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Dukie (and whoever else),
I said I would present myself for a Net-beatin'.
Here I am. Sorry so late...had to drive back from Waco.

HP deserved to win. That was one big Chris Farley moment for Marshall.
"Ugnh...That'll leave a mark!"


I did not get to see the game, and my electronically challenged dad did not press record on the recorder.

Marshall paper suggests the Mavericks just didn't show up. 59-0 isn't not showing up...it's a rout....

Congratulations, and my hat's off to HP and their program.

HP beat Marshall so bad, I won't even comment on the venue issue, except to say that HP ought to trade in their state rep for saying that the venue issue was bigger than school finance. That was just goofy.

The outcome was never in doubt...I was just kidding myself.

No floggings. I felt so sorry for Marshall's players. What happened out there can't be explained by being "flat" or "unprepared" or the other things I've read in the Marshall paper. I just don't understand it. This was the fifth-ranked team in the state, with the same core team that came within two points of beating Ennis and winning it all last year (and probably should've won it all, were it not for five turnovers in that game).

OC, I'm really, really curious if you can find out any Marshall theories on what happened, because that game should not have been 59-0 based on the pre-game data. Robinson and Carswell (sp?) didn't look injured; I don't know what to think. Did everyone have the flu? I'm being serious in asking.

Coach Southern is getting a lot of grief for abandoning the run and trying to throw the ball (and maybe he did start throwing too early, and I definitely think he deserves some criticism for trying too many 30-yard routes and way too few 8-yarders), but Marshall *did* try to run the ball, they just weren't getting anywhere. I could have predicted that HP's offense would have scored in the 40's (and really they got 52; the last or second-to-last touchdown was a punt return), but something was seriously wrong with Marshall's offense. HP hadn't recorded a shut-out all year, even against a couple of pretty mediocre teams.

OC: No floggings from me. Obviously the better prepared - and coached - team won the game. I actually wished that Marshall had more of a game out of it when it got to the 2nd quarter. 59-0...unheard of...and it will be talked about until the day I die, most likely.

I wish the Marshall players had shown better sportsmanship at the end of the game, though...I heard that one young man got ejected from the game for throwing punches at a Highland Park player on the Scots' sideline during the end of the 4th quarter. And then the entire Maverick team walked to the locker room instead of coming over to shake the Scots' hands, except for a few of the coaches, at the end of the game.

All said, though...it's obvious that the real state championship game was played the week before against Stephenville.

'65, I wouldn't make a big deal out of Marshall leaving the field. Given the number of personal fouls at the end, and the ejection for slugging (it wasn't sidelines, it was a defender hitting an offensive player after the end of a play), things were getting chippy and could have turned into a brawl. #46, the ejected player, had been taking out his frustrations with a lot of mouthing and a couple of late hits even before the ejection.

Marshall was mad about what they (wrongly, imo) perceived as HP arrogance about the stadium choice, they were stunned by the game itself, and I think the trick pass back to Stafford when HP was already up 42-0 didn't help things much. (But that was the *only* example of marginally poor sportsmanship I'd ascribe to HP.)

AS much as I enjoyed watching the game on the net, it was also a poor choice for HP to leave the offensice starters in all the way into the 4th quarter, not to mention a trick play when the game was out of hand.

AS much as I enjoyed watching the game on the net, it was also a poor choice for HP to leave the offensive starters in all the way into the 4th quarter, not to mention a trick play when the game was out of hand.

As a big HP fan I can say I agree that the starters came out way too late, not for any reason other then it was the right time to get some other seniors some game time in the state final game - the only state final game of their life.

The stadium venue was just stupid - Marshall could have picked an east texas venue with 25-30,000 seats and lots more fans would have seen the game - plus they would have made some money - that rule will change guaranteed.

As for coaching decisions, I know HP had the line stacked, but you can't make a leopard into a tiger - the passing by Marshall in 1st qtr was not smart. Your only chance is saddle up number 34 and try to wear out the smaller HP'ers - the coach blew it and had no where to go after that didn't work.

