— By Bill Cornwell
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — It will have been 28 days between home games when Marshall welcomes Western Michigan at 3:30 p.m. Saturday from Joan C. Edwards Stadium.
The Herd (1-2) and Broncos (1-2) renew a past rivalry going back to the days when both were in the Mid-American Conference. The teams have met 34 previous times, with WMU holding a 22-12 series edge. Marshall has won five of the past six meetings, the last of which came in 2003.
Marshall and Western Michigan have followed similar scheduling paths this season with two games against Power 4 Conference opponents. The Broncos lost at Wisconsin (28-14) and at Ohio State (56-0) to open the season, followed by a 59-31 victory against Bethune-Cookman.
Following a season-opening win against Stony Brook, Marshall’s losses came at Virginia Tech (31-14) and most recently Ohio State (49-14).
Against the Buckeyes, the Broncos managed 99 yards of offense while the Herd gained 264 yards against what’s been the nation’s top defense to this point.
Although Ohio State was able to rack up 569 yards and four scoring plays of at least 40 yards, Marshall head coach Charles Huff says he was impressed with the fight from his team in a hostile environment, and in particular, the defensive line.
“A lot of our leaders and strongest personalities are up there,” Huff said. “A lot of guys who have been here for a while and have played at a high level are in that group. If you can be disruptive on the defensive line, it makes it hard to either run or pass. They feel that they have the first opportunity to disrupt the game and the rest of the team feeds off of their energy.”
Now the Herd defense readies to face someone it has familiarity with from the past in quarterback Hayden Wolff, an Old Dominion transfer who joined the Broncos following the 2022 season. Wolff has thrown for 517 yards with touchdowns and two interceptions this season.
During the 2022 season, when Marshall secured a 12-0 road win at ODU in November, Wolff completed 24-of-46 passes for 198 yards with one interception. Wolff finished with 2,908 yards and 18 touchdowns against six interceptions that season.
A year ago, Wolff hit on 148-of-226 passes for 1,505 yards with eight touchdowns and five interceptions in his first campaign with the Broncos.
Wolff threw for 305 yards and three touchdowns on September 14 in his team’s lone victory this season.
“Hayden is a phenomenal quarterback and he can pick you apart,” Huff said. “He’s done a really good job at ODU and Western in letting the offense and the plays come to him. We’ve got to make him uncomfortable and make him do something outside of the rhythm he’s been able to maintain the last couple of weeks.”
Huff is looking forward to the first two-game home stand of the season as Appalachian State comes to Huntington next week for Homecoming and the Sun Belt Conference opener.
“I’m really excited to reengage our student body this week because their support is important to us,” Huff said. “The beauty of being home is also being with your family and not sitting on a plane or bus on game weekend.”
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The 103,871 fans at last week’s game at Ohio State served as the fifth largest crowd that Marshall has ever played before and the fifth time that the Herd has played in front of more than 100,000 fans … Former Marshall offensive lineman Trevor Mendelson will be making a homecoming of sorts on Saturday. Mendelson is Western Michigan’s offensive line coach and co-offensive coordinator, duties that he added just this year. Mendelson played for Marshall from 2010-14 and was a big part of the Herd’s offensive line success during the 2014 Conference USA Championship season. Members of that 2014 Marshall team will be at Saturday’s game for a 10-year reunion.