He and sister Katie got up at 6 a.m. to milk calves on the farm. Each was assigned so many stalls - calf condos, they were called - and once done, they could go back to the house to shower for school and watch "SportsCenter" on ESPN.
"What would happen was, you would race to get done first," Katie said. "If it meant leaving milk in the bucket, Marshal would do that [to finish first]. I always tattled on him. That was pretty much my job. I would be mad, and he would be inside."
Until, that is, Yanda's mother put an end to short-shrifting the calves.
"He had an older sister who always did the right thing," Ruth said. "Marshal was out of control and wouldn't listen. Katie was more responsible."
Ruth Byrd -- she divorced Marshal's father, John, and remarried in July - was Yanda's biggest fan and his most vocal critic. She scolded him often about working harder in high school, about going out for track to learn to run, about staying out late.
Yanda's mom, in fact, was known as the meanest mom in Anamosa, meaner than most of the fathers.
"I didn't have a problem with being mean," she said. "He screwed up all the time, and I always caught him at it."
But when it came to supporting Yanda, there was no one like Ruth. When he went to Iowa, she rented a house two blocks from Kinnick Stadium, and an entourage of some 20 people or more would check in early Saturday for tailgating.
She traveled to every college game he played and attends most of his games with the Ravens. Instead of milking cows at 4 a.m. and 4 p.m. - which was normal farming procedure - she milked at 10 and 10 so she could attend all her children's events. When he went to community college, she would drive to Mason City, petition the school's cooks for use of their facility and make meals for Yanda and teammates.
Ruth gave Marshal tough love and never regretted it. Yanda's misbehavior was limited to beer-drinking binges with his friends and occasionally staying out all night.
"I was trying to teach him responsibility, I was trying to teach him patience," she said. "He always had so much energy. In kindergarten, they wanted to put him on Ritalin. I guided him, but he made the choice to be the person he is. He has such a big heart."
It was when Yanda went to North Iowa Area Community College that the farm work ethic kicked in.
