Marshall Thundering Herd College Football Preview 2021: What Will Happen, Season Prediction
Ohhhhhhh no. There is no grace period here.
There’s no rebuilding, and there’s not even any real remodeling to be done here. There are merely a few renovations and a maybe a day project, but this isn’t anything that needs to be totally overhauled despite the stunning collapse late last year.
The Doc Holliday era was terrific. He built a consistently solid run at Marshall with bowl games the norm, bowl wins also the norm, and being in the hunt for the Conference USA title on an annual basis expected.
The problem is that last part. As great as the Herd were at times, they struggled at finishing the drill no conference titles since rolling to a 13-1 run in 2014.
There were some close calls and good moments, but for all the success there just weren’t the right breaks to get over the hump.
And then came 2020. It should’ve worked.
The defense was a brick wall, the schedule was more than manageable, and everything was in place to not only win the Conference USA title, but to go undefeated doing it.
20-0 to Rice. That should’ve been nothing more than a brain-cramp, but it kept going into another dud of an offensive performance in the Conference USA title loss to UAB, which then went one step further with a maddening bowl loss to Buffalo.
So now it’s up to new head man Charles Huff to bring that extra oomph to get across the finish line.
Set The Marshall Thundering Herd Regular Season Win Total At … 8.5
The defense might not lead the nation in scoring D, but it’ll be a killer again. The offense has too many parts and too much attention to keep the late season 2020 slide going, and there’s the new energy to the program that only a first time young head coach can bring.
Oh, and the schedule is nice and breezy, too.
There aren’t any games against Power Five programs, and key Conference USA games against UAB and WKU are in Huntington.
There isn’t a game the Herd can’t and shouldn’t win, but going on the road to deal with Navy and Appalachian State will be a problem, and there should be a pesky loss or two somewhere along the way.
But this team should have everything in place to win the East again, it should get back to the Conference USA championship game, and it needs to get the winning bowl groove back.
The new guy is stepping into an already good situation. All he has to do is win right away.
[protected-iframe id=”361699434b6d70baf15f631ed2408ac1-97672683-92922408″ info=”https://www.googletagservices.com/tag/js/gpt.js” ]
– What You Need To Know: Offense | Defense
– Top Players | Keys To The Season
– Marshall Schedule Analysis