HUNTINGTON - If you're a football walk-on, you have to love the game. You can't just tell sportswriters you love the game, you have to genuinely love it.
You have to outwork the rest of your position room, you must be uncommonly football-savvy, and you must walk that line between hunger and patience.
Such is the life of Nick Mathews, the sophomore wide receiver from Haymarket, Virginia. Listed at 5-foot-10, 169 pounds, he was too small, too slow to be offered a major-college scholarship. He walked on at Marshall to chase his dream.
From his first practice in August camp, Mathews has been a slot receiver. My attention can stray in the day-to-day grind of preseason camp, but I am hard-pressed to remember him playing anywhere else.
I do remember having to check the roster multiple times last August, trying to attach a name to his No. 87. Here's this guy way off our radar simply getting open, catching the pass and making a few more yards before the usual quick whistles of practice.
He has never looked out of place. He said that, for the most part, he has not felt out of place.
"Coming in here, walking on, I was nervous," he said Saturday. "Didn't know what to expect, but it's just football. You get on the field, it's the same thing I've been doing my whole life. The speed's different, of course. Besides that, it's just playing football."
He played nine games last year as a true freshman, with pedestrian stats: four receptions, 29 yards. His long of 12 came at Florida Atlantic, and it wasn't unimportant.
The Herd was up 16-10 late in the second quarter and that pass from Chase Litton resulted in a first down on second-and-10. Three plays later, Litton found Davonte Allen for 22 yards for a 23-10 lead.
It's unfair and very premature to compare Mathews to Tommy Shuler, the program's all-time leader in receptions, but the principles are the same.
"Thing about Shuler, he knew coverages really well, and he was able to get open," Mathews said. "And that's what I'm trying to learn after him. I watch film on him and he's excellent just getting open, finding the openings in the defense. That's what I'm trying to do."
For all Mathews' good work this spring, he faces long odds on making the two-deep. For one thing, he will remain behind Josh Knight, whom the Herd needs to have a super senior season. Gator Green, the diminutive sophomore currently working on the outside, can still play inside.
Pending test scores, several newcomers are coming this summer. And there's nothing that says the Herd can't use two tight ends and split them both out on any down.
Yes, Mathews needs patience. But he looks good to get on scholarship in August 2017 and I don't think he can be kept off the two-deep forever. Can he be another Essray Taliaferro, the running back who went from obscurity to an 1,100-yard season?
Nothing will surprise me.
"I've got to continue to work on myself, work on my craft and, hopefully, I get a shot," Mathews said. "And that's all I need."
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It's good to see Jeff Boals become a head coach, as he took the job at Stony Brook. He took over for Steve Pikiell, who committed career suicide, errr, umm, filled the vacancy at Rutgers.
Boals is former Marshall and University of Charleston coach Greg White's most accomplished coaching protege. He served for White from 1996-2004 - three seasons at UC, four at MU and one more at UC.
He was at Robert Morris under Mark Schmidt from 2004-06 and Akron under Keith Dambrot from 2006-09. After helping lead the Zips to the 2009 NCAA tournament - their first NCAA tournament in 23 years - Boals was hired by Thad Matta at Ohio State.
In the seven seasons to follow, the Buckeyes went 193-62 and advanced to the 2012 Final Four. And now he's taking over a program that swept the American East regular-season and tournament championships.
Boals is a good guy who put in the work. He's past due for this opportunity.
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Here's the first golf note from me for 2016. Won't be the last.
Danny Lee, the New Zealander who won the 2015 Greenbrier Classic, has done nicely since last July. In fact, the 25-year-old is the highest ranked of the six Classic champs.
Lee earned his second trip to the Masters, and didn't do badly over the weekend. He finished in the top 25 with a 4-over-par 286, and even appeared on the leaderboard during the second round.
He finished ninth in the 2014-15 FedExCup standings, and entered last weekend 38th in the world - consider that he was 158th entering the Greenbrier Classic and 78th after his victory. As the top-ranked man from New Zealand, you can pencil him in for the Rio Olympics in August.
2013 champ Jonas Blixt rose as high as 33rd in 2014, but was 125th and did not make the Masters field. 2014 champ Angel Cabrera fell down the rankings hard, but he also made the cut at Augusta and will rise from 328th.
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And finally, the question came up after Villanova sank North Carolina in the national championship game: Would you rather lose like the Tar Heels, taking a shot in the gut at the buzzer, or lose like Oklahoma did, a 95-51 massacre.
After answering the Twitter poll, I saw the results were close to 50-50.
Really?
Let me recast the question for Marshall fans: Would you rather lose to Louisiana Tech on a halfcourt shot at the buzzer, or get hammered 102-46 by Southern Mississippi, as the Herd did in 2013?
Don't overthink it, folks.