Marcus Marshall moves into featured B-back role for Georgia Tech
ATLANTA -- Although most of the load at B-back could be shared, freshman Marcus Marshall likely will get the bulk of the carries at the position the rest of Georgia Tech's season.
A glance into the future came Saturday when Marshall carried the ball 10 times for 159 yards and two touchdowns in the Yellow Jackets' loss to Pittsburgh. It was the second straight week Marshall has gotten more carries than graduate senior Patrick Skov, who owned the position for the first five weeks.
"He's a guy that can give you a big play," head coach Paul Johnson said. "You can see he's got good feet, and we think he's got a chance to be good."
Marshall's ability was on display against Pittsburgh. The Raleigh, North Carolina, native had a pair of 58-yard runs and picked up his second 100-yard game of the season. Those are the team's only 100-yard efforts this season. No other A-back or B-back has rushed for more than 75 yards.
Marshall was honored as the ACC's Rookie of the Week for his performance. He becomes the first Georgia Tech player to win the award since quarterback Jaybo Shaw in 2008.
After rushing for 184 yards in the season opener against Alcorn state, Marshall almost disappeared as the team relied heavily on the veteran Skov. But it became apparent that while Skov is a hard-nosed runner capable of picking up tough yards, he is not going to be a game-breaker. Marshall, however, has breakaway ability that the team was missing.
Marshall had only one carry against Duke and didn't play against North Carolina. He was one of the highlights of the loss to Clemson when he carried 11 times for a team-leading 45 yards. That was good enough to earn him his first career start against Pittsburgh.
Marshall now has 439 yards rushing this season, the most by any true freshman at Georgia Tech under Johnson. Marshall has shown the sort of game-breaking ability that the Yellow Jackets have been missing. During the past four games, the Yellow Jackets have had five big plays rushing of 25 yards or more. Quarterback Justin Thomas has two -- both last week against Pittsburgh and A-back Broderick Snoddy, who is out indefinitely with a broken hand, has one. Marshall has two.
Marshall gained more yards by himself against Pittsburgh than the Panthers had surrendered to any team in a game this season.
The main issues with Marshall are blocking and ball security. He admitted after Saturday's game that both are areas of concern for him.
"I think I've gotten better blocking, but I still need to get better," Marshall said. "Then obviously ball security. I was doing pretty well there for a minute, but I had a few slipups (against Pittsburgh), and I need to get better."
Johnson said, "It's a physical, fast game. The players now are a little more physical and faster than they were in high school."
Kickoffs set: Saturday's game with No. 9 Florida State will be aired on ESPN2 with a 7 p.m. kickoff. A "white-out" is being promoted. Kickoff for the Oct. 31 game at Virginia will be 3 p.m., and the game will be broadcast by the ACC's regional network.
This story was originally published October 19, 2015 at 4:56 PM with the headline "Marcus Marshall moves into featured B-back role for Georgia Tech ."