KENT, Ohio - Perhaps freshman Chase Litton will join the long, mostly uninterrupted line of excellent Marshall quarterbacks.
Saturday evening at Kent State, he did something all the great ones do: Struggle for most of the game, make a few brilliant plays at the most dire moments and sneak his team out of a foreign stadium with a win.
Modern MU football is littered with games such as the 36-29 double-overtime win Saturday. You'll find many of these come in road games against lightly regarded opponents, often with smaller crowds.
And there are historic parallels to Litton's crazy day.
Chad Pennington's first start in 1995 is one of almost-morbid legend. At Tennessee-Chattanooga, he went 23 of 36 for 284 yards and SIX interceptions but still downed the Moccasins 35-32. There may be another QB who has pulled that off, but none in my memory.
Byron Leftwich had a few white-knucklers in 2000, but I'll skip to the Rakeem Cato era for one of the Herd's all-time hold-your-nose wins.
It was four long years ago when, for some reason, TV executives thought it would be a good idea to schedule a Marshall-Memphis game on a Thursday night. Never mind the teams went a combined 5-19 in 2010.
It was cold and there might have been 2,000 fans at Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium. The Herd was 4-6 and facing bowl elimination for the sixth time in seven years and trying to salvage its season with freshman Cato.
Behind Cato, there was ... nobody, really.
Oh, the memory. Eddie Sullivan bailed from the program the day before the game. Blake Frohnapfel said he was ready to lose his redshirt, but his throwing wing was headed to postseason surgery.
And for three-plus quarters, Cato and the Herd offense were awful. There were six turnovers, two fumbles returned for TDs and in the ultimate insult, Marshall blocked a punt and Australian punter Tom Hornsey recovered and ran for a first down.
The Herd's defense kept the deficit down to 22-10, similar to the 19-7 count Saturday. Andre Booker returned the next kickoff 64 yards and the Herd muscled out two TDs in less than five minutes to take the 23-22 lead, which stood up.
But Cato's best do-or-else pass wasn't in that game. That came in 2013, when he hit Gator Hoskins for a 41-yard TD on fourth-and-5 at Florida Atlantic. That cut a 23-14 FAU lead to 23-21 and left 6:47 on the clock - enough for MU to stop a long drive, regain possession and set up a game-winning field goal.
Cato was 15 of 31 for 141 yards with an interception before the magic clicked in Boca Raton. On Saturday, Litton was 13 of 35 for 148 with two picks before his magic moment, a not-so-simple 3-yard game-saving TD pass to Davonte Allen in overtime.
In both cases, the stats became irrelevant. Cato corrected his problems and directed the Herd to a 19-3 record the rest of his career. What will Litton do?
Litton has a long way to go to join the fraternity of great Marshall QBs, but he at least stuck a big toe in the door in a long, strange yet successful Saturday.
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As much grit as Litton showed on his across-the-body throw to Allen, the senior receiver needed his redemption. He was blanketed all day by cornerback Najee Murray before Murray was tossed for targeting on a two-point conversion.
(Memo to northeast Ohio: Good call, more solid than Nate Holley's targeting hit on Litton.)
Allen was targeted seven times, catching only three. In the three games against FBS foes, Allen has eight catches in 18 targets, as tallied in play-by-play reports.
He was blanked at Ohio, caught five passes for 59 yards against Purdue and three for 24 yards at Kent. That's eight for 83 yards, barely a 10-yard average.
Allen must get his game in gear, shake loose of cornerbacks and make the big catch. Does the play at Kent jump-start his season?
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Had Marshall won the game in regulation, Sebastien Johansson would have been worthy of a game ball. The Herd moved to the Kent 43 after Litton's 13-yard pass to Allen, but it wasn't Allen who made the first-down line.
It was big "Swede" pushing the entire pile down the field, more than 5 yards in all. The Herd line may have been two men down, but it still can throw its weight around.
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I'm not sure if Kent State will get a sniff of bowl eligibility because, well, it's Kent State. And the Flashes' offense is hot and cold, with the average temperature not in their favor.
(And big not-so-ups to KSU for running the option into the boundary. Talk about a free play for the MU defense!)
But Old Dominion has major problems, and the Monarchs must march into Huntington this week. It's another 3:30 p.m. game, and maybe the American Sports Network can stay on the air for the distance. (WCHS, Channel 8 is the local outlet.)
The Monarchs were waterboarded in a rainy home game by Appalachian State, 49-0. The expected Sun Belt contenders scored on seven of their first 10 possessions and outgained ODU, 501-175.
I'll leave the final comment of the morning to the talkative coach of the Monarchs, Bobby Wilder.
"The first thing I'd like to say is that I'm embarrassed for Old Dominion University and our fans," he said in postgame comments. "That was an embarrassing performance. I take responsibility as a head coach when your team loses 49-0 at home in front of fans who came out to watch under difficult weather circumstances."