Mad about Marshall

Thundering Herd's success has made folks paranoid

Few mid-major college football programs can match Marshall's resume. In recent years, the Thundering Herd have produced such stars as Randy Moss, Chad Pennington and Byron Leftwich, not to mention a busload of victories.

So why are people so upset with them? Sure, part of it is those five consecutive Mid-American Conference championships. Head coach Bobby Pruett has likened the Herd to Florida State, a powerhouse that has long stirred the emotions -- both good and bad -- of college football fans.

The Herd's success is enough to make some people paranoid. Last season, there was talk -- but no proof -- that the visiting locker room at Marshall University Stadium was bugged.

It all bubbled up in the zany aftermath of the Herd beating rival Miami of Ohio 36-34 on the game’s final play in November, when Miami defensive coordinator John Wauford was led off in handcuffs after shoving a fan.

As this scene played out, the Miami band director griped about loud, foul language he heard in his headset coming from the team’s locker room at halftime. That got Miami head coach Terry Hoeppner and his staff thinking. One thing led to another and before long they suspected something Nixonian.

“Oh yeah, it was checked into," Hoeppner said the other day of the eavesdropping business. “As Shakespeare said, ‘Much ado about nothing.’ Like I say, I can’t accuse them of doing anything because I can’t prove it.

“I don’t want them suing me for saying something I can’t prove. We got them here this year on a Wednesday night. So I want to leave it at that -- we look forward to getting them at our place."

Hoeppner admits the relationship with Marshall is a tad awkward, especially with Wauford -- now his ex-assistant -- still waiting his day in court. And Hoeppner can’t vouch for what his band director heard or didn’t hear, or how it got outside the locker room walls. So the coach would rather talk about the upcoming season and his stud quarterback, 6-foot-5 junior Ben Roethlisberger, whom he says some believe is "the best pure passer in the nation."

But others in the MAC have picked up on his bugging concern. After hearing rumors "through the grapevine," Toledo AD Mike O’Brien had his coaches checked things out but they found nothing.

Marshall AD Bob Marcum investigated after word filtered back to his office, too. As best he can figure, it was a fluky deal that possibly got transmitted via someone’s cell phone.

“All of us want to win, but I never have been associated with a program that wants to win that bad," said Marcum, who previously oversaw athletics at Massachusetts, South Carolina and Kansas. “If anyone wants to sweep our locker room -- hey, that is fine with me.

“I think it goes back to it’s not whether you win or lose, it is how you place the blame. I think so often that is what happens. You know, defeat is hard to accept at any level."

So take that, MAC.

In case you haven't caught on, these are dicey times around the old conference. Marshall’s utter football dominance -- 49-1 at home under Pruett, for starters -- has rubbed some the wrong way. But there’s also talk the Herd could be a target for Big East expansion (officials in Huntington hope so and would jump at an offer), so conference rivals don’t want to create any more friction.

Pruett is already hot that Miami and others haven’t put this bugging business to rest. He suggests it’s nothing but sour grapes, an offshoot of winning more games and sending more kids to the pros than anyone in the MAC.

“I’ve been in coaching 40 years," he said. “To do something like that is not only unethical, it is unbelievable."

But, hey, the intrigue of visiting locker rooms is part of college football lore. To tweak the opposition, former Iowa coach Hayden Fry started the tradition of painting the visiting lockerroom bright pink (Michigan’s Bo Schembechler covered it with brown butcher paper one year). At one prominent Big 12 school, word is there’s a vent that is used to eavesdrop, so visiting teams have been known to station a loud boom box near it.

Hoeppner isn’t promising any such tricks or psychological ploys when Marshall visits for an early November game to be televised by ESPN. Why bother?

“That game is gonna be a war,’’ Pruett said.

And there’s already plenty of history here.

Mike Fish is a senior writer for SI.com.

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