Football Recap
By Anthony Doria, FM88 Sports
HUNTINGTON, W. Va. (WMUL-FM) — Let’s go back a year ago, 380 days to be exact. It was Marshall’s home opener in the 2025 season and Tony Gibson’s first home game at Marshall. Over 28,000 fans packed Joan C. Edwards Stadium, the herd’s biggest crowd of the year, expecting an easy win over Missouri State, who just joined Division 1 FBS before the season.
The expected result didn’t happen. The Huntington crowd left stunned as the Bears picked up a 21-20 win after trailing 17-7 at half. A series of miscues and mistakes led to Marshall blowing the lead and giving Missouri State its first FBS win.
But more than a year later, Marshall would get a chance to get revenge on the Bears, this time on the road at Robert W. Plaster Stadium in Missouri, as Marshall would look to do what the Bears did to them last year: Stun the home crowd.
It would not be an easy task. Robert W. Plaster Stadium has been good to the Bears, as they were 21-9 in their last 30 home games entering the game and coming off a 48-14 win over Lindenwood the game prior. A near sellout of 16,010 fans pilled in, making it the fourth-highest-attended Missouri State home game in history.
Marshall would start fast on its first offensive drive. With just over five minutes down in the first quarter, Marshall had a 4th and 2 from the Bears’ 39-yard line. Offensive Coordinator Rod Smith would roll the dice, and he got a good roll out of it. Quarterback Carlos Del Rio-Wilson took the snap, faked a pass to his left, acted like he was going to run a QB Power with blockers pulling, then stopped and threw a bullet over the Middle to Running Back TJ Lester, who beat the safety to the ball and ran past him with nothing but green grass, as Lester scampered in for a 39-yard TD to put Marshall up 7-0.
After a Bears field goal, Marshall had another methodical drive, going 60 yards in just 7 plays, capped off by a Jo’Shon Barbie touchdown run from a yard out to put the herd up 14-3 as the 1st quarter was winding down.
The Bears would answer quickly. UTEP Transfer Skyler Locklear found a wide-open Witt Edwards on a busted coverage by Marshall to get the Bears to within 4 with just 12 seconds left in the 1st quarter.
Marshall would score in the second quarter again after a nearly seven-minute drive, capped off by a 28 yd field goal by Virginia transfer Jorge Diaz Nicolas, the first of his collegiate career. The kick put Marshall up 17-10 with 8:14 left until the break.
Marshall’s defense would come up with its first big play of the night a few minutes later. The Bears were driving down the field and had just crossed into Marshall territory. On a first-down play, the Bears thought they got Marshall to jump offside, and the Bears’ offensive line didn’t move because they thought a flag was thrown. A flag wasn’t thrown, and it would turn out to be a big mistake for the Bears. Locklear threw a deep ball into double coverage, potentially thinking a flag was thrown as well, and he would pay the price. Cornerback Eddie Pleasant got under the ball and picked it off for his 1st of the year, changing momentum in a big way for Marshall.
Speaking of momentum, it would translate to Marshall’s special teams shortly after. With under five minutes to go until halftime, the Bears would drive all the way down to Marshall’s 5-yard line in prime position to get points. After the drive stalled, the Bears would try a 22 yd field goal to cut Marshall’s lead to four. Yousef Obeid would step up and kick it, but Kenyatta Hardage jumped it and blocked it, coming up with a big special teams play to keep Marshall’s lead at 7.
The Herds’ next drive would yield nothing, as Marshall held a 17-10 lead going into halftime.
Both teams had two drives in the 3rd quarter, all of which yielded points. Marshall got the ball first in the half and started with a touchdown on a read option keeper by Wilson from six yards out. The Bears scored quickly after with an efficient rushing attack on the drive to cut the lead back to seven points.
Marshall would have another promising-looking drive getting into the red zone, but the drive would stall at Missouri State’s 14-yard line. This led to another field goal for Jorge Diaz Nicolas from 32 yards out to make the score 27-17 in favor of Marshall. The Bears had another answer, converting two 3rd-and-longs on the drive and ending it with tight end Jeron Askren running untouched to the end zone after a block downfield to cut the deficit to only three points at 27-24.
