ORLANDO, Fla. - In one way, you might consider this to be a poorly placed off week for Marshall, which fumbled away a near-certain victory over Central Florida.

Today, the Thundering Herd spends its first of 13 day of having to stew over the 21-20 loss to the Golden Knights, one of the two most gut-wrenching of coach Mark Snyder's 35 losses. (The 21-19 loss to Kansas State in 2005 is the other candidate.)

For the Herd's followers, it was eerily reminiscent of the 2004 loss at Akron, only with better weather.

While you have to stretch for good news following that comparison, there are a few things: For one, nobody on the current MU team, players or coaches, lived through that. For another, this off day really is well-placed.

For one thing, it allows the Herd to mentally regroup. In a somber postgame atmosphere, Snyder and several players mentioned how much they welcomed the extra time.

And then there's the matter of physically healing. For instance, when center Chad Schofield went down, that was the third injury to the offensive line in the past few weeks.

"I think it's a really good thing," Snyder said. "This time of the season, everybody's dinged up. Everybody across the country; nobody's playing with the same 22 right now. So it's coming at a great time for us physically, and now, emotionally. It's going to take a day or so to get these guys back. They're hurt right now."

Schofield's injury proved to be the most notable. Landis Provancha slid over from left guard for his first center experience in a high-stakes situation. And quarterback Brian Anderson had to try to get used to taking snaps from Provancha on sudden-change notice.

On the second snap, the exchange wasn't clean and Anderson had to abandon the planned handoff to Darius Marshall. When he tried to make something positive out of it - and he did have first-down yardage on second-and-1 - UCF's Bruce Miller knocked the ball free and the rest was painful history for the Herd.

But the Herd's collapse was much more complex than that. It took a series of coaching decisions, clutch UCF plays and a few fateful twists for the game to even reach that point, as the Herd once appeared to be in total command at 20-7.

The thing is, that could have been 24-7, a score at which the Herd put Alabama-Birmingham away eight days earlier. When Brian Anderson hit Aaron Dobson with a 46-yard bomb to the UCF 9-yard line, it looked like the knockout blow was coming.

But Darius Marshall was held to 2 and 3 yards on consecutive rushes, setting up third-and-goal at the 4. Whatever Anderson tried to do on that play, he abandoned it under a big rush by Jarvis Geathers and he wisely threw the ball into the corner tunnel at Bright House Networks Stadium.

After Craig Ratanamorn's short field goal, coaches ordered a "pooch" kickoff. Jonathan Davis fielded the ball at the 32 and got what he could, the Knights had their best post-kickoff position of the night at the 40.

Marshall coaches were spooked a bit by a Darin Baldwin 29-yard return to the 39-yard line in the second quarter. It could have been longer, if not for a tackle by Ratanamorn, the kicker.

"A couple of times before then, they got the ball at the 40 anyway," Snyder said. "So we tried to keep the ball out of their playmakers' hands back there. And we thought the pooch was there, and we covered it pretty good."

The Knights' kickoff starts came from the 25, 28, 39 20 (on a touchback) and 40-yard lines.

The latter came on the "pooch" kick, and might have energized the Knights, as Hodges hit Kamar Aiken on a 23-yard pass on first down. The drive ended with a botched reverse and John Youboty sack, but punter Blake Clingan pinned the Herd at its 1.

It was billed as a field-position game and now, the Knights had the advantage, even with a 13-point deficit. Still, Marshall had plenty of chances to escape.

Penalties, a common theme during Marshall's five-game losing streak against the Knights, played a huge role in forcing the Herd to punt from its 7.

The Herd gained a first down, but C.J. Wood committed a holding on a running play to move the ball back to the 8. On third-and-13, the Knights were called for roughing the passer, but Jimmy Rogers also held, resulting in offsetting penalties.

ORLANDO, Fla. - In one way, you might consider this to be a poorly placed off week for Marshall, which fumbled away a near-certain victory over Central Florida.

Today, the Thundering Herd spends its first of 13 day of having to stew over the 21-20 loss to the Golden Knights, one of the two most gut-wrenching of coach Mark Snyder's 35 losses. (The 21-19 loss to Kansas State in 2005 is the other candidate.)

For the Herd's followers, it was eerily reminiscent of the 2004 loss at Akron, only with better weather.

While you have to stretch for good news following that comparison, there are a few things: For one, nobody on the current MU team, players or coaches, lived through that. For another, this off day really is well-placed.

For one thing, it allows the Herd to mentally regroup. In a somber postgame atmosphere, Snyder and several players mentioned how much they welcomed the extra time.

And then there's the matter of physically healing. For instance, when center Chad Schofield went down, that was the third injury to the offensive line in the past few weeks.

"I think it's a really good thing," Snyder said. "This time of the season, everybody's dinged up. Everybody across the country; nobody's playing with the same 22 right now. So it's coming at a great time for us physically, and now, emotionally. It's going to take a day or so to get these guys back. They're hurt right now."

Schofield's injury proved to be the most notable. Landis Provancha slid over from left guard for his first center experience in a high-stakes situation. And quarterback Brian Anderson had to try to get used to taking snaps from Provancha on sudden-change notice.

