HUNTINGTON, W. Va. (WMUL-FM) \u2014 Just a year after a complete roster reset, Marshall Thundering Herd football has already built a foundation strong enough to support its conference title aspirations.<\/p>\n
One day after the Marshall Thundering Herd Football team captured the 2024 Sun Belt Championship, its first ever in the conference, head coach Charles Huff left for Southern Miss, setting off an unprecedented roster reset. Fifty Marshall players entered the transfer portal, forcing new head coach Tony Gibson to completely rebuild the team with 56 transfer additions and 19 commits.<\/p>\n
However, despite a losing 2025 season, far fewer players transferred out of the program, and those that stayed are making a big impact.<\/p>\n
An injunction that ordered the NCAA to allow athletes who enrolled in 2022 an extra year of eligibility paved the way for the return of Carlos Del Rio-Wilson, who led the Herd in passing yards and touchdowns last season and was named the Preseason Sun Belt Conference Offensive Player of the Year. For Del Rio-Wilson, one of 30 quarterbacks in the country named to the Davey O\u2019Brien Award watch list, leaving was never an option.<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew I wasn’t going to leave,\u201d Del Rio-Wilson said. \u201cI really didn’t want to because this community just feels like home. Everybody feels like family. So, I knew I wanted to stay here regardless of the circumstances.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gibson was also thrilled for Del-Rio Wilson\u2019s return and says that he will play a critical role in developing a cohesive and successful 2026 season.<\/p>\n
\u201cAny time you have a returning quarterback, it gives you a great chance to win games,\u201d Gibson said. \u201cAnd having him back, it means a lot to this program and his teammates.”<\/p>\n
Another returning piece of last year\u2019s squad that has been making preseason buzz is Toby Payne, who was named to the 2026 John Mackey Award watch list, the highest honor for a tight end in the country. Payne, entering his fifth year with Marshall, says that he is all in on the Thundering Herd.<\/p>\n
\u201cI stuck down here because I love this place,\u201d Payne said. \u201cI love what coach [Gibson] has going on\u2014what these coaches have going. So, I wouldn’t want to leave a place that I truly believe in, and we can do something special here. And I think guys are realizing that too\u2014guys that stayed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jalen Slappy and Tariq Montgomery, both entering their fifth year with Marshall, have long anchored the Herd\u2019s offensive line. Gibson says the duo\u2014who shared Preseason All-Sun Belt Conference First Team honors along with Del Rio-Wilson and Payne\u2014are perfect models for success for younger players to look up to.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen they’re looking up to Slappy and Tariq, in those meeting rooms and seeing what they’ve been through and the coaching change and just the landscape of college football since they’ve been in college,\u201d Gibson said. \u201cI think that that helps us build these young guys that they want to be a piece of legacy for years to come.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even after 2024\u2019s exodus, Marshall Football is ready to bounce back, anchored by the players who never stopped bleeding green and white.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Marshall Football By Owen James, Training Coordinator Aug. 21, 2026 HUNTINGTON, W. Va. (WMUL-FM) \u2014 Just a year after a complete roster reset, Marshall Thundering Herd football has already built a foundation strong enough to support its conference title aspirations. One day after the Marshall Thundering Herd Football team captured the 2024 Sun Belt Championship,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1052,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192,1849,5],"tags":[1359,1853,423,1820,115,1854,100,19,1850,392,69,1858,1851,1852,155,28,138,592,1860,1855,1061,1828,1606,1062,251,1856,156,236,1859,23,212,1857,186,424,258,419,420,421,51,96],"class_list":["post-5251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-football","category-wmul-sports","tag-carlos-del-rio-wilson","tag-cfb","tag-coach-tony-gibson","tag-college-football","tag-college-radio","tag-fb","tag-fm88-sports","tag-football","tag-herd-fb","tag-herd-football","tag-huntington-wv","tag-jalen-slappy","tag-joan-c-edwards-statium","tag-marshall-fb","tag-marshall-football","tag-marshall-university","tag-marshall-university-athletics","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-5-for-5","tag-ncaa-fb","tag-owen-james","tag-owen-james-fm88-sports","tag-owen-james-marshall","tag-owen-james-wmul","tag-sbc","tag-sbc-fb","tag-sbc-football","tag-sun-belt-conference","tag-tariq-montgomery","tag-thundering-herd","tag-thundering-herd-athletics","tag-thundering-herd-fb","tag-thundering-herd-football","tag-thundering-herd-football-coach-tony-gibson","tag-toby-payne","tag-tony-gibson","tag-tony-gibson-marshall","tag-tony-gibson-marshall-football","tag-wmul","tag-wv"],"acf":[],"fimg_url":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/wmul\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/wmul\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/wmul\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/wmul\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1052"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/wmul\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5251"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/wmul\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5251\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5252,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/wmul\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5251\/revisions\/5252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/wmul\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/wmul\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/wmul\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}