COLUMBUS, Ohio - The Doc makes his first house call, and he might need a few aspirins himself before the night is over.
But after three-plus decades of being somebody's trusted assistant, Doc Holliday's time has come. He is steering his own program, that of the Marshall Thundering Herd.
He knows the magnitude of the challenge as his team faces No. 2 Ohio State in the massive edifice fondly nicknamed "The Horseshoe." But as the hours tick down to tonight's 7:30 kickoff, Holliday is focused on the task and the opportunity it can bring.
The pressure of being a head coach, the anticipation, the status of prohibitive underdog and the inevitable noise from 100,000 scarlet-clad fans don't seem to faze him. Instead, he is very eager to see how his team stacks up, both against a national-championship contender and to his trained eye.
"As a new head coach, I don't think you know how good your team is until you go play somebody," Holliday said. "I think we will have a lot better idea, personnel-wise, what we have after [tonight]. Ohio State will be, without a doubt, the most talented team we play all year.
"But we come back and play six straight weeks against teams who made bowls, so we will be playing a lot of talent. We will see how we match up against OSU and see which guys can make some plays. My goal is to get our team ready to play hard every snap, and then look up at the end of the game and see what the scoreboard says.
"I just want them to have fun, play hard, and see what happens."
Six of Holliday's field assistants are new, though two have sported the green and white before. Offensive coordinator Bill Legg coached tight ends under Bob Pruett in 2001-02, while co-coordinator Tony Petersen tutored quarterbacks Chad Pennington and Byron Leftwich during the 1990s.
Herd followers will be most interested in how well Legg and Petersen direct the offense, which sputtered at times under previous coordinator John Shannon. Their starting quarterback for the opener is the same, Brian Anderson.
The big name on that side is big tight end Lee Smith, the NFL prospect who grins almost ear-to-ear over tonight's bout, wanting to prove his team's on par with the nation's best.
"When I watch Ohio State's D-line, then in eight weeks I click on UCF's defensive line, there's not going to be that big of a difference," Smith said. "They're all good players and they all prepare like we do, 12 months out of the year. We need to go up there with the mindset that we're going to win."
The backfield is returning, but sort of new after the premature departure of Darius Marshall. Andre Booker is the speedier of the duo with Martin Ward and is listed first on the depth chart, but the two are expected to share the load.
The wide receivers are loaded with those who have something to prove, with Troy Evans among the notable cases. Evans missed most of last season with injury and will join Chuck Walker, Antavious Wilson, Andre Dobson, Courtney Edmonson and others.
The offensive front has a veteran starting five and a second string of greenhorns. They must cope with defensive end Cameron Heyward and the usual Buckeye assortment of big, physical linemen and solid, savvy linebackers.
Flip the sides and you have a big, veteran Herd defensive line just itching to prove itself against an Ohio State offensive line that paved the way for 195 rushing yards a game in 2009. The unit has a total of 93 career starts, is ranked third in the nation by Phil Steele's preseason magazine and is just plain large - an average of 6-foot-5, 305 pounds.
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Doc's first test a doozy
Holliday takes Herd to OSU tonight
COLUMBUS, Ohio - The Doc makes his first house call, and he might need a few aspirins himself before the night is over.
But after three-plus decades of being somebody's trusted assistant, Doc Holliday's time has come. He is steering his own program, that of the Marshall Thundering Herd.
He knows the magnitude of the challenge as his team faces No. 2 Ohio State in the massive edifice fondly nicknamed "The Horseshoe." But as the hours tick down to tonight's 7:30 kickoff, Holliday is focused on the task and the opportunity it can bring.
The pressure of being a head coach, the anticipation, the status of prohibitive underdog and the inevitable noise from 100,000 scarlet-clad fans don't seem to faze him. Instead, he is very eager to see how his team stacks up, both against a national-championship contender and to his trained eye.
"As a new head coach, I don't think you know how good your team is until you go play somebody," Holliday said. "I think we will have a lot better idea, personnel-wise, what we have after [tonight]. Ohio State will be, without a doubt, the most talented team we play all year.
"But we come back and play six straight weeks against teams who made bowls, so we will be playing a lot of talent. We will see how we match up against OSU and see which guys can make some plays. My goal is to get our team ready to play hard every snap, and then look up at the end of the game and see what the scoreboard says.
"I just want them to have fun, play hard, and see what happens."
Six of Holliday's field assistants are new, though two have sported the green and white before. Offensive coordinator Bill Legg coached tight ends under Bob Pruett in 2001-02, while co-coordinator Tony Petersen tutored quarterbacks Chad Pennington and Byron Leftwich during the 1990s.
Herd followers will be most interested in how well Legg and Petersen direct the offense, which sputtered at times under previous coordinator John Shannon. Their starting quarterback for the opener is the same, Brian Anderson.
