HUNTINGTON, W.Va. -- It was barely 20 degrees outside, with light snow falling and the wind whipping, but inside Marshall's sparkling new indoor practice facility, coach Doc Holliday was burning up the turf as he paced back and forth along the goal line.
The Thundering Herd were wrapping up practice last week, and Holliday was hell-bent on making sure their bloop kickoffs are perfect.
"I want it on the numbers [the 25] and better hang time," Holliday barked. Marshall was prepping for UAB, which boasts one of the most dangerous kickoff returners in the country, J.J. Nelson, who has already taken back three for touchdowns.
The quintessential taskmaster, Holliday's focus is right where it should be. The same goes for his team, which narrowly defeated UAB 23-18 a few days later to remain unbeaten. But with the inaugural College Football Playoff looming, winning isn't enough for the Herd. Given their strength of schedule -- ranked 127th out of 128, according to ESPN -- Marshall may need to rack up style points just to make a New Year's Six bowl as the Group of 5 representative.
Squeaking by UAB certainly didn't help in that regard, but before that game, the closest anyone had come against the Herd was 15 points, and that was Miami (Ohio) nearly three months ago in the season opener. But they still haven't been able to crack the playoff committee's top 25.
"If it was up to us, we'd play all the big teams. But it's not up to us," said Marshall running back Devon Johnson, who has bulled his way to 1,573 rushing yards this season. "We play the teams on our schedule and play everybody the same way.
"We just keep going no matter what anybody thinks about us, take one week at a time and figure that if we take care of our business that we'll get a chance against a team from a big conference in a big bowl."
And what will that prove?
"That we're actually a pretty good team and not just some small school that had a weak schedule," Johnson said.
The Marshall players want to say it, but they don't. They want to say that the College Football Playoff rankings, at least in their eyes, are a farce, but they bite their tongues.
Their facial expressions say it for them each week when the playoff rankings are released and the unbeaten Herd are nowhere to be found. They say it in the way they've played with a growing chip on their shoulder, not to mention the way they've challenged each other every day on the practice field.
"We've given everything we've got," said Marshall's record-setting quarterback, Rakeem Cato, who has thrown a touchdown pass in 43 straight games. "It's motivated us. I know it's motivated me. Those Wednesday practices after the rankings come out are always intense. We go after each other.
"Really, though, I'm used to this, used to being the underdog. It drives me. I wake up every day and try to attack the day as hard as possible. When you come through what I've come through, you learn to fight for everything you've got. That's the way this team is. The harder it is and the more people try to keep us down, the better we are."
And while the Marshall players have been disciplined enough to keep the focus on the field and not allow their frustration with the playoff rankings to boil over, it's been a different story with their fans.
The radio talk shows in Huntington are filled with daily conspiracy theories, and ESPN's rankings show each Tuesday night has not made for pleasant viewing for anybody in this close-knit community that sits in the southwestern corner of West Virginia near the Ohio and Kentucky borders.
When the most recent rankings were unveiled last week, there was a Marshall home basketball game tipping off at about the same time. Inside Fat Patty's, a popular restaurant and bar just off campus, Marshall fans took turns blowing off steam.
"It's a cartel, not a committee," fumed lifelong Marshall fan Jerry Lucas, who's been attending games since he was a kid. "All we want is a shot. We're ranked in the coaches' poll and AP poll, but we're not even on the radar with the committee."
"They don't want to rank us right now because they're afraid they will be stuck with us when they have to slot the best [Group of 5] team in a bowl," added Brad Bobersky, who is a regular at Marshall games, both home and away. "They're just hoping we'll slip up somewhere along the way."
Most of the ire among Marshall fans, though, has been directed at West Virginia athletic director Oliver Luck, who is a member of the playoff selection committee. The Herd fans are convinced he's a big reason they've been left out of the rankings.
"They won't play us any more, and now old Ollie is doing his best to make sure we don't get a shot in a big bowl," said Kenny Carr, another Marshall fan sitting at the bar sipping on a cold one while trying to wrap his head around the Herd not making the top 25.
