Marshall Thundering Herd:
The story for Marshall feels like a similar tale to a lot of teams in the conference. The Thundering Herd started last season 4-0, including a thoroughly impressive win over Virginia Tech. They went 2-6 the rest of the way and got beaten by a UTSA team without Frank Harris in the Frisco Bowl. Promising starts gave way to nightmare endings in this conference quite a bit and I think we could see more of the same, as the transfer portal just strips so much depth from Group of Five schools.
Anyway, Marshall will likely fight for bowl eligibility again this season, but this is not a team with a high ceiling for 2024.
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Offense
Marshall QBs combined for a 12/18 TD/INT ratio last season. Presumptive starter Cole Pennington had zero TD passes…but he had six interceptions. Pennington had 112 pass attempts and threw for just under 700 yards, so I’d call this passing game anything but dynamic. The leading receiver last season had just 410 yards. He’s at Notre Dame now.
More importantly, the loss of Rasheen Ali stands out in a big way. Ali accounted for 15 of the team’s 21 rushing touchdowns and had 1,135 of the 1,720 yards. Oh, by the way, departed QB Cam Fancher had four rushing touchdowns. Wide receiver Caleb McMillan had one. Marshall returns one rushing TD this season and six total offensive touchdowns, including the only passing one from WR Chuck Montgomery.
Defense
The success of Ali gave the defense a little bit of a breather, but this unit truly deserves some flowers for last season. They were 61st in yards per play allowed and 93rd in scoring defense, but some context is important. As I mentioned, the Herd had 18 interceptions and were one of seven teams to finish in the double-digit negatives in TO margin. In all, Marshall turned the ball over 29 times.
The defense managed 18 takeaways and 13 were interceptions. The field position battle was a lost cause more often than not, so Jason Senore’s defense did what they could, especially with a high-risk, high-reward scheme that yielded 35 sacks, but also created a lot of single coverage. Sadly, the 4-2-5 defense did lose some of the talent it had and didn’t really get it back in the portal.
Outlook
Charles Huff will find a running back and former Air Raid QB Seth Doege will find a QB. Don’t be surprised if it’s Tulsa transfer Braylon Braxton. But, this is a dramatic scheme change on offense with a lot of lost talent and the defense did everything it could to hold up last year. I think this is a tough year for Marshall. The schedule isn’t bad, so I have 5.59 wins, but six seems optimistic.
Pick: Under 6 Wins
