Marshall Football Preview
By: Paul Sebert, FM88 Sports
Huntington W.Va – The Marshall University Thundering Herd will face off against The Runnin’ Bulldogs of Gardner-Webb this Saturday at Joan C. Edwards field for their annual homecoming game. The teams will kick off at 3:30 p.m. It will be broadcast on ESPN+. The Thundering Herd will be looking to continue its momentum having recently defeated Missouri State Bears. Their opponents the Runnin’ Bulldogs are coming off of their first win of the season, knocking off North Carolina Central 44-20.
While Gardner-Webb has struggled this season the Ohio Valley Conference team would certainly love to pull off an upset. The teams have played each other before twice with the Thundering Herd victorious in both contests. The teams first face off in 2013 with Marshall brutalizing its opponent 55-0. Their second contest would occur in 2022 with The Herd winning 28-7.
Marshall University Coach Tony Gibson stresses that this is not a game that the school can look past. “We have a lot of work to do,” Gibson said. “Gardner Webb is a good football team. They should have beat Liberty. They are very active on defense. Offensively everyone knows the name; Cole Pennington has thrown for 300 yards for three of the four games. So they can be explosive on offense. Their special teams are very sound. It’s not like we are playing somebody that we can just go out and show up and think we’re going to win the football game.”
Defensive lineman Kenyatta Hardge also said that Gardner-Webb can not be underestimated. “Those guys are good,” Hardge said. “They’re nothing to sneeze at. They block hard, they run hard. They obviously had a quarterback who played here.
We all have got things we have to work on. Me personally, my hands and my pad level I’ve got to work on. I’ve been too high lately. There’s always a chance to get better. Day by day, game by game we’ve got to make an improvement week by week.”
After a difficult to watch season opener against Penn State, coach Tony Gibson and Marshall University have bounced back with two straight wins defeating Middle Tennessee 28-26 and Missouri State 30-24. The Thundering Herd are expected to rely on the skills of Carlos Del Rio-Wilson, a dual-threat quarterback who has an equal amount of throwing and rushing touchdowns under his belt this season with two each. Del Rio-Wilson’s favorite target is wide receiver Xayvion Turner-Bradshaw who has received the ball 11 times this season for a total of 169 yards. Thus far Turner-Bradshaw has only received one touchdown. Tight End Toby Payne has also received the ball 11 times for a total of 84 yards. On defense the Thundering Herd is represented by defensive back Caleb Clark-Glover who has made 21 solo tackles.
Prior to their victory over North Carolina Central Gardner-Webb had a rough season. The Runnin’ Bulldogs have attracted more headlines for their problems off the field than for their in-game heroics. The team was the center of a bizarre scandal in which head coach Kris McCullough was suspended and later dismissed after the first game of the season. Special Teams coach Pete Bennett was then named as the interim head coach for the remainder of the season. The Runnin’ Bulldogs kicked off their season with a 17-35 loss to Austin Peay. Their next two games under Bennett’s leadership would be nail-biters losing 17-13 against Wofford and 24-23 against Liberty.
The Runnin’ Bulldogs do have an ace up their sleeve in the form of former Marshall quarterback Cole Pennington, the son of legendary Marshall quarterback Chad
Pennington. Pennington has put up some video game-like stats over the course of the season. He has had three games this season where he has completed over 300 throwing years.
“Their wide receiving core is really, really good,” Gibson said. “They have some big wideouts who can run. They use three different backs. Randy Young had a 54 yard touchdown against Liberty. He popped one on them. Cole is a really good player who handles the offense but they’ve got playmakers around him as well.”
In addition to the aerial-based offense The Runnin’ Bulldogs may prove to be a defensive threat. One player to keep an eye out for is linebacker Tre Yanez who has 43 tackles this season, 21 of which were solo. Yanez also has achieved three sacks this season.
Offensive lineman Jalen Slappy believes Gardner-Webb also has a defensive threat. “They are a really good defensive line,” Slappy said. “I think that’s a strong part of their team. They’ve got good edge rushers. They’re big inside. That means everything this week. So we’ve got to put it on our backs this week and just go play.” The gridiron battle between The Thundering Herd and the Runnin’ Bulldogs will likely come down to which team has the better defense. If the Herd can keep Pennington contained they should be able to cruise to their fourth win of the season. If The Runnin’ Bulldogs can tie up Del Rio-Wilson or if Pennington can create some fireworks offensively The Herd could be wandering into a trap game. This promises to be an intriguing matchup between two very different quarterbacks.