Marshall Wins Another MAC Title
This year, it was Byron Leftwich's turn to lead Marshall to a comeback victory over Western Michigan in the Mid-American Conference championship game.
Leftwich's 29-yard touchdown pass to John Cooper midway through the fourth quarter Saturday lifted the Thundering Herd to a 19-14 victory and its fourth-straight berth in the Motor City Bowl.
Marshall (7-5) will play Conference USA runner-up Cincinnati (7-4) on Dec. 27 in Pontiac, Mich.
The win was even sweeter for Leftwich, the league's passing and total offense leader who failed to make any of the all-conference squads.
"I consider myself a championship quarterback. The opportunity was there for us to pull it out, and I was glad I was able to help out," Leftwich said.
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"These losses are devastating as far as what we wanted to get done this season, but certainly not as far as what direction our program is going," said Western Michigan coach Gary Darnell.
Unlike Marshall's three previous Motor City Bowl berths, this one was unexpected.
The Thundering Herd started the season 2-4, including blowout losses to Western Michigan and Toledo, before winning the East Division on a tiebreaker over Ohio.
"Halftime at Toledo, we hit rock bottom," Marshall coach Bob Pruett said. "Ever since then, we've banded together and started playing together. And now we're going to Detroit."
Western Michigan was seeking its first bowl berth in 12 years. It also lost to Marshall in the title game last year when Chad Pennington brought the Thundering Herd fro 23 points down in the second half for a 34-30 win.
On Saturday, Western was shut out in the first half for the first time all season, but Jeff Welsh threw two TD passes to give the Broncos a 14-13 lead early in the fourth quarter.
Leftwich then drove Marshall 80 yards in eight plays. He completed six of seven passes on the drive, including the go-ahead score to Cooper, who took a pass down the right sideline and scored untouched with six minutes remaining.
"Coach let me call the plays down the stretch," Leftwich said. "Our guys knew we had to score. We went into a two-minute offense, which is a bit more uptempo and suits our style much more."
Western drove to the Marshall 27 on its next drive, but Welsh threw an incomplete pass on fourth-and-4.
The Broncos got the ball back one last time but Danny Derricott intercepted Welsh with 1:23 remaining at the Broncos 36 and Marshall ran out the clock.
Leftwich completed 29-of-45 passes for 358 yards. He also threw a 44-yard TD pass to Darius Watts in the second quarter for a 13-0 halftime lead.
"We were never ahead at halftime in any of the previous championship games. So when we were ahead today, I knew we had more than a chance to do it," Pruett said.
Things got worse in the third quarter for Western when Robert Sanford, who had 203 yards and three scores in a 30-10 win over Marshall on Oct. 5, went to the sideline with an injured right leg. He did not return and finished with 67 yards on 19 carries.
As he left the field, Sanford went up to wide receiver Steve Neal and said: "Don't let it happen like this."
Five plays later, Neal caught a 22-yard TD pass from Welsh to cut the deficit to 13-7.
On Western's next series, the Broncos were aided by an offsides call on Marshall on fourth-and-1. Welsh later found Josh Bush with a 41-yard pass down the middle for the go-ahead score three minutes into the final period.
Welsh finished 23-of-34 for 264 yards.
Neal caught 10 passes for 93 yards. He finished as the MAC's career receiving leader with 235 catches for 3,599 yards, breaking the marks of 229 catches and 3,513 yards set by Kent's Eugene Baker from 1995-98.
It was the fourth meeting between the teams in 13 months. Marshall avoided its first non-winning season since 1983.
The attendance of 24,816 was the smallest in the four years of the MAC title game.
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