The Owls travel to West Virginia in Week 7 to take on the Cato-less Marshall Thundering Herd, after a win against UAB last week.
A business trip to Huntington, WV has been a struggle for the Owls in the past. This year though, the Herd are without star QB Rakeem Cato, who suffered a likely career ending injury in week one. He was a perfect modern QB, with good arm strength and an ability to run when needed.
Cato underwent surgery 5 weeks ago, and it appears as though he will be able to lead a normal life despite the scary injury.
The Owls defense needs to be better. This season, the team has been abysmal against the pass and has allowed the 4th most points. On the bright side, Lance Burlingame needs just one sack to break the school record. He is currently 11th in the nation in that category.
Stephen Curtis, again, needs a good game. He hasn't been exceptional this year and will definitely need to step up against a good Marshall secondary. Jonathan Wallace is looking to break the 100 yard and TD game for the 3rd time in a row.
Despite the loss of Rakeem Cato, we still have Marshall taking this game, not by a large margin but they'll still pull out a win. Marhsall's running game and back-7 are quite impressive, while Curtis is not. Turnovers will be big as Marshall will take it 24-17.