HUNTINGTON – The Marshall Thundering Herd football team reported to campus and moved into the team’s dormitory Wednesday. Among them was a face familiar to Mingo County high school football fans in the form of Matewan’s Josh Sammons.

Sammons, a 2009 Matewan graduate and former starting quarterback for last year’s Tiger playoff team, reported with the rest of the Thundering Herd to the MU campus on Wednesday.

Sammons joins the Herd as an invited walk-on player at the quarterback position. And as he reports, Sammons knows the road ahead won’t be easy.

“I’m a little nervous, being the first day, but I hope to have a good outcome here, “ said Sammons. “It’s going to be tough here. It’s not going to be easy. It’s not high school ball anymore. But the coaches here have told me to stick in with it and that’s what I’m going to try to do.”

Sammons had drawn the attention of Marshall’s coaches last season. There was some expectation that he might get a shot defensively. But that changed within the last week.

“They originally told us they were looking at him as a defensive player,” said his mother, Lesia Sammons. “But then they said that they had reviewed his tapes some more and they wanted him as a quarterback, which we were just thrilled at. So, we’ll see how this all works out.”

“I’m real excited about that,” said Sammons about being brought in as a quarterback. “That’s what I played in high school and really wanted to do; so, I’m definitely looking forward to that.”

Sammons credited playing on teams with great athleticism as a factor in him getting the opportunity to play NCAA Division I football.

“At Matewan, we had good players and some great athletes, but down here it’s a case of being around many athletes,” said Sammons as he moved into the team dorm Wednesday morning. “Here, they’re all great athletes. That means that here, it’s going to be a battle