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Athlon Sports
Marshall Football: 2024 Thundering Herd Season Preview and Prediction
By Athlon Sports,
18 days ago
This season marks a clear-cut make-or-break year for Marshall head coach Charles Huff. Even with three postseason trips under his belt, fans and administrators want to see a league title contender. Not that it was ever easy, but it’s going to be tough to deliver those results in a Sun Belt Conference that seems to get more and more competitive every year.
New offensive coordinator Seth Doege takes over a group that struggled to score points in the back half of the 2023 season. After starting last year’s campaign at 4-0, the Thundering Herd won just two of their final nine games and failed to score in double digits in four of their seven losses. That included a three-game stretch of losses in which they were outscored 85-24. Marshall was also the worst team in the Sun Belt in third-down conversions at 31.3 percent.
Their offensive output will, hopefully, be helped along by more fresh faces at key positions in Doege’s offense.
The quarterback competition is especially intriguing. Cole Pennington, son of Marshall legend Chad Pennington, is a player with high expectations thrust upon him, but it remains to be seen if the redshirt freshman is ready. The Herd also have former Morehead State signal-caller Colin Parachek and Tulsa transfer Braylon Braxton in the mix.
Like the offense, many of the key pieces on defense will be different for the Herd this season, thanks to both graduation and the transfer portal. Redshirt sophomore Michael Green will lead a defensive front that was actually very good on third downs, leading the Sun Belt by allowing opponents to convert only 32.4 percent of the time. Marshall also had the best red zone defense in the league last season, allowing touchdowns on 23-of-50 trips.
Safety J.J. Roberts will be a name to watch after 73 total tackles last season, one of the highest returning tackle counts in the Sun Belt. The rest of the secondary will be fairly inexperienced, making living up to the body of work from the last few seasons all the more difficult for defensive coordinator Jason Semore.
Alec Clark will likely take over the punting duties for the Thundering Herd this season. He had seven punts last season, averaging 40.3 yards per kick. Placekicker Rece Verhoff returns after a season in which he made 11-of-18 field-goal attempts. The return team will have the difficult task of finding a replacement for Jayden Harrison, who had two return touchdowns last season before transferring to Notre Dame.
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