No excuse for a state final 4a team to not have any sort of punting game either - that was comical - average punt was about 25 yds.

Marshall gave up. That is a sign there is a problem in the coaching staff somewhere.

The HP Scots seniors/starters who got the team to the state final - and the STATE TITLE! - deserved to get every amount of playing time coming to them. These young men have been playing and talking about winning the state championship since they were in 6th grade. I don't fault the coaches one bit for keeping these young men on the field a little bit longer than usual. They earned it. And this was their final game to play football with each other as an 'official' team.

And each of the 'starters' was given the opportunity to get a standing ovation from the HP fans at Rose Stadium as they came off the field individually near the end of the 4th quarter.

While some of you may think that the game was 'in the bag' at the half, please remember that another highly-ranked HP team thought it had a game won in 1977 against the Plano Wildcats. Look what happened back then.

If there's anything the Scots have learned over the years, it's that nothing should be taken for granted...no matter what the score.

Marshall could have picked an east texas venue with 25-30,000

Really? Where?

Again, I say it should've been in Shreveport. 50k that place holds. Biggest place in e. Texas has to be SFA's place, 15k max.

RGV Pony wrote:

Marshall could have picked an east texas venue with 25-30,000

Really? Where?

Again, I say it should've been in Shreveport. 50k that place holds. Biggest place in e. Texas has to be SFA's place, 15k max.

I agree, RGV...I can't think of a venue that holds that many anywhere in East Texas.

Homer Bryce Stadium on the campus of Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, TX seats 14,575 but thousands more can be put in the grassy endzones. Bowers Stadium on the campus of Sam Houston State (Huntsville, TX) seats 14,000 but more can be put in the grassy endzones there, too. The largest crowd to ever attend a game at Bowers Stadium was 16,148 in Oct. 1994 to see Sam Houston State play Alcorn State, lead by QB Steve McNair, which was televised on ESPN. Unfortunately, both stadiums still have outdated carpet-type artificial turf.

MrMustang1965 wrote:The HP Scots seniors/starters who got the team to the state final - and the STATE TITLE! - deserved to get every amount of playing time coming to them. These young men have been playing and talking about winning the state championship since they were in 6th grade. I don't fault the coaches one bit for keeping these young men on the field a little bit longer than usual. They earned it. And this was their final game to play football with each other as an 'official' team....

Yawn .... since I don't know the URL for the I LOVE HP website, I'll weigh in.

Got to disagree with you, MM65. Just as PonyFans blasted The Leach for teaching his team anything but sportsmanship when he tried to run up the score at SMU a couple of years ago, Randy Allen taught his team that personal glory and attentioon is more important than winning with class. Besides, while the starters deserved a chance to play, hear the applause, yada yada yada, every one of the backups deserved to play in a championship game they might never reach again. Leaving the starters in that long was simply wrong.

Lotus wrote:

MrMustang1965 wrote:The HP Scots seniors/starters who got the team to the state final - and the STATE TITLE! - deserved to get every amount of playing time coming to them. These young men have been playing and talking about winning the state championship since they were in 6th grade. I don't fault the coaches one bit for keeping these young men on the field a little bit longer than usual. They earned it. And this was their final game to play football with each other as an 'official' team....

Yawn .... since I don't know the URL for the I LOVE HP website, I'll weigh in.

Got to disagree with you, MM65. Just as PonyFans blasted The Leach for teaching his team anything but sportsmanship when he tried to run up the score at SMU a couple of years ago, Randy Allen taught his team that personal glory and attentioon is more important than winning with class. Besides, while the starters deserved a chance to play, hear the applause, yada yada yada, every one of the backups deserved to play in a championship game they might never reach again. Leaving the starters in that long was simply wrong.

To mention Randy Allen and Mike Leach in the same breath is just plain wrong.

