By Bill Cornwell
With a win over a Top 25 opponent, two national television affiliates and a first national ranking in six years, Marshall Football is “hot” right now, but things are about to cool as the Herd will be sitting at home for the next two Saturdays, unless they can find an opponent for October 3rd.
Marshall, ranked 25th in this week’s Associated Press Poll, was originally scheduled to host Boise State this weekend, but that game was scrapped when the Mountain West Conference decided to not play football this fall.
The Herd was supposed to play Conference USA foe Rice in Huntington on October 3rd, but that game was postponed as the Owls halted practices in early September due to the high number of Covid-19 cases in the Houston, Texas area.
Marshall Head Coach Doc Holliday said earlier this week that he and his boss, Herd Director of Athletics Mike Hamrick, are actively looking for an opponent.
“We’re all trying,” Holliday said. “Every time something pops up and somebody’s playing, we sure give them a call. I’d love to have a game next week and I’m concerned about having those three weeks before playing Western Kentucky.”
The game at WKU is set for October 10th at 7:30 pm.
“Right now, we’re just preparing like we don’t have a game and if one pops up, we’ll quickly go in a different direction,” Holliday said. “Things change every day.”
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This has been a week of honors for Marshall’s Senior Linebacker, Tavante Beckett. The Virginia Tech transfer received two big honors for his work in the Appalachian State win.
Beckett was named on Monday as Conference USA’s Defensive Player of the Week after picking up a career-high 16 tackles (8 solo) and a pass break-up against the Mountaineers.
The honors continued on Tuesday as Beckett was named the Bronko Nagurski National Defensive Player of the Week by the Football Writers of America.
Beckett and his MU defensive teammates held Appalachian State to 96 rushing yards on 33 carries, the Apps lowest single-game rush total since 2014.
The 16 stops by Beckett are the most by a Marshall player since Chase Hancock made 18 tackles against Southern Miss in 2017.
Beckett’s 24 tackles in two games ranks second among all FBS players this season.
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Beckett isn’t the only award winner this week in the Marshall Football program.
On Wednesday, Athlon named MU Defensive Coordinator Brad Lambert as National Defensive Coordinator of the Week after his defense held Appalachian State to seven points and 5.1 yards per play.
Lambert is in his second year in charge of Marshall defense. It’s his 2nd stint as an assistant at Marshall after serving on Coach Jim Donnan’s staff during the early 1990s.
Lambert returned to Huntington after serving as the initial head coach for the Charlotte program, being hired in 2011 and serving as the 49ers leader through the 2018 season.
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Marshall Associate Athletic Director Jeff O’Malley came up with an interesting statistic this week.
In a Twitter post, O’Malley said that Marshall was one of only six schools with Top 25 teams in both football and men’s soccer.
The College Soccer News preseason Top 30 men’s soccer poll ranked Marshall, which is coming off unprecedented success during the 2019 season, at No. 15, giving the Thundering Herd a pair of Top 25 teams.
Other schools with football and men’s soccer among the top 25 in a national poll: Clemson, UCF, Virginia Tech, Louisville and Kentucky.