Each of the selection committee members are assigned to be a point person for two conferences, and Luck is not assigned to Conference USA, of which Marshall is a member. But Luck is a point person for the SEC and the Mountain West Conference, of which Boise State and Colorado State are members, and both are among Marshall's chief competition for the Group of 5 spot in a New Year's Six bowl. (If no Group of 5 team is included in the playoff committee's final rankings, the committee will then go back and select the top Group of 5 conference champion -- based on the same criteria the committee used to rank the top 25 -- and that team will earn a spot in a New Year's Six bowl game. It has to be a conference champion, meaning only the Boise State-Colorado State survivor in the Mountain West Conference race would be eligible.)
Marshall athletic director Mike Hamrick feels his fan base's frustration. He jokes that he has to calm down his wife, Soletta (also a Marshall graduate), every Tuesday after the rankings are released.
"East Carolina was ranked that first week," Hamrick said. "We have the same team -- no, a better team than we did last year -- and they do, too, and we beat them on their field like a drum [last season] and then we go beat Maryland in a bowl game in their backyard. When are we going to start getting some respect?"
Hamrick understands the committee can't please everybody. He also realizes Marshall's not going to be competing for one of those top four spots.
"I just believe it's hard if a team wins every game to keep them out because someone has a good loss," Hamrick said. "I'm not sure what a good loss is.
"The good thing with the playoff is that we have a chance, a guaranteed chance -- the Marshalls, East Carolinas and Colorado States -- to play on New Year's or New Year's Eve in a big bowl against a Power 5 team, and that's what we want."
There's no question not having a Power 5 team on its schedule this season has been a major problem for Marshall.
Only adding to the frustration for Marshall is that Louisville was originally scheduled to play in Huntington this season but had to push that game back to 2016 to accommodate playing Notre Dame this season as part of the ACC realignment.
Making matters worse for the Herd was seeing Louisville pop up at No. 24 last week in the playoff rankings. To replace the Cardinals, Marshall had to go get FCS foe Rhode Island (which is 1-11) at the last minute, according to Hamrick.
"One of the hardest things about this job is scheduling. People don't want to play us, and they sure don't want to come here to play us," said Hamrick, who played football at Marshall in the late 1970s.
Hamrick is not a fan of scheduling two-for-one series with schools, but said he's reached out to several schools, including some in the SEC, about going to their place for a one-time guarantee game.
"With a lot of them, I can't even get a call back," Hamrick said.
Next season, Purdue will come to Marshall. And in 2016, the Herd will face Louisville at home and also play at Pittsburgh that season. Hamrick said a home-and-home series with North Carolina State has also been scheduled in the coming years.
"We're trying, but this stadium has the highest winning percentage of any place out there," Hamrick said. "People don't want to come here and play us."
Holliday, in his fifth season at Marshall, is too busy coaching to get bogged down in the schedule debate, but echoes his athletic director's sentiments that a lot of the bigger schools have no interest in playing the Herd.
"There are several like that, including one about three hours away," Holliday said.
He was referring, of course, to West Virginia, which has never lost to Marshall in 12 tries. But as of now, there are no plans for the two schools to play. They last met in 2012 in Morgantown.
Hamrick said he and Luck were talking about a deal soon after Hamrick arrived in 2009 that called for three games in Morgantown and two in Huntington.
"It would have started this year, but at the last minute, they pulled out of it," Hamrick said. "We had pretty much agreed on a three-for-two, and then the Big 12 expansion happened and a lot of things happened, and it just didn't work out. I'm not blaming anybody. It just didn't work out."
What Holliday is most proud of is the way his players have stayed the course and not allowed the outside noise to distract them.
"Every Sunday you wake up, you pick up the paper and somebody gets beat that shouldn't, teams talking about the College Football Playoff and all that, and they go out and get beat by a team they shouldn't," Holliday said. "Their dream's out the window. This team has been on point every week."
Rice coach David Bailiff saw firsthand two weeks ago how balanced the Herd were when they beat the Owls 41-14.
"We have played A&M, and we have played Notre Dame," Bailiff said. "Marshall is right up there with those guys."
Will the Herd be there at the end? They're doing what they can to hold up their end of the bargain, but what can you do when winning all of your games isn't enough?
"Coach always talks about leaving a legacy," senior center Chris Jasperse said. "This school, these fans and this community deserve a conference championship, deserve to host it here and deserve a special season. We're doing everything we can to give it to them."