The big name on that side is big tight end Lee Smith, the NFL prospect who grins almost ear-to-ear over tonight's bout, wanting to prove his team's on par with the nation's best.
"When I watch Ohio State's D-line, then in eight weeks I click on UCF's defensive line, there's not going to be that big of a difference," Smith said. "They're all good players and they all prepare like we do, 12 months out of the year. We need to go up there with the mindset that we're going to win."
The backfield is returning, but sort of new after the premature departure of Darius Marshall. Andre Booker is the speedier of the duo with Martin Ward and is listed first on the depth chart, but the two are expected to share the load.
The wide receivers are loaded with those who have something to prove, with Troy Evans among the notable cases. Evans missed most of last season with injury and will join Chuck Walker, Antavious Wilson, Andre Dobson, Courtney Edmonson and others.
The offensive front has a veteran starting five and a second string of greenhorns. They must cope with defensive end Cameron Heyward and the usual Buckeye assortment of big, physical linemen and solid, savvy linebackers.
Flip the sides and you have a big, veteran Herd defensive line just itching to prove itself against an Ohio State offensive line that paved the way for 195 rushing yards a game in 2009. The unit has a total of 93 career starts, is ranked third in the nation by Phil Steele's preseason magazine and is just plain large - an average of 6-foot-5, 305 pounds.
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COLUMBUS, Ohio - The Doc makes his first house call, and he might need a few aspirins himself before the night is over.
But after three-plus decades of being somebody's trusted assistant, Doc Holliday's time has come. He is steering his own program, that of the Marshall Thundering Herd.
He knows the magnitude of the challenge as his team faces No. 2 Ohio State in the massive edifice fondly nicknamed "The Horseshoe." But as the hours tick down to tonight's 7:30 kickoff, Holliday is focused on the task and the opportunity it can bring.
The pressure of being a head coach, the anticipation, the status of prohibitive underdog and the inevitable noise from 100,000 scarlet-clad fans don't seem to faze him. Instead, he is very eager to see how his team stacks up, both against a national-championship contender and to his trained eye.
"As a new head coach, I don't think you know how good your team is until you go play somebody," Holliday said. "I think we will have a lot better idea, personnel-wise, what we have after [tonight]. Ohio State will be, without a doubt, the most talented team we play all year.
"But we come back and play six straight weeks against teams who made bowls, so we will be playing a lot of talent. We will see how we match up against OSU and see which guys can make some plays. My goal is to get our team ready to play hard every snap, and then look up at the end of the game and see what the scoreboard says.
"I just want them to have fun, play hard, and see what happens."
Six of Holliday's field assistants are new, though two have sported the green and white before. Offensive coordinator Bill Legg coached tight ends under Bob Pruett in 2001-02, while co-coordinator Tony Petersen tutored quarterbacks Chad Pennington and Byron Leftwich during the 1990s.
Herd followers will be most interested in how well Legg and Petersen direct the offense, which sputtered at times under previous coordinator John Shannon. Their starting quarterback for the opener is the same, Brian Anderson.
The big name on that side is big tight end Lee Smith, the NFL prospect who grins almost ear-to-ear over tonight's bout, wanting to prove his team's on par with the nation's best.
"When I watch Ohio State's D-line, then in eight weeks I click on UCF's defensive line, there's not going to be that big of a difference," Smith said. "They're all good players and they all prepare like we do, 12 months out of the year. We need to go up there with the mindset that we're going to win."
The backfield is returning, but sort of new after the premature departure of Darius Marshall. Andre Booker is the speedier of the duo with Martin Ward and is listed first on the depth chart, but the two are expected to share the load.
The wide receivers are loaded with those who have something to prove, with Troy Evans among the notable cases. Evans missed most of last season with injury and will join Chuck Walker, Antavious Wilson, Andre Dobson, Courtney Edmonson and others.
The offensive front has a veteran starting five and a second string of greenhorns. They must cope with defensive end Cameron Heyward and the usual Buckeye assortment of big, physical linemen and solid, savvy linebackers.
Flip the sides and you have a big, veteran Herd defensive line just itching to prove itself against an Ohio State offensive line that paved the way for 195 rushing yards a game in 2009. The unit has a total of 93 career starts, is ranked third in the nation by Phil Steele's preseason magazine and is just plain large - an average of 6-foot-5, 305 pounds.
"We all know they're huge," said Herd defensive linemen Michael Janac. "This summer, we already knew how big they were, so everybody on the D-line gained 10 [pounds] and we got bigger. We've got to play hard, we've got to punch them before they punch us."
Behind the Herd's D-line is linebacker Mario Harvey, who has big-play talent and big-time aspirations of his own. The secondary is out to prove that its pleasantly surprising August performance is not a fluke.
The Buckeyes are loaded at the skill positions, including wide receivers DeVier Posey and Dane Sanzenbacher and tailbacks Brandon Saine and Dan Herron. At center of the show, of course, is quarterback Terrelle Pryor.
