— By Bill Cornwell
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — Marshall has developed strong athletic rivalries with many neighboring schools over the years.
Among those schools is Eastern Kentucky, and the Colonels will be in Huntington to take on the Thundering Herd come 6 p.m. Saturday inside Joan C. Edwards Stadium.
This will be the 22nd all-time meeting between Marshall (0-2) and EKU (1-1) and the Herd holds a 12-8-1 series advantage.
The teams last met in 2020 when Marshall won handily, 59-0 — the Herd’s fourth straight win in the series.
The 2020 season was the first campaign for current Colonels’ head coach Walt Wells.
Now in his sixth season at EKU, Wells has compiled a 31-27 record.
“I didn’t realize that we’ve only played 20 times when you think about the schools being only two hours apart,” Wells said. “Certainly Marshall has been on the better end of it for the last four games. We have to come out and play to our strengths — play smart, error-free football, stay in this thing and keep pushing into the fourth quarter.”
This season, Colonels lost their season opener at Louisville 51-17, before rebounding at home last week to defeat Houston Christian, 20-10.
Eastern Kentucky is competing in the new United Athletic Conference, which is made up of football-playing schools from the Atlantic Sun and Western Athletic conferences. Other schools in the UAC include: North Alabama, Austin Peay, West Georgia, Central Arkansas, Tarleton State, Abilene Christian, Southern Utah and Utah Tech.
The Colonels’ early play this season has been highlighted by an opportunistic defense. EKU has forced seven turnovers for the third best mark in FCS. The Colonels have scored 27 points off of those turnovers, including a fumble recovery for a touchdown in the first quarter of last week’s win.
Eastern Kentucky allowed only 42 rushing yards in its victory.
Marshall’s defense was also effective against the run in last week’s 21-20 loss to Missouri State. The unit’s struggles were in large part due to allowing big plays on screen passes, and the inability of Marshall’s offense to sustain drives and make gains in the passing game.
“Marshall is still trying to find out who they are, but they have talent all over the field,” Wells said. “I know Tony Gibson well and he’ll have them ready to go. They’ve just got to play together. It’s really hard when you haven’t played games together and you’re finding out on the field what they are.”
Wells has guided EKU to a win against FBS competition before, that coming in 2022 when the Colonels outlasted Bowling Green 59-57 in seven overtimes.
Eastern Kentucky’s most recent win against Marshall was back in 1990 in what was the final game for the Herd at Fairfield Stadium.