HUNTINGTON - Season 2 of the Marshall special teams' trick shots are coming to a social media site near you. And the wait won't be nearly as long as that for the final season of "Mad Men."
Season 1 was en-ough of a success - a surprise one at that, in the Thundering Herd specialists' eyes - that a renewal had to be in the cards.
The main catalyst in the group's venture? Free time. Kickers and punters tend
to have some, especially during down time away from practice. And tight ends coach Todd Goebbel, who works extensively with Marshall special teams, does say that the players in that unit can be a creative lot.
It started with one 2013 Vine video with Marshall's special teamers in their hotel room before the Middle Tennessee game. Kicker Amareto Curraj wanted the remote and kicker Justin Haig, via long snapper Matt Cincotta and punter Tyler Williams, obliged.
Cincotta snagged the remote, snapped it between his legs to Williams, who held it for Haig to boot to Curraj. That Rube Goldberg-ian clip has been looped nearly 21,000 times, re-Vined 185 times and liked 147 times.
That early popularity led to even more clips, many of them starring Nick Smith and his off-the-wall (and video board, and elsewhere) attempts. They expanded from Vine to the Marshall Specialists feed on Twitter and then to their own YouTube page.
"It's a fun way to show your skills off other than just punting and kicking," kicker Kaare Vedvik said. "There are so many different things we can do, and that makes it pretty cool."
Vedvik's top contribution comes on "The Assist," where he balances the football on his foot and flips it over his head, with Smith waiting to kick it through the uprights. While they're all fun, they aren't all easy. One clip of Smith tossing a football from the top of Joan C. Edwards Stadium into a garbage can on the field took two days' worth of attempts.
Yet there are some days when the stars and planets align, and it's a short day of filming. Smith nailed "The Bank Shot," his kick bouncing off the Shewey Building video board and landing in a trash can, on the first take.
"We looked at each other after I made it like, 'Did that go in?' " Smith said.
"We don't expect that, at all," Cincotta said. "We were like, 'Wow! We're done! All right! Nice!' "
The special teamers haven't heard any grumbling from Marshall's coaches about their hobby. Of course, it helps when the group includes the Conference USA preseason all-conference punter (Williams), long snapper (Cincotta) and two kickers who finished near the top of the Football Bowl Subdivision in touchbacks (Curraj and Vedvik).
Cincotta figures that, if they stick to business on the practice field and it pays dividends on game day, they'll get a little latitude in taking Vine and Twitter by storm during the lulls in the week.
"We feel like, if we perform better, we can enjoy ourselves and be a little more relaxed," Cincotta said. "But if we're not doing well, we shouldn't be doing it."
Goebbel hasn't seen his specialists slack off yet, so the green light should stay on.
"They're very diligent in practice," Goebbel said. "They go through their fundamental work when they're called upon. But that's their way of expressing themselves and they do a good job out of work of staying focused and still having fun at the same time. That's what we like."
Part of their motivation is to stick up for the little guy. They've seen some special teams units from the Power Five schools around the nation get into the act. They've earned the Marshall crew's respect, but the Herd specialists aren't about to back down from a challenge.
"We've seen guys from big schools do trick shots we know for a fact we can do," Vedvik said. "And a lot of trick shots we do are better than what we've seen done."
Expect a new episode to hit social media as game day draws nearer each week, starting with Marshall's season opener at Edwards Stadium versus Purdue. After broadcasting a new feat, the Herd's specialists will have their chance to use their feet in helping Marshall to a win.
And as long as that happens, there shouldn't be any fear of cancellation.