Morrell should get start against Middle Tennessee

After losing to Old Dominion 38-14 the Marshall Thundering Herd are now just 2-7 on the season and mathematically eliminated from postseason play. 

The truth of the matter is, the team has been eliminated for weeks, now, it's just official that the remaining games on the schedule will be played for the team's collective pride. A little bit of that pride was on display with 3:08 left in the final quarter of Marshall's Saturday night loss when freshman quarterback Garet Morrell led the Herd offensive down the field for a meaningless touchdown. 

Except, it wasn't meaningless at all. In fact, it may have been the most meaningful series of the season for the Thundering Herd as Morrell orchestrated a beautiful drive and was flawless doing so. The young signal caller was a perfect 3-3 on the drive for 51 yards and capped it off with a touchdown pass to Emanuel Byrd. Morrell also carried the ball twice for seven yards a stat that at first glance may seem insignificant but is actually extremely important in the Marshall offense. 

The zone read option from the spread formation is a play that much of the Herd's other offensive plays and looks are built off of. The play gives the quarterback a few decisions to make based off of a read or sometimes reads. In its simplest form, the quarterback will have the option to either hand the ball to the running back or keep it and carry the ball himself, depending on what the defensive end is doing. The end is the QB's read, if he crashes down on the back, the quarterback keeps it, if he plays containment on the QB the running back gets the carry. 

Now as your quarterback gets more comfortable with this read the play can get more complicated. More options and reads can be added such as the option to not only hand it off or keep it but to possibly throw it down the field to a receiver as well. It was with these reads that Rakeem Cato made his living as the Marshall quarterback and the better Cato got the more freedom and options he was given. When all options are available and are being orchestrated by a quarterback who is often able to make the correct reads the offense becomes very difficult to stop because it constantly keeps the defense guessing.

 If you take the back away, the quarterback can beat you with his feet. If you bring help to take both the back and quarterback away there is a possibility for a pass and another option the defense has to try and guard itself against. Inevitably, the defense can't always cover everything and the offense can exploit what it is being given by the defense and then other plays start to build off of the read option's success, creating a high-octane offense like Herd fans saw during the Cato era. 

One of the biggest issues with this year's Marshall offense is that Chase Litton hasn't made the correct read often enough. Teams have made an effort game after game to take away the Herd's running game by crashing down the line to the running back awaiting the handoff. This has left plenty of open field for Litton to take advantage of by keeping the ball himself which in turn would keep the defense honest and open up holes for Marshall's running backs. 

But, Litton has instead only been credited with 29 rushing attempts all season. Which is a misleading number in and of itself when you consider that in the NCAA sacks count as rushing attempts and Litton has been sacked 18 times so far this season. So, that means Litton has kept the ball just 11 times all year on a team whose primary offensive scheme is a spread-option offense. The sophomore quarterback is essentially handcuffing himself and the offense by running the ball so little. If you look around the country at other teams who run the spread-option offense you won't find another one whose quarterback has logged just 11 true rushes. That's because for the offense to work your QB has to be a threat to run the football. 

Morrell played just one series tonight and a handful of other snaps early in the season in games against Morgan State and Akron. Of course, Morrell started and played the entire game against nationally ranked juggernaut Louisville but even in his limited appearances Morrell has been credited with nine rushes. He was sacked three times in that game against the Cardinals so that means Morrell has carried the ball six times, just five less than Litton. 

Against the Monarchs Morrell looked sharp, and fleet-footed, the latter part is something Litton hasn't looked in a long time. But, most important Morrell looked willing, willing to run and because of that I believe he should be the starting quarterback when the Herd lines up against Middle Tennessee. At this point, Doc Holliday and the staff have nothing to lose and perhaps a switch at quarterback could be a shot in the arm of the Marshall offense. If it isn't Litton will be waiting in the wings for a chance to take the reigns back and perhaps it will refuel the fire that the Tampa Bay native displayed as a freshman, a fire that's been seemingly snuffed since Deon'Tae Moore of Akron leveled Litton back in week two. 

There is plenty of blame to go around for Marshall's woes in 2016 so they certainly don't all fall on the shoulders of Litton, but Marshall needs some kind of spark, something to give the team and fans a reason to be excited. Something the team can possibly build off of for the coming games and seasons. Might as well find out if Morrell can be the conductor that ignites that spark.