Coming off a spectacular Rose Bowl performance, Pryor's name is coming attached with the phrase "Heisman Trophy candidate." OSU coach Jim Tressel cautions against starting the campaign, and certainly Pryor must have a big day against the Herd just to hold his place on that list.
Even if he does, it's still very early.
"Our benchmark in that world is Steve Snapp [former sports information director and senior adviser to the athletic director], and Steve has always told us you don't even start thinking about that until you're three or four games in, and if you don't have any production that would point toward that, don't bother," Ohio State coach Jim Tressel said.
One of the bigger questions, especially among tough-to-impress Buckeye fans, is whether Ohio State will give a championship effort today, with 13th-ranked Miami coming to the Horseshoe nine days hence.
There is precedent that suggests otherwise. In 2009, the Buckeyes struggled to fend off Navy in the opener, a week before Southern California's visit. In 2008, they beat Ohio just 26-14 before going to USC.
But MU coaches don't expect anything less than the Buckeyes' best. Actually, that's what will make tonight's game fun for the Herd, at least from an anticipation standpoint.
Will it still be fun after the first quarter, the first half, for the four-touchdown underdogs? We will see.
"It's a great atmosphere. Their fans are fanatical, which is what fans are supposed to be," Legg said. "Our communication's going to have to be on point, and at least mentally, we're going to have to play mistake-free football.
"Physically, we're going to have to play with all-out effort. But at the same time, that's what we're expecting to go into every game with. From that standpoint, this game is no different from the other games.
"But it is the opener, it's on the road, it's against a nationally ranked foe, it's on television. If you came to college football to do anything but those things, you're in the wrong place."
This article is available only to our premium digital content subscribers.
Doc's first test a doozy
Holliday takes Herd to OSU tonight
COLUMBUS, Ohio - The Doc makes his first house call, and he might need a few aspirins himself before the night is over.
But after three-plus decades of being somebody's trusted assistant, Doc Holliday's time has come. He is steering his own program, that of the Marshall Thundering Herd.
He knows the magnitude of the challenge as his team faces No. 2 Ohio State in the massive edifice fondly nicknamed "The Horseshoe." But as the hours tick down to tonight's 7:30 kickoff, Holliday is focused on the task and the opportunity it can bring.
The pressure of being a head coach, the anticipation, the status of prohibitive underdog and the inevitable noise from 100,000 scarlet-clad fans don't seem to faze him. Instead, he is very eager to see how his team stacks up, both against a national-championship contender and to his trained eye.
"As a new head coach, I don't think you know how good your team is until you go play somebody," Holliday said. "I think we will have a lot better idea, personnel-wise, what we have after [tonight]. Ohio State will be, without a doubt, the most talented team we play all year.
"But we come back and play six straight weeks against teams who made bowls, so we will be playing a lot of talent. We will see how we match up against OSU and see which guys can make some plays. My goal is to get our team ready to play hard every snap, and then look up at the end of the game and see what the scoreboard says.
"I just want them to have fun, play hard, and see what happens."
Six of Holliday's field assistants are new, though two have sported the green and white before. Offensive coordinator Bill Legg coached tight ends under Bob Pruett in 2001-02, while co-coordinator Tony Petersen tutored quarterbacks Chad Pennington and Byron Leftwich during the 1990s.
Herd followers will be most interested in how well Legg and Petersen direct the offense, which sputtered at times under previous coordinator John Shannon. Their starting quarterback for the opener is the same, Brian Anderson.
The big name on that side is big tight end Lee Smith, the NFL prospect who grins almost ear-to-ear over tonight's bout, wanting to prove his team's on par with the nation's best.
"When I watch Ohio State's D-line, then in eight weeks I click on UCF's defensive line, there's not going to be that big of a difference," Smith said. "They're all good players and they all prepare like we do, 12 months out of the year. We need to go up there with the mindset that we're going to win."
The backfield is returning, but sort of new after the premature departure of Darius Marshall. Andre Booker is the speedier of the duo with Martin Ward and is listed first on the depth chart, but the two are expected to share the load.
The wide receivers are loaded with those who have something to prove, with Troy Evans among the notable cases. Evans missed most of last season with injury and will join Chuck Walker, Antavious Wilson, Andre Dobson, Courtney Edmonson and others.
The offensive front has a veteran starting five and a second string of greenhorns. They must cope with defensive end Cameron Heyward and the usual Buckeye assortment of big, physical linemen and solid, savvy linebackers.
Flip the sides and you have a big, veteran Herd defensive line just itching to prove itself against an Ohio State offensive line that paved the way for 195 rushing yards a game in 2009. The unit has a total of 93 career starts, is ranked third in the nation by Phil Steele's preseason magazine and is just plain large - an average of 6-foot-5, 305 pounds.
