Marshall Football Preview
By Zachery McNeely, Assistant Traffic Director
HUNTINGTON, W. Va. (WMUL-FM) – Tomorrow evening, the Herd will welcome a familiar foe to Joan C. Edwards Stadium, The Middle Tennessee State Blue Raiders. The Blue Raiders are 1-0 and compete in Conference USA. A win for the Blue Raiders will make their first 2-0 start in 25 years.
The Thundering Herd are coming off a 45-0 loss against No. 18 Penn State. Head Coach Tony Gibson said the focus has now is to win every home game.
“We want to be undefeated at home. If we had done that a year ago, we’d have won eight games. It’s important here.” said Gibson.
Marshall is 188-43 all time in Joan C. Edwards Stadium.
Middle Tennessee leads the all-time record against Marshall 7-5. The first time the two met was in 1992. Marshall won the last game 42-28; that game solidified Carlos Del Rio-Wilson as the starting quarterback for the Herd.
Middle Tennessee is led by Head Coach Derek Mason, who has been with the Blue Raiders for three years. Coach Mason was previously head coach at Vanderbilt University for seven years. Under center for the Blue Raiders will be sophomore quarterback Roman Gagliano; his backfield partner will be senior running back Antonio Martin. Out wide for the Blue Raiders will be Junior receiver Cam’ron Lacy.
For the Thundering Herd, under center will be senior quarterback Carlos Del Rio-Wilson. Behind or beside him will be Senior running back Jashon Barbie. Out wide will be Senior wide-out Adrian Norton. In tight for the herd will be senior tight end, and West Virginia native, Toby Payne.
Both teams are picked to finish third in their respected conferences. Defensively, the Blue Raiders are led in tackles by Senior safety Kalen Woods. Marshall is led in tackles by Junior defensive back Caleb Clark-Glover. Signal callers for both defenses will be Senior linebacker Javae Gilmore for the Herd, and for the Blue Raiders Senior linebacker Ashton Taylor.
The game will be broadcast on 88.1WMUL-FM and on Stream 1 online at marshall.edu/wmul/.
FM88 sports Shane Darling and Connor Brown will be on the call. Pregame will begin at 6:00 with kickoff at 7:00. You can also follow along on the WMUL sports X, @WMUL_Sports.