Head Coach: Charles Huff is entering his 4th season as the head coach of the Thundering Herd with a 22-17 record. He’s had some success but it hasn’t quite taken off as expected. In 2022 they pulled off a massive win at Notre Dame, but lost 4 of the next 6 games. Last season they started 4-0 including a win over Virginia Tech, lost by 7 in a 48-41 shootout to NC State (on The CW) and that brought on a late season collapse where Marshall failed to reach 10 points in 4 of their last 7 games.
Program Outlook: Like many programs in the Sun Belt Marshall is a proud program that wants to compete for conference championships. Marshall is as steady as it gets, the Thundering Herd have made it to bowl games 7 straight seasons, 2016 being the only time they’ve missed in the last decade.
How does the 2024 Roster look?: Marshall has some experience back but they’ve brought in a very good portal class to try to shore up some weaknesses. The Thundering Herd have a returning QB in Cole Pennington, yes he’s the son of Herd legend Chad Pennington he’s young but solid. His only start was in the bowl against a strong UTSA team. He will have competition with 6th year Tulsa transfer Braylon Braxton, Wake Forest transfer Mitch Griffis was also in the mix but he withdrew from the competition last month and went pro in something other than sports (he’s a Project Engineer so shout-out to him being successful.) They’ll sorely miss Rasheen Ali but his backup Ethan Payne is back along with NC State transfer Jordan Houston in to help. The receiving corps is going to be completely revamped, basically the entire 2 deep will be from the portal so this will be a fun experiment to keep an eye on. The offense can develop more consistency with better pass protection, some of the better starters on last year’s Oline are back and as you could guess they are trying to revamp the rest via the portal. Depth is a huge question mark, if the offense suddenly capsizes mid season again, this might be why. Strangely enough Marshall also had some rough points on the defense but it generally could bend and not break most games. Marshall will need to overcome losing their 2 best defensive linemen to the portal, they didn’t try to hit the portal here they still have some good Dlinemen back and they seem to feel good about the depth here. They’ll have a combination of returning starters and guys from the portal at linebacker. They have some stud safeties to cover the backend but it’s going to be really tough to replace CB Micah Abraham. Overall it’ll be interesting to see how the guys from the portal mix with the guys they get back.
Screenshot from fbschedules.com1
2024 Schedule Thoughts: Marshall’s schedule is challenging. The non-conference features road games at Virginia Tech and Ohio State it would be quite the accomplishment of Huff could manage a major non-conference upset a 3rd year in a row. The Western Michigan game is winnable and fortunately Stony Brook is an easier game, the SeaWolves went 0-10 last season. No Sun Belt East schedule is easy but Marshall does have some fortune as they draw ULM/Southern Miss the only 2 Sun Belt teams that didn’t make a bowl last season.
Vegas Projection: Marshall’s win total is set at 5.5 with the odds geared heavily toward the over. Seems not much improvement is expected, Vegas expects similar to last season.
2024 Best Case: Marshall gets back to contending again. The Herd open with a win over Stony Brook, and then continue to run of non-conference upsets by taking down Virginia Tech for a huge upset. They don’t lose momentum this time despite taking their lumps against Ohio State the Herd take down Western Michigan and then grab a huge victory over Appalachian State. They roll through the stretch of Georgia Southern, Georgia State, all the way through Old Dominion. It sets up a showdown at James Madison to conclude the regular season, the Herd get in a defensive battle but grind out a win at JMU. Marshall faces Texas State in the conference championship and beats the Bobcats to win the Sun Belt along with making the College Football Playoff. Marshall loses a tight playoff game to Alabama all while West Virginia doesn’t make the playoff at all so they get to claim being the first team in the state to make the playoff.
2024 Worst Case: Marshall’s schedule is tough and it gets them off the bat. They win the opener but things get ugly quick against Virginia Tech and Ohio State. Marshall has a recovery chance against Western Michigan but they come up short, this sends them in a downward spiral as the Herd lose to Appalachian State and Georgia Southern to suddenly end up 1-5. It sets the tone for a rough season where they end up 2-10 and need to figure out how to find themselves back in contention again.
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