— By Bill Cornwell
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — After a month of official team practices, the time is nearing for Marshall to showcase the 2026 version of its football team.
The Thundering Herd open the 2026 season at 3:30 p.m. Saturday at No. 18 Penn State with the game at Beaver Stadium is being shown nationally on FS1.
This is the third all-time meeting between the Nittany Lions and the Herd, and Penn State leads the series, 2-0.
This, however, will be the first between the programs since 1930.
Tony Gibson begins his second season as Marshall’s head coach after guiding the Herd to a 5-7 record in 2025. The Van native is anxious to see how his team performs against a nationally-relevant program.
“Game 1, there’s obviously a lot of unknowns, but our kids have been practicing really hard and I like this team,” Gibson said.
This is the second straight year Marshall opens the season on the road against a nationally-ranked opponent. Last season, the Herd lost at then-No. 5 Georgia, 45-7.
“I don’t want a repeat of what happened last year,” Gibson said. “We couldn’t cross the 50-yard line until the second half. We have to be creative in what we’re doing and we’re going to have to adjust to what they’re doing to us and what they’re giving us.”
There’s a sense of the unknown for Marshall in preparing for Penn State as it is the Nittany Lions’ first game with head coach Matt Campbell, who previously had successful head coaching stints at Iowa State and Toledo.
Campbell brought many players with him from Ames to State College, including experienced quarterback, Rocco Becht, the son of former West Virginia tight end and NFL veteran Anthony Becht.
“We’ve watched a ton of Iowa State tape and there’s 25 of their guys who followed coach Campbell to Penn State, especially on offense,” Gibson said. “We’ve got a good beat on what we think they’re going to do, but we’re going to have to be able to make adjustments if we see things that we didn’t prepare for.”
Marshall played in front of 93,000 fans at Georgia, and that figure will be even higher at PSU, where a crowd of approximately 107,000 is expected.
“We get to experience something that we don’t get to see every week,” Gibson said. “We get to go play in front of 107,000. It’s going to be packed and loud. A lot of our guys believe that they should be playing at Penn State’s level and they’re going to get that opportunity and it’s a chance for us to showcase what we are.”
Gibson’s confidence is echoed by Sun Belt Conference Preseason Offensive Player of the Year Carlos Del Rio-Wilson, who serves as Marshall’s quarterback.
“Personally, I don’t look at Penn State as a thing where we’re going up there to play a big powerhouse school that’s better than us,” Del Rio-Wilson said. “I look at it like another game. We’re going into practice with the effort, energy and detail to know our assignments and have no missed assignments. That’s the mindset.”