— By Bill Cornwell
Marshall football coach Tony Gibson will be at the Marriott Warehouse Arts District Wednesday when the Sun Belt Conference Football Media Days get underway in New Orleans.
Gibson is to be joined by a pair of preseason first-team All-Sun Belt honorees in quarterback Carlos Del Rio-Wilson and defensive back Daytione Smith.
Del Rio-Wilson was also honored Monday as the Conference Preseason Offensive Player of the Year.
Marshall and the other Sun Belt East Division schools will appear before the assembled media Wednesday, while the seven West Division teams will be featured on Thursday.
Sun Belt Commissioner Keith Gill is also scheduled to deliver his state of the conference address to start the event Wednesday at 11 a.m. (EST).
Marshall football will be in the spotlight 3:30 p.m. Wednesday when Gibson, Del Rio-Wilson and Smith take questions from the media.
2026 SUN BELT MEDIA DAYS SCHEDULE
In 2025, Sun Belt member James Madison became the league’s first team to earn a berth into the College Football Playoff after having six teams in the CFP Selection Day Rankings over the past seven seasons.
The Sun Belt also led all non-autonomy conferences in in bowl representatives for a fourth straight year.
For the eighth consecutive season, the Sun Belt boasted multiple 10-win teams in league James Madison and Old Dominion.
The Sun Belt continues to lead all non-autonomy conferences with a .548 bowl winning percentage during the College Football Playoff era, trailing only the Big Ten and SEC.
Three new head coaches are set to represent the conference this season in Ryan Beard of Coastal Carolina, Billy Napier of James Madison and Blake Anderson of Southern Miss.
In addition, Louisiana Tech has joined the Sun Belt this season as Texas State’s replacement.
In the Sun Belt’s Preseason Poll released Monday, Marshall was picked third in the East Division behind James Madison and Old Dominion. Troy was selected to win the West Division.
Marshall had a league-high nine players picked on the Preseason All-Conference teams, including six first-team picks (Del Rio-Wilson, Smith, tight end Toby Payne, wide receiver Adrian Norton and offensive linemen Jalen Slappy and Tariq Montgomery). Marshall’s second-team picks are linebacker Javae Gilmore, defensive end Braydin Ward and wide receiver/kick returner Xayvion Turner-Bradshaw.
All Sun Belt Football Media Days activities will be shown on ESPN+, with both live feeds from the podium and from a studio set featuring hosts Matt Stewart and Rocky Boiman.
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One of West Virginia’s top young golfers has announced he will play collegiately at Marshall.
Hurricane’s Carson O’Dell, low medalist at the 2025 WVSSAC State Golf Championships in Wheeling, is set to join the Herd this fall for the upcoming season.
O’Dell was also a standout basketball player for the Redskins and is the program’s all-time leading scorer.
The son of former MU golfer and Herd Hall of Famer Sam O’Dell, Carson plans to major in biology and hopes to eventually follow in his father’s footsteps as a dentist.