Marshall got into the redzone again, but couldn’t get past the Bears’ 13, resulting in Nicolas’s 3rd field goal from 31 yards away to put Marshall up by 6. Marshall’s defense got a stop and got the ball back with 8:37 to go. Buckle up, folks, because it gets crazy after this point!
Marshall was driving down the field with ease as the clock ticked down and looked poised to put the game away. Del Rio-Wilson took a carry from 15 yards out of the end zone and got 8 yards. However, as he was going down, the ball came out, and Missouri State jumped on the fumble and got the ball back, as the Bears would have 4:52 left to go 93 yards to steal another win from the herd.
Wilson stated postgame that he was not pleased with himself for the fumble and expects better from himself. “I’m holding myself to a higher standard. I’m not ok with that.”
“Ball security is job security… I’ve got to do better with that.”
Wilson added that he was happy that the team was able to help him out after his fumble, “Knowing that my team had my back and told me they would make up for it and keep my head up. It felt great to have that chemistry and bond today.”
There had been one thing that has been repeated more than anything else in the program this year: finish games and prove the team is different While it’s only game three, this next sequence makes a good case to show how different Marshall is this season.
After a couple of long runs and passes, the Bears had second and goal at Marshall’s 7-yard line, with all the momentum. It looked like the Bears were in prime position to steal another game from Marshall. But a game isn’t over until the clock hits zeros
After a couple of incompletions, it was 4th down for Missouri State. Locklear had another incompletion that looked to be a potential pass interference call, but offsetting penalties would give the Bears and Marshall another chance. Defensive coordinator Brad Lambert took a Vegas-sized gamble, sending a zero blitz with seven rushers and no help over the top, but it worked as Javae Gilmore used his 6”4 frame to bat the pass from Locklear down at the line of scrimmage as the Marshall defense made a big stand.
The Bears still had three timeouts, so Marshall was not out of the woods yet. The Bears forced a 3rd down with 1:40 left in the game, trying to get the ball back.
Rod Smith got into his bag of tricks again. Backup quarterback Khalil Wilkins took a jet sweep from Wilson, outran the one corner chasing him, and got the first down to seal the game. After a couple of kneels, Marshall walked out of Missouri with a 30-24 win, putting the bad nightmares of last year to rest!
Head Coach Tony Gibson said postgame that while the team still isn’t where it should be, he was proud of them, stating it’s better to leave with a win. “Just really proud of our kids, the way they finished,” Gibson said. “We’re not even close to where we need to be, but it’s a lot better again to go back with the win”
Gibson has expressed that he wants to win the games they lost last year, this game being an example of that. While being honest and expressing that the team should not have been in that close game situation, Gibson said the win is what matters, since that was their goal going into the game.
“It shouldn’t have been that close… we have to quit putting ourselves in positions to win one-possession games when it could have been a two, three possession game.” Gibson said. “We won, and that’s all that matters. That’s what we came here to do. We’re 1-0 again this week.
The defense came up big in the red zone throughout the game and did show good signs, but they still gave up over 500 yards to the Bears, 309 of them through the air. Gibson said he wants to see that good defensive play throughout the game, not just in the red zone
“We have to be more disciplined… that’s finishing tackles, and we need to keep preaching it, keep coaching it, and then we need to get better,” Gibson stated. “I’m tired of excuses… we have one more game non-conference… and then we get into the meat of our schedule… we have to buckle down… I’m tired of excuses, and we need to get it clean.” Gibson added about correcting the defensive mistakes.
Javae Gilmore stated a similar sentiment about the defense having some peaks and valleys, but did add that everyone is getting acclimated to each other, “We had a lot of ups and downs tonight, but I’m just glad we kept on trucking and kept on playing,” Gilmore said postgame.
“We’re starting to figure it out with each other and having that bond. There’s a lot of new people, but we’re starting to know each other and who we can depend on.”
Gilmore further stated how the defense was able to stay together through the game, including the adversity they faced: “We needed just more energy and all heads to the ball. No more missed tackles, and we just achieved that.”
“I feel like even though all the adversity we faced, the flags and stuff, I just told them keep their heads on, keep going man” It wasn’t perfect, and it wasn’t pretty, but Marshall did what they wanted to do.
Marshall moves to 2-1 on the season, as Missouri State falls to 1-2. Marshall will come back home to Joan C. Edwards Stadium Saturday, Sept. 26, to take on Gardner-Webb. Kickoff will be at 3:30 PM