THE ONE positive for Marshall in losing two wide receivers to professional football - they should not be mentioned in conjunction with the NFL draft - is that two scholarships opened up.
Perhaps Thundering Herd coaches can fill one with a well-touted wide receiver who pulls a passing test score late and commits at the 11th hour. If I were a blue-chip receiver in that situation, I take a loooong look at Huntington, West Virginia.
With Deon-Tay McManus and Michael Clark turning pro for whatever reason, the position is wide, wide, wide open.
Those two weren't deemed good enough by Conference USA's 14 coaches to be selected honorable mention all-league, but they did account for 77 receptions and 1,085 yard with eight touchdowns. Combined with outgoing seniors Josh Knight, Justin Hunt and tight end Emanuel Byrd, the Herd lost more than 70 percent of its catches and about 80 percent of its yardage from 2016.
One could half-jokingly say that's a good thing, considering the 3-9 record.
Tight end Ryan Yurachek (28 receptions, 298 yards, five TDs) is the returning pass-catcher. The other returning wide receivers from the stat sheet are Gator Green (7-45), Willie Johnson (4-52) and Nick Mathews (1-18).
Johnson injured his leg Oct. 1, an important date to keep in mind. The beginning of fall camp is 10 months after that, the beginning of the season 11 months. Two issues here: When will he be ready to play, and when will he back to his full, blazing speed.
Coach Doc Holliday has maintained he has the talent on campus, with transfers and 2016 non-qualifiers. The Herd received a major break last week when former UCLA commitment Darian Owens was granted a waiver to practice in the spring. Don't know what that was all about, but coaches now have 14 practices (excluding spring game) to sort out his role.
(Whom the position coach and coordinator/co-coordinators still has yet to be announced. You might as well relax, fans.)
Tyre Brady, the Miami transfer, looked to be the best receiver in practice last fall. Listed at 6-foot-3, he could be the starting "X" receiver. Another notable candidate on hand is 5-10 sophomore Brandon Rodgers, whose redshirt was lifted and averaged 21.2 yards on 11 kickoff returns last year. He did not have a catch.
Elsewhere on the current roster, Leron Carn still has to prove himself, and walk-on Nick Matthews (five career catches, 47 yards) has been one of those "spring stars."
One other juco import, 5-10 Marcel Williams, is in for the spring, as is 6-4 tight end Armani Levias.
A few of these guys have to catch on in a hurry, or Marshall's passing game is doomed to another mediocre season.
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The other day, safety C.J. Reavis tweeted a picture after his second shoulder surgery since his season-ending injury. He had this "eSling" immobilizer on his shoulder.
I have experience here. Those who know me may have seen me wearing one of those dreadful contraptions during spring drills last year. Those six weeks in that thing were long, let me tell you.
(And then there was the MRI, in which I learned I was claustrophobic. Good times.)
If his rehab schedule is anything like mine, he could be ready for limited duty by the beginning of August and perhaps ready to go by the Sept. 2 opener against Miami (Ohio).
But his injury is probably different (mine involved a fracture) and he has a better medical plan. That new sports medicine center is sweeeeet.
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"Murfreesboro" is becoming a dirty word for Herd fans. At the risk of incurring death threats, I must note that city's name has the same number of syllables and one more letter than Chattanooga.
For those who remember the Herd's days in the Southern Conference, I apologize for invoking the "C" word.
MTSU has hazed MU in football and men's basketball. Since joining Conference USA, the Blue Raiders have beaten Marshall twice, both on the final play of the game.
The Marshall basketball team hasn't been so lucky, losing three games by an average 20 points. That was inflated by the 90-51 game of 2015, but consider the largest lead in each game: 47, 16 and 18. That's a 27-point average.
And there's this: MU led those games for 19, 42 and 52 seconds.
Ugly, ugly, ugly. And to think the football team likely will take another run down Interstate 24 from Nashville this fall.
I leave this sordid item with another painful comparison: The campus-to-campus mileage from MU to MTSU is 374 miles, compared to the 382 to Chattanooga.
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And finally, I am delighted that the national signing day is Feb. 1, the earliest possible calendar day under the current structure. It should be Feb. 1 every year.
Let ESPNU do its 21 hours of mind-numbing recruitnik television as early as possible, and let those five-star recruits with an inflated sense of self-worth get their three-caps-on-the-table routine over with.
Get it over with and let the rest of us resume the basketball season in peace. That's the only reform proposal I have today.
What we don't need is another signing day - more horrendous yet, on the third Wednesday of December. If you really, really have to have one, put it where other sports have it, the second Wednesday in November.
We don't need to have it in the beginning of bowl season, and I don't need to consider jabbing my eyeballs out twice in a six-week span.
Revised to clarify the nature of Willie Johnson's injury and Raylen Elzy's dismissal from the team.
Contact Doug Smock at 304-348-5130 or dougsmock@wvgazettemail.com. Follow him on Twitter @dougsmock and read his blog at http://blogs.wvgazettemail.com/dougsmock/.