— By David Walsh
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — Marshall’s football season under first-year coach Tony Gibson is over.
Georgia Southern, seeking bowl eligibility just like the Thundering Herd in the regular-season finale Saturday at Joan C. Edwards Stadium, secured the needed sixth win, 24-19, and thus denied Marshall on its home turf in front of 21,524 fans.
Georgia Southern (6-6, 4-4 Sun Belt Conference) is bowl bound for the fourth consecutive year under head coach Clay Helton. Marshall’s streak of postseason play ends at nine even though it opted out of a bid it received in 2024 after winning the Sun Belt.
“We dug ourselves a hole in the first half we couldn’t get out of,” Gibson said. “We had some opportunities to make plays, but didn’t. Offensively we struggled. Made the quarterback change at halftime. I thought Zion (Zion Turner gave us a little bit of a spark. Defensively, the first half, the only way to put it was gross. We couldn’t guard him. We struggled blocking them. They were pressuring, making plays. Kudos to them.
“I thought we were great last night. I didn’t expect that. And then we start playing our football and we end up getting beat by five points. I don’t understand how you come out your last game of the year and you’re playing for something, to extend your season, and we don’t play with the effort and juice and energy we needed. So that’s on me.”
Georgia Southern, which got blown out at home last week by Old Dominion, put together one of its grittiest efforts of the season.
Eagles’ receiver Camden Brown had a record day, the offense piled up more than 500 yards and controlled the ball for more than 41 minutes, and the defense, last in the SBC in rushing yards allowed (220 per game) limited the Herd to 64.
The Eagles set the tone with a fast start. Weston Bryan, freshman quarterback, capped a 75-yard series with a 33-yard TD pass to Marcus Sanders Jr. for a 7-3 lead. Marshall had kicked a field goal on its first possession.
On its second drive, Georgia Southern covered 81 yards in 13 plays with the clincher t 14-yard TD pass from JC French IV to Brown.
Marshall trimmed the margin with a short field goal before halftime, but the Eagles responded again to start the second half when French connected with Brown for the second time on a 12-yard TD pass that pushed the lead to 21–6.
Brown had nine catches for 157 yards and two touchdowns, while Sanders Jr. added eight receptions for 135 yards. Brown broke the school record for receiving yards in a season and became the first player in school history to surpass the 1,000-yard mark in receiving yards.
Georgia Southern added a 24-yard field goal by Tripp Bryant in the third quarter to extend the lead to 18. The Eagles continued to dictate the pace behind a run game that totaled 173 yards and an offense that produced 31 first downs.
Turner replaced Carlos Del Rio-Wilson at quarterback for Marshall’s first series of the half.
“Once I got in, I wanted to perform to the best of my ability, especially for the seniors,” Turner said.
Marshall managed a late push, scoring in the third quarter on a 17-yard run by Antwan Roberts and with 2:19 remaining in the fourth on a 41-yard pass from Turner to Adrian Norton, who beat 1-on-1 coverage. The Eagles recovered the onside kick, and Bryan rumbled several times for a first down to close it out. After the TD run by Roberts, the pass for two failed.
In between Marshall’s second-half touchdowns, Georgia Southern later drove to the Marshall 11 only to see French fumble and Jamaal Whyce recover. Marshall then faced a fourth-and-10 from the Eagles’ 22, but GSU got pressure on Turner, forced him to run and he came up 1 yard short of the first down.
Georgia Southern finished with 528 total yards.
French completed 24-of-37 passes for 313 yards and two touchdowns while rushing for 51 yards. Bryan went 2-for-2 for 42 yards and a score and added 23 yards on the ground.
On defense, the Eagles held the Herd to 372 total yards. Justin Meyers led in tackles with eight and Ayden Jackson had a pick to put the Eagles in good field position. GSU also registered eight quarterback hurries and five pass breakups, consistently disrupting Marshall’s passing game.
“It was a tough one,” said Herd defensive back Boogie Trotter, who led in tackled with a career-best 14. “We kind of started a little bit slow. I gave up some plays. We were basically trying to come back. We can’t do that. We’ve just got to start out fast. We finished a little faster, but we just couldn’t get it done. Of course that was my last college game, but I still love the boys. We gave it all we had.”
Marshall honored 17 seniors before the game.
“I appreciate them believing in us, this program,” Gibson said. “Coming here not knowing. Those guys are the ones who laid the foundation for the future. It is about to happen here. There’s going to be some people that aren’t here. I said the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over again and again and expecting a different result. There’s going to be some changes made. We have to.”
Two field goals by Lorcan Quinn gave the freshman a school-record 21 for the season.