The Trophy Case and the Record Books

The Year of the Thundering Herd....1996... will go down in the books as one of the most outstanding teams in Marshall and NCAA I-AA history. The trophy cases in the Marshall Athletic Department are overflowing with awards and honors and the record books were rewritten as the Thundering Herd bid farewell to the Southern Conference and NCAA Division I-AA Football with Green and White Pride and Style!!

Coach Pruett & The Thundering Herd

The 1996 campaign was not only the best season in Marshall history, it was one of the most successful seasons in the history of college football... no other team in the history of college football won more games than Marshall did in 1996.

Pruett was honored as the Chevrolet National Coach of the Year (1996); West Virginia Coach of the Year (1996); and the Frank Leahy National Coach of the Year (1996).

Never before in any division had a head coach reeled off a perfect undefeated season and a national championship in his first year.

Sagarin Ratings ranked the Thundering Herd as the 21st best team in all of college football at the end of the 1996 season

There were 11 All-Americans and 19 All-Conference selections

Eric Kresser

Eric Kresser tied the school record and Southern Conference record for touchdown passes in a season with 35 (a record shared with Marshall assistant coach Tony Petersen).

He was 10-for-10 through the air which set a Southern Conference record for highest completions percentage in a single game (100%) against the Citadel

Kresser had his best passing effort in a Marshall uniform as he threw for 449 yards against Delaware; he tallied 3,407 yards in passing with 31 touchdowns and 11 interceptions on the season

Randy Moss

Named first team All-American by all five awarding organizations (Walter Camp, Football Gazette, The Sports Network, Associated Press, and American Football Quarterly

Randy Moss finished with a school and Southern Conference record 174 points on the season. He caught 78 passes for 1,709 yards and 28 touchdowns.

Moss caught 19 REGULAR season touchdown passes, no other freshman in the history of college football had caught more than 12 passes.

As a freshman, his 28 touchdown receptions tied the Southern conference career touchdown reception record. Only TWO players in the history of college football have caught 28 TD passes in a season...Jerry Rice as a senior and Moss as a freshman

Moss led the country in kickoff returns with an average 34.5 yards per return

in the Delaware game, Moss set Marshall, Southern Conference and NCAA I-AA Playoff record for receiving yardage in a single game with eight catches for 288 yards...that performance landed Moss the national Offensive Player of the Week by Football Gazette

He set the NCAA record for "most games catching a touchdown" in a regular season will 11 TD's. The former record of 10 was held by Jerry Rice.

Randy pulled down nine passes fro 220 yards and four touchdowns in the NCAA Divisions 1-AA Championship game against Montana.

Erik Thomas

Thomas recorded 1,296 yards in rushing and joined his freshman teammate Doug Chapman in being the only duo in team history to have over 1,000 yards each for the season.

Erik is No. 10 for All-Time touchdowns at MU; No. 14 overall for points scored; No. 8 all-time in all purpose yards; No. 7 all-time in rushing touchdowns for the season with 24;

Erik holds the all-time record for most yards per rush for his career with 6.5 yards per rush for 1993-96

The Awesome Offensive Line

Aaron Ferguson was the Jacob's Blocking Trophy winner. The Jacob's Trophy is awarded to the Southern Conference top offensive lineman

Mike Webb, Jamie Wilson, John Wade, Brian Reed were all-conference performers

Tim Martin

Timmy is the Southern Conferences all-time leading punt returner

Tim let the team in punt returns all four of his years in a Herd jersey...in 1996 he returned 49 punts for 397 yards and one touchdown return and is No. 9 in all time leading receiving yards and No. 9 for touchdowns for MU.

B.J. Cohen

Cohen is an All-American performer and has recorded 37 career sacks from his position as defensive end. He had 113 tackles (63 solo) including seven for a loss in 1996 and tied the team for sacks with nine.

BJ was honored as the national defensive player of the week by The Football Gazette when he recorded 10 tackles including nine solo stops against Delaware in the first round of the NCAA Division 1-AA Playoffs. He also had two sacks, caused two fumbles, and had an interception

Doug Chapman

Chapman became the first Marshall freshman to rush for over 1,000 yards since the 1979 season of Ron "Rocket" Lear. Chapman brought in 1,238 yards in rushing. He also scored an impressive 15 touchdowns and caught 15 passes for 155 yards and one receiving touchdown.

Doug was third on the team in scoring with 96 points (16 touchdowns) and scored a team high three touchdowns in the regular season win over Furman; Chapman was the fifth leading receiver with 15 receptions; his longest rush of the year was a 61-yard touchdown against Montana in the championship

Billy Lyon

Lyon recorded 91 tackles including a team-high 15 tackles for loss in 1996

The two time All-American led the team with nine sacks; Lyon was an All-Conference performer in 1994-95-96

Lyon was the 1996 receipeint of the Col. Earl (Red) Blaik Leadership Award

Chris Hanson and Tim Openlander

Hanson set a school record at the Appalachian State game with a 55.3 yards per punt average; he set a career-best with a 70-yard punt

Openlander was the Southern Conference's all-time leading scored among kickers; his 52-yard field goal in the season opener against Howard was a career-best and a Marshall Stadium record; he is the Southern Conference recordholder for Most Extra Points in a season (82), Highest Feild Goal Percentage (45 att.) at .764, Most Career Extra Points (211), Most Points Scored by Kicking in a season (130) and career (337).

In all, 10 players were named to at least one All-America team. In addition, 17 players were all-conference selections - nearly the entire starting lineup.

Click here to see photos of the Awards and Trophies

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