Mike Leach and the TT Red Raiders were not playing for a STATE TITLE when they played SMU at Ford Stadium in 2004. His players had not been on the field of competition with each other since 6th grade, dreaming of the day that they would win a STATE TITLE...something that had not been achieved by any HP team since 1957.

News flash: it wasn't the 'backups' who got the Scots to the state championship game, it was the 'starters'. And the 'backups' now have a goal in sight for next season. Repeat what was done in 2005. Two state titles in a row has never been accomplished at HP. I'd love to see that!

And there was no attempt by coach Allen and the Scots to 'run up the score' against Marshall like Mike Leach tried against SMU. If that was the case, QB Matthew Stafford would have been slinging the ball up and down the field to the Dickerson twins all day long. As it was, HP ran the ball (their weaker offense) last Saturday more times than in any other game this year. But it is kind of hard to stop Jake Feldt.

HP won with class last Saturday. They outplayed the Mavericks and no one from HP was ejected from the game or penalized for unsportsmanlike conduct.

To say that Randy Allen taught his team that "personal glory and attention is more important than winning with class" has no merit. I know a few of the young men on that team and each of them is respectful and humble in the face of the limelight that they find themselves in. They understand their place in history and have not let it 'go to their heads'.

If you feel so strongly about their 'lack of class', I guess you wouldn't want to have them playing for SMU some day...? Of course you'd love to see some of them wearing a helmet with a Mustang on it.

I dare say that most of us wouldn't mind Mike Leach coming to coach SMU and having the success he has had at Tech....

Hi Guys...sorry so late in getting a reply back...the in-laws are in and, well, you know the drill....

Dukie, in answer to your question, I just don't know for sure what happened to the Marshall Mavs. I wondered the same thing. Don't get me wrong; the best team won, and they won big. HP clearly outgunned Marshall on both sides of the ball, particularly where it mattered...the lines. To extend the logic, I will quote Coach Dennis Parker, the dean of the 1990 Marshall 5A State Championship, "I coach lineman; God makes running backs." To that end, Coach Allen and his O-line & D-lines have my utmost respect...period. Not taking anything away from Stafford & the Jets....just pointing out where the game was really won and dominated. BUS's big ugly butts.

That said, I have pondered the combustion of the last week and the fizzles during the game (didn't see it...getting a lot of 2nd hand info from buddies who were there, both from HP as well as Marshall). Here is my theory; it is not very original. Something very simple happened on the field. Coach Allen, I think rightly, guessed the Southern would try a changeup to Marshall's traditional run-the-ball approach: throw early and sting HP, and then grind it out the duration.
Put simply, Allen and his boys played the 1st half as brilliantly as one could ever ask. They got up, and Marshall gave up.
59 pts is normal for HP. I half-way expected that they would hang at least 35 on Marshall. Would be consistent, and Marshall has been a sucker for the deep post all year. But zero points on offense? That was the surprise of the afternoon/evening.

I didn't realize the sportsmanship issue, but none of us really know what all was being jawed about on the field. If the kid that I was told was actually the guy that got tossed, I am inclined to believe that he simply lost his cool in a big way...a 59-0 way. He has never run from a challenge, but he is not prone to getting into fights. You don't get to 13-2 and in the final game of the season by getting blown away. I think humiliation is what Marshall's players felt, regardless of whether HP meant them to or not.

As for our paper, the scuttlebutt, etc., they all pretty much echo the beatin' that was taken. I think for everybody but the coaches, it is rather pointless to ask why it happened and move on. After all, it is a game...the coolest game around...but a game nonetheless. Dwelling on it doesn't help anybody.

So, in closing, I am frustrated to say that I will not get a chance to see a replay of it. My electronically-challenged dad forgot to push "record".
Oh well.

Can't wait until Sat. when Southlake takes on Katy. I am hoping SLC does it. Dodge's parents and family lives here in Marshall. As well, let's hope Texas takes it to USC, or I will hear about it in spades.

Later....

They could have played the game in Waco, its still close to Mashall.