It’s time to kick off our previews of every single 2025 Georgia Bulldog opponent. We begin with a team that not only isn’t that familiar to Bulldog fans, but probably aren’t particularly familiar with each other: the Marshall Thundering Herd.
The Marshal Files
Location: Huntington, West Virginia
Home Stadium: Joan C. Edwards Stadium (capacity 30,475). Edwards Stadium is one of only two FBS stadiums named for women.
2024 record: 10-3, (7-1 Sun Belt)
Notable Herdmember: Before he threw Momma from the train, met Sally, or went to work for Monsters, Inc. irrepressible funny man Billy Crystal attended Marshall on a baseball scholarship. However the baseball program was suspended during his freshman year and he never actually got to play a game. He moved back to New York after one year and never looked back.
Marshall Football and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad December
Life comes at you fast. Especially in today’s college football world.
The Herd stampeded through a pretty soft Sun Belt schedule, pulled off a big win at James Madison, then demolished Louisiana in a 31-3 blowout to win the conference title.
That ten win season was the program’s first since 2015. How could things get much better, right?
Then the world of modern college football showed up at the Herd’s door, and it delivered really rotten news. First head coach Charles Huff took the Southern Miss job. Over the next week and an half everyone except the reserve long snapper and the backup ball boy jumped into the transfer portal. How many players decamped from Huntington? Enough that there weren’t enough players left to even play in the bowl game the Thundering Herd earned by playing their best football in a decade. Such is the brutal irony of life in college football’s squishy midsection.
Now, Marshall’s starting over.
And they’re doing it the newfangled college football way: by bringing in transfers. All the transfers. Heck, they even got a new athletic director this week. It’s possible that no more than five people connected with Marshall football at this moment have any idea where the switches are that turn on the weight room lights.
New head coach Tony Gibson is stepping into his first top job after six solid years as NC State’s defensive coordinator.
Things could come together for his team if some of the talent he’s brought in gels quickly. If the run game clicks early, the schedule’s manageable enough for Gibson to make some noise in the Sun Belt in year one. Then again, if things don’t click, three wins may be the ceiling for an outfit that is as close to a black box as any FBS team I’ve tried to scout.
Film of the 2024 Marshall Thundering Herd is as useful for understanding the 2025 iteration as watching Three’s Company reruns would be for learning how to play cricket.
Marshall Offense: Explosive (at least on paper)
Offensively, Marshall will be coordinated by Rod Smith, who helped make Jacksonville State’s offense one of the more productive in the nation last year. It’s a total reset, but there’s some potential here.
Quarterback Zion Turner was at Jacksonville State with Smith last year but threw only a single pass in the single game in which he played (it fell incomplete). Cartersville native and former 4 star Florida Gator Carlos Del Rio-Wilson is a dual-threat signal caller with a solid 6’2, 215 pound build who completed 48 of 102 passes over two seasons at Syracuse before being sidelined by injury in 2024.
I anticipate he’s the guy for what Smith wants to do offensively. QB Tyler Huff ran for 1,344 yards and 15 touchdowns in this same system last season, and Del Rio-Wilson can both run and spin the ball pretty well.
Smith’s offense is a spread, run heavy attack that spreads the ball around. Tre Stewart tore it up at Jacksonville State with 1,638 yards and 25 touchdowns from the tailback spot in 2024. Now, it’s up to Michael Allen (UNLV transfer) and Jo’Shon Barbie (formerly of McNeese State), both of whom averaged over five yards a carry last season.
Up front, Logan Osburn returns at center, Jalen Slappy is a seasoned guard, and 348 pound Shunmarkus Adams is the likely starter at the other guard spot. The tackles are both transfers, but the big one (literally) to watch is 6-9, 356 pound Tyler McDuffie from Hampton. All told, the offensive line has more continuity than anywhere else on the team, and they’re going to need it.
Tight end Toby Payne snagged 17 catches for 168 yards and tied for the team lead with 6 touchdown catches last year. Getting him involved in the offense will be one of Smith’s priorities. The bad news? That’s because almost every significant contributor in the receiving corps from last season left.
Demarcus Lacey (Jacksonville State) is an explosive addition, and Antonio Harmon (Mississippi State) has size at 6’ 3, 200. If history is any guide, Smith will engineer a way to get those guys the ball.
The Marshall Defense: I’m not sure what they’re cooking, but the ingredients seem to be high quality.
The 2024 Marshall pass rush was among the best in the Sun Belt. And it is basically gone. Edge Mike Green (17 sacks) is gone to the NFL, and almost everyone else who got to the QB last year is gone too. Paul Hutson (Campbell transfer) brings some size at end, but the pressure might need to come from the inside this year.
The Herd have actually great got size there: 335-pound KaTron Evans (Charlotte), 330-pound Tyas Martin (Jackson State), 300 pound Jamaal Whyce, Jr. (South Carolina), and 300 pound Jalil Rivera-Harvey (Arizona State) are a stout unit, and could be one of the deeper interior line units in the Sun Belt.
The linebacking corps is also mostly new faces, but there are pieces to work with. Javae Gilmore (Mississippi State) has the build for the middle, and Jibreel Al-Amin (Jacksonville State) is an athletic playmaker who had 23 tackles in 2024 for the Gamecocks despite only spot duty.
The secondary has an actual returning starter, as safety Jadarius Green-McKnight (38 tackles, 1 interception in 2024) decided to stick around. Senior cornerback Daytione Smith has played a lot in a reserve role and started once in 2024, but otherwise it’s a whole new group from the portal.
Immaculately named safety Boogie Trotter (Tennessee State) racked up 62 tackles last season. Cornerback Marvae Myers-Glover (Middle Tennessee) has been around since 2019 and had 41 tackles and 4 pass breakups last year.
The Bottom Line
There’s really no way of knowing how this Marshall team is going to come together by season’s end. I expect things to be humming along pretty well by week ten. But when the Herd come to Athens for opening weekend about the only thing they’ll have going for them is the element of surprise. That doesn’t seem likely to be enough to topple a top five Georgia team. I expect the Marshall offense to scheme up a handful of big plays on a Bulldog defense that’s replacing some key contributors on the back end. But I also anticipate them giving up at least a couple of turnovers that will keep this one out of reach for the visitors.
Score prediction: Georgia 38, Marshall 10
Go ‘Dawgs!!!