Marshall's football team is unbeaten but not unbeatable.

	Related Links: Pruett spurns Houston to stay at Marshall BYU bowl report Marshall 1999 results Marshall bowl results Motor City Bowl coverage Motor City Bowl results Bowl matchups Forum: Will Marshall win the Motor City Bowl?
	T O P   N E W S

That realization smacked the Thundering Herd in the face on Dec. 3 when an undefeated regular season nearly went for naught as Marshall fell behind Western Michigan 23-0 in the third quarter of the Mid-American Conference championship game. The Herd rallied to win 34-30 in an uncomfortably close call.

As Marshall enters the Motor City Bowl on Monday at the Pontiac (Mich.) Silverdome against Brigham Young, Herd players say they will emerge from the locker room for that game with a staunch sense of reality that they can be beaten.

"That championship game brought the whole team closer," Marshall tailback Doug Chapman said. "It took all 103 players on this team to win that game. It made us realize that we'll face adversity and that we can overcome it."

Marshall beat Western Michigan on a 1-yard pass from Chad Pennington to Eric Pinkerton with 4 seconds left. The Herd entered that game as a 21-point favorite, three weeks after routing the Broncos 31-17 on Western Michigan's field.

The Herd is about a 3-point favorite over BYU, tri-champion of the Mountain West Conference with Utah and Colorado State, but losers of its final two games, to Wyoming and Utah.

Marshall's players said they'll approach the game no different than if they were an underdog.

"We don't even look at that," linebacker Andre O'Neal said. "We just have to go out and play our game."

BYU is similar to Western Michigan in that it features a prolific passing game but can run the ball, too. The Cougars, Herd coaches say, have better players than does Western Michigan. Pruett also said BYU is better than Peach Bowl-bound Clemson, a team that Marshall beat 13-10 in the season opener.

"We'll have to have our A-game," Marshall defensive tackle Giradie Mercer said.

Chapman said he and Marshall's other 19 seniors have even greater motivation. "It's our last go-around," he said. "We want to go out with a win."

Of course, so do the Cougars. A victory over a team on the verge of reaching the top 10 would boost BYU's ranking, possibly significantly.

BYU was in a less-precarious situation than was Marshall, but nearly missed out on a bowl berth, too. The Cougars appeared on their way to a Mountain West Conference title before losing their final two regular-season games. That sent Colorado State to the Liberty Bowl and Utah to the Las Vegas Bowl. Had the Motor City Bowl come to a deal with Louisville (7-4) for a rematch of last year's game with Marshall, BYU might have been left in the cold, or at least grappling with Houston for a spot opposite Boise State (8-3) in the Humanitarian Bowl.

"I'm sure they're hungry," Williams said. "They have a good team and they're a program with a great tradition. They'll be ready to play."

This time, Marshall promises, so will the Herd.

The Personnel File

BACK TO THE FIELD: Pennington is back on the football field and glad to be there after an ultra-busy two weeks that saw him accept a $25,000 postgraduate scholarship from the College Football Foundation in New York; interview for a Rhodes Scholarship in Morgantown, W.Va.; attend the Davey O'Brien Award ceremony in Orlando; and fly back to New York for the Heisman Trophy presentation ceremony.

AMAZING GRACE: Senior linebacker John Grace is using the Motor City Bowl as his personal quest to make a statement. Grace finished second in MAC defensive player of the year voting for the second consecutive season and said he is out to prove that the voters made a mistake. Miami (Ohio) linebacker Dustin Cohen won the award this year. Miami linebacker JoJuan Armour won it in 1998.

PRUETT STAYS: Herd coach Bobby Pruett turned down a six-year package worth more than $10 million from Houston, showing a strong commitment to stay at Marshall, where he is 45-4 with four conference championships, three bowl appearances and one NCAA Division I-AA national title in four seasons.

Earlier in the postseason, Pruett declined to interview at LSU, Texas Tech and North Carolina State, all of which approached him. South Carolina and Clemson inquired about Pruett last year.

BABES IN BOWL LAND: The bowl experience will be new for one Marshall starter -- true freshman punter Curtis Head. The baby-faced youngster from Shelbyville, Ky., averaged 41 yards per punt this season and didn't have one blocked. The Motor City Bowl also will be the first time Head kicks in a domed stadium.

JOHNSON RETAINED: Tight ends coach and recruiting coordinator Dave Johnson was a finalist for the Findlay (Ohio) College job that went to West Virginia offensive coordinator Dan Simrell. Findlay's athletic director is former Marshall assistant AD Steven Rackley.

Noteworthy

EXPANDING HERD: Construction has begun to increase the capacity of Marshall Stadium from 30,000 to 40,000 seats by the 2000 opener. The seats will be added in the south end zone, giving the stadium a horseshoe-style look.

WEST HEADING WEST? Marshall athletic director Lance West's name has come up in relation to the AD job at Washington State. West is a native of Idaho.

QB FOUND: Marshall received a commitment from Andrew English, a 6-foot-4, 215-pound quarterback from South Oldham (Ky.) High School. English, a 2,500-yard passer as a senior, is the son of former Tulane coach and quarterback-tutor extraordinaire Wally English.

Starters to replace

OFFENSIVE: Marshall loses six starters, including quarterback Chad Pennington, tailback Doug Chapman, center Jason Starkey, left guard Irv Dotson, left tackle Mike Guilliams and wide receiver James Williams. Pennington and Starkey will be the most difficult to replace. Look for Memphis transfer Stephen Galbraith to take over for Pennington. A junior college transfer likely will replace Starkey.

DEFENSIVE: The Herd loses five starters, including tackle Giradie Mercer, end Ron Puggi, linebackers John Grace and Andre O'Neal and safety Rogers Beckett. Mercer and Beckett will be the most difficult to replace, although their backups are talented.

SPECIAL TEAMS: Marshall loses kicker Billy Malashevich, but kickoff specialist J.R. Jenkins is a capable replacement. Kickoff returner James Williams averaged a national-best 35 yards per run back this season and will be replaced by speedy youngster Brian Greenleaf.