— By Bill Cornwell
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — Coming off a 54-51 double overtime loss at Louisiana two Saturdays ago, Marshall entered its first bye week spurred to make corrections and offer self-reflections.
With a 2-3 mark and having dropped the Sun Belt Conference opener in tough fashion, the Herd is hopeful extra time off came at the correct time.
“We had a great week of practice last week and the bit of extra time was needed to prepare for Old Dominion,” first-year head coach Tony Gibson said. “We did a lot of self-scout last week. We just have to fix some things defensively and offensively just to keep our momentum going.”
Making the challenge tougher for Marshall is that the Sun Belt’s hottest team, Old Dominion, visits Huntington for Saturday’s 3:30 p.m game at Joan C. Edwards Stadium.
The Monarchs (4-1, 1-0) are coming off a 47-7 thrashing of Coastal Carolina in which the Chanticleers were held to 189 yards while the ODU offense piled up 619 yards.
In Marshall’s two most recent matchups, a win against Middle Tennessee and the Louisiana loss, the Herd offense played at a higher level than the team’s defense.
While both sides of the ball received equal attention during the bye week, more specific concerns are breakdowns in coverage and in tackling as well as penalties at especially inopportune times.
“We’ve had a lot of guys step up on offense the last couple of games and I’m really excited about where [quarterback] Carlos [Del Rio-Wilson] is at right now,” Gibson said. “We’ve got to get our defense buttoned up and make sure we’re not making mistakes that kill ourselves. Also, we can’t have so many penalties. We had 12 penalties in the last game on both sides of the ball, so a lot went into that as well.”
Marshall will be tested on Saturday by Old Dominion redshirt sophomore Colton Joseph, ODU’s talented multi-threat quarterback.
Joseph torched Coastal Carolina last week with 17 completions for 315 yards and four touchdowns while adding 66 yards on the ground, including a 50-yard touchdown run.
“We’re going to have to be really sound in coverage,” Gibson said. “If you load the box, he can beat you by throwing the ball. If you drop back a bunch of guys in coverage, you have to worry about him running. There have been times where people have defended him perfectly and he just makes a play. “They spread you from sideline to sideline and get you in space, so we’re going to have to do a great job in space tackling people and being able to shut down this run game first.”
Ricky Rahne is in his sixth year as the Monarchs’ head coach and he has a 24-31 record.
Marshall has dominated the all-time series with Old Dominion, winning nine of 10 previous meetings. The Herd won in Norfolk last season, 42-35. ODU’s only win in the series came in the 2016 matchup in Huntington.
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The Sun Belt Conference announced Marshall’s October 18 game against first-time opponent Texas State will kickoff at 3:30 p.m at Joan C. Edwards Stadium. The game, which marks Marshall’s Homecoming contest, can be seen on ESPN+. This is the final season in the Sun Belt for the Bobcats before they head to the reconstituted Pac-12 Conference next year.