— By Bill Cornwell
An hour or so after announcing Boone County native Tony Gibson as the next head coach of Marshall football, the Thundering Herd learned of its bowl destination.
Marshall, winners of the Sun Belt Conference Football Championship Saturday night, will play No. 19 Army in the Radiance Technologies Independence Bowl in Shreveport, Louisiana.
The contest is set for 9:15 p.m. on Saturday, December 28, and it will be shown on ESPN.
A pair of league champions will be squaring off as Army (11-1) won the American Athletic Conference on Friday with a 35-14 victory over Tulane. Marshall (10-3) notched its seventh straight win the next day with a 31-3 win at Louisiana in the Sun Belt title game.
“We are extremely excited to host Marshall and Army — two conference champions in the 48th Radiance Technologies Independence Bowl,” 2024 Independence Bowl Foundation Chair Claire Rebouche said. “We are one of the most historic bowls in college football, and these are two programs with rich tradition. We cannot wait to get them to town and show them tremendous hospitality and provide them with a great Bowl Week experience.”
Telly Lockette will carry on a major role as Marshall’s interim head coach in the Independence Bowl. He was appointed to that position Sunday after the announcement that Charles Huff was leaving Marshall to become the head coach at Southern Mississippi.
“I’m grateful for the opportunity to lead these young men into the bowl game,” Lockette said. “It’s been a blessing over the last four years seeing this community rally behind this team and taking it to new heights as SBC Champions. Army is a great opponent, a great team and Coach Monken is a great coach. We’re going to be fired up to play in the game. With the leadership we have, we want to finish this thing off strong for the kids and the community.”
Gibson, of Van, is a former defensive coordinator at North Carolina State and West Virginia, and will take over the Marshall program after the bowl game.
This will be the third meeting between Marshall and Army.
The teams last met in West Point in 1997, a game won by Marshall 35-25 and highlighted by a Randy Moss hurdle of a defender on a 90-yard touchdown reception.
This marks Marshall’s 20th bowl game and the eighth consecutive year that the Herd has appeared in one.
Marshall’s all-time bowl record is 13-6, though the Herd lost to UTSA last season in the Frisco Bowl.
The Black Knights have another regular season contest remaining as they battle rival Navy next Saturday at 3 in Landover, Maryland.
Army has the top rushing attack in all of FBS by a wide margin at 314-plus yards per game. Quarterback Bryson Daily and running back Kanye Udoh have both surpassed 1,000 rushing yards this season, with Daily gaining 1,480 yards and leading the country with 29 rushing touchdowns.
Army won its first nine games before losing to Notre Dame. The Black Knights have bounced back with two wins since, starting with a 29-24 victory against UTSA.