd have benefitted from record setting quarterback Rakeem Cato having his best season. Cato broke Russell Wilson's FBS record of 38 games in a row with at least one touchdown pass. Cato's record now stands at 45 games in a row and has a chance to increase it against an average Husky pass defense(61st in the nation) and will look to lead the number five scoring offense in the nation at 45 points per game with his 3,622 pass yards on the season. While Cato spreads the ball around, his most important offensive compatriot is running back Devon Johnson who has 1,636 yards on the ground alone. Marshall's offense is going to have to run effectively to set up more effective pass plays.
The Northern Illinois Huskies(11-2) have won 3 of the last 4 MAC conference championships including this years current campaign and are no strangers to bowl games and would be comfortable in the even larger bowl games as they played FSU 2 years ago in the Orange Bowl. Confidence isn't lacking. NIU is a run first team, racking up 253 yards per game on the ground on the season while sprinkling in some passes slightly for balance but more to keep the defense honest. Drew Hare at quarterback heads the NIU attack bringing 850 yards rushing to his 2,000 plus yards passing on the season. If Hare isn't the man with the ball it's usually either runner Cameron Stingily, or wide receiver Da'Ron Brown because it's these three who basically make this offense go.
The Boca Bowl looks to be a fight between teams with similar style attacks and stats on the offensive side and less than stellar numbers on either side defensively. So good ole fashioned game planning seems to be the catalyst here. Marshall should be focusing on trying to stop the NIU run game and force Drew Hare to use his arm instead of his legs. If Hare can consistently run around in the backfield and gain chunks of yards out of the pocket it'll be a long game for Marshall. NIU on the other end needs to force its rushing game down Marshall's throat offensively to minimize Rakeem Cato's time with the ball on the other end and get pressure on Cato defensively. Cato puts up big numbers but once he gets frustrated he can become inconsistent. A good way to frustrate quarterbacks at any level? Big defensive lineman and linebackers driving them into the turf.
It's a toss up but I have NIU coming out victorious. The stat gods tell me to pick Marshall with the experienced and seasoned guy behind center but there's something about the way NIU play and they have been in closer games and as the loss to Western Kentucky showed, Marshall doesn't like to play it close.
41-37 NIU over Marshall.
The Boca Raton Bowl will be aired live at 6:00pm/EST December 23rd on ESPN.
-Darrell Wilkinson TheSkyBoat.com
-Twitter: @Darrell_Canes