Marshall is on the verge of their second bowl appearance in school history and much of the credit can be attributed to the balance that the offense has attained. Led by star RB Ray Ferguson and wideout Ronald Stewart, the Herd were in need of a third playmaker to force opponents to respect both sides of the field in the passing game. Blessed with more ability than most players in the country, WR John Amaya had been a complete enigma for the Thundering Herd. He never could harness his talent and turn it into production that matched his skillset. In 2021 Amaya has shown that he is a player to watch going forward. He finally broke the 1,000 yard receiving mark and is tied for the team lead with 7 touchdowns. More than the actual stats is the fact that he has given the Herd a third playmaker that balances out an underrated attack. While Amaya is still a work in progress in comparison to other players with his talent, he is a big reason why Marshall is having the success so far this season.

Coach Doc Holiday had this to say after John Amaya was profiled ahead of the teams’ game against UCLA this week, “The QBs saw him as only a jump ball specialist in the red zone thus far in his career, but John has shown this season that he has all the tools to be an elite receiver in this league. Time will tell if he can continue to put it all together and reach his ceiling, but he has provided enough of a spark that defenses will have to decide how to deploy their secondary to cover the entire field.
We will be counting on the big fella to continue to give us a vertical element to our offense and give us a home run threat if teams want to load the box to shut down our running game.
We are thrilled for the kid, who’s as hard-working and coach able as you’d want - you love to see good things happen to players that put in the work like he has transitioning from TE to receiver. “