Marshall Thundering Herd Season Preview

Randy Moss, Byron Leftwich and Chad Pennington have all made their marks in the NFL and you could argue Randy Moss was one of the most explosive, entertaining players we have ever seen at his position in college or the NFL. The question everybody wants to know is if the Herd can regain that form they had in 90s.

Well, the Thundering Herd put together back to back 11-2 campaigns from 2001-02, but have not reached the nine win plateau since and have only gone to two bowl games.

Doc Holliday came over from Florida and West Virginia where he was an associate head coach the past five years. Year one went well in Huntington as his Herd went 5-7.

The offensive playmakers have gradually gotten worse as the defense has been the only true component that has kept this team from falling flat on their faces.

They lost their star tackler in middle linebacker Mario Harvey, but they do return primetime stud defensive end Vinny Curry. Curry led the team in sacks with 12.5 and is looking to improve upon those monstrous numbers. Curry is the pre-season media pick for Defensive Player of the Year in C-USA.

Curry has two of his teammates returning in the front four with defensive tackles Jamie Rouse and Delvin Johnson.

Marshall will look to improve their rush defense numbers which allowed 145 yards per game. That surprisingly was good for 55th in the nation. The entire LB corps are back outside of Harvey so the numbers should improve a bit.

The secondary was beyond abysmal a season ago, as they were 94th in the nation allowing 240 yards per game. The corners were below average and they were often burnt to a crisp in pass coverage.

The safeties are decent with Omar Brown and DJ Hunter (true incoming freshman) and they will have to be productive with corners that are extremely undersized (both starters under 5’11").

The offense returns five starters and has the four top rushers back with Martin Ward and Andre Booker leading the way. Booker, however, has been moved to WR so expect more carries for Ward and watch out for incoming freshman Trevon Van who may get the starting nod over Ward.

The offensive line was mediocre a season ago. And with only one starter back, many in Huntington wonder if head coach Doc Holliday can get his troops to open up more holes for the running game. 

More importantly, will there be time for quarterback AJ Graham to throw? Graham was dinged up for parts of last season and was the third string QB behind both Brian Anderson and Eddie Sullivan.

Both Graham and Sullivan return, but AJ has the slight edge being the taller, bigger QB with a slightly better arm. They have decent enough weapons to stretch the field with Aaron Dobson and Antavious Wilson, but depth is certainly a concern without a proven tight end.

Without a true pass catching tight end it will only make life more difficult for the Thundering Herd. They were 63rd in passing offense, but were 103rd in total offense, averaging just 314 yards per game. 

The schedule is not kind as they must travel to Morgantown in the heated rivalry game before they travel to the ‘Ville and host Virginia Tech (My Top 10). This is not to mention the tough C-USA slate they have with road tilts at Houston, Tulsa, and UCF.

They then host Southern Miss, Rice, and ECU where they will be underdogs in all three. This Marshall team will take a step back from last year’s 5-7 season due to the brutal and much improved schedule.

Predicted Finish: 2-10, 2-6

Predicted Bowl: None

Predicted order of finish in C-USA: Fourth in East, Ninth in C-USA