On the second snap, the exchange wasn't clean and Anderson had to abandon the planned handoff to Darius Marshall. When he tried to make something positive out of it - and he did have first-down yardage on second-and-1 - UCF's Bruce Miller knocked the ball free and the rest was painful history for the Herd.

But the Herd's collapse was much more complex than that. It took a series of coaching decisions, clutch UCF plays and a few fateful twists for the game to even reach that point, as the Herd once appeared to be in total command at 20-7.

The thing is, that could have been 24-7, a score at which the Herd put Alabama-Birmingham away eight days earlier. When Brian Anderson hit Aaron Dobson with a 46-yard bomb to the UCF 9-yard line, it looked like the knockout blow was coming.

But Darius Marshall was held to 2 and 3 yards on consecutive rushes, setting up third-and-goal at the 4. Whatever Anderson tried to do on that play, he abandoned it under a big rush by Jarvis Geathers and he wisely threw the ball into the corner tunnel at Bright House Networks Stadium.

After Craig Ratanamorn's short field goal, coaches ordered a "pooch" kickoff. Jonathan Davis fielded the ball at the 32 and got what he could, the Knights had their best post-kickoff position of the night at the 40.

Marshall coaches were spooked a bit by a Darin Baldwin 29-yard return to the 39-yard line in the second quarter. It could have been longer, if not for a tackle by Ratanamorn, the kicker.

"A couple of times before then, they got the ball at the 40 anyway," Snyder said. "So we tried to keep the ball out of their playmakers' hands back there. And we thought the pooch was there, and we covered it pretty good."

The Knights' kickoff starts came from the 25, 28, 39 20 (on a touchback) and 40-yard lines.

The latter came on the "pooch" kick, and might have energized the Knights, as Hodges hit Kamar Aiken on a 23-yard pass on first down. The drive ended with a botched reverse and John Youboty sack, but punter Blake Clingan pinned the Herd at its 1.

It was billed as a field-position game and now, the Knights had the advantage, even with a 13-point deficit. Still, Marshall had plenty of chances to escape.

Penalties, a common theme during Marshall's five-game losing streak against the Knights, played a huge role in forcing the Herd to punt from its 7.

The Herd gained a first down, but C.J. Wood committed a holding on a running play to move the ball back to the 8. On third-and-13, the Knights were called for roughing the passer, but Jimmy Rogers also held, resulting in offsetting penalties.

Given another shot, Anderson found Dobson on a 41-yard bomb, but Daniel Baldridge committed a personal foul along the way. On third-and-19, the Herd packed it in with an unsuccessful draw and then punted, giving UCF the ball on the MU 43.

That gave Hodges the chance to cut into the 20-7 lead, which he did. His best work came on fourth-and-7, when he hit Rocky Ross with a 21-yard pass over the middle against a spirited blitz.

Hodges, a graduate transfer from Wake Forest, was money on the tough downs. He threw a TD pass in the first half on fourth-and-1 at the MU 4, and then converted a third-and-8, a fourth-and-6, that fourth-and-7, a fourth-and-1 and a third-and-10 in the second half. The last of that list was the 19-yard pass to Aiken, to the Marshall 1.

Often, Hodges did so against a furious pass rush. Snyder said his staff thought they could win more often than not against Hodges, who fought his way into the starting role after transferring to UCF from Wake Forest, in part to pursue a master's degree in digital forensics.

At times, the Herd was maddeningly close to sacking Hodges more than the three times they did.

"We could have done better. There were a lot of things we could have done better," said defensive end Vinny Curry. "It was definitely frustrating, because there could have been big changes in the game."

Hodges ultimately won the game with a quick 1-yard pass to Ross, who did not appear to be covered when the teams lined up. ESPN analysts were quick to point that out, and indeed a single Herd defender was several steps away when Ross caught the soft toss.

"We were in the goal-line defense, and they came out in the 'trip' formation," Snyder said. "We took a corner out of the game and put an extra defensive lineman in the game. They adjusted to it, and made the throw."

At least one defender denies that the Herd was caught off guard, though.

"I wouldn't say it was a surprise. We knew they didn't have timeouts, and if we had a stop there, it would have been a rush [and could have run out the clock]," said cornerback DeQuan Bembry. "I wouldn't say it was a surprise; we had a missed assignment."

To the surprise of nobody who watched the game in Orlando, Miller was named Conference USA's defensive player of week.

The junior from Canton, Ga., had 10 tackles, three for loss and 21/2 sacks, a pass-breakup and two quarterback hurries. But the big play was that forced fumble with just over 2 minutes left, allowing UCF a short field for the winning touchdown.

Miller now has nine sacks and 111/2 tackles for loss, seizing the C-USA lead in both categories from Jarvis Geathers.

Cody Slate had five catches for 80 yards and an early touchdown, but he was blanked in the second half. He didn't even have a pass thrown in his direction, whether by design or by good coverage.

It was the first time this season Slate has gone an entire half without a reception. Several times he had just one, even for short yardage, but not none.

Reach Doug Smock at 304-348-5130 or dougsm...@wvgazette.com.