Long-time player for Marquette here (one of those stupid 7th years that just won’t die).
With our best performance in the program’s history, some serious recognition has to be given to our coach Max Carpenter. He brought spirit, intensity, and structure to a team that otherwise could have collapsed from the instability wrought on our foundation by the two Covid seasons. An unassuming team with more freshman and feeder players than Birdhouse vets, we turned in a dominant performance against Iowa using his “smarter not harder” strategies. Max took the decisions out of inexperienced hands by greenlighting our vets to punt downwind throws to anybody and nobody, trusting a well-practiced zone to force opponents to work against the wind from their endzone instead of risking short field turnovers of our own. Any coach that can turn weakness into strength is a coach worth talking about. Above all else, he makes sure everyone on the team knows that House is Home.