Five things every Georgia Bulldogs fan should know about the Marshall Thundering Herd ahead of UGA's season opener
The No. 4 Georgia Bulldogs play the Marshall Thundering Herd on Saturday, Aug. 30 at 3:30 p.m. ET to begin the 2025 college football season. The Georgia-Marshall game will be televised on ESPN.
The majority of fans watching the Georgia-Marshall game will be tuning in to watch Georgia, but Marshall is a very interesting team in their own right. Marshall is coming off a strong 2024 season, but lost an unprecedented amount of players this offseason. ESPN's returning production metric ranks Marshall last among the 136 Football Bowl Subdivision teams in the country.
The Thundering Herd have had so much turnover this offseason that they basically have a new football team under first year head coach Tony Gibson, who was previously the defensive coordinator at NC State.
Marshall's first test of the 2025 college football season? A road trip to play a Georgia team that has the longest home winning streak in the country at 31 games.
The good news about Marshall's 2024 season
Marshall went 10-3 last season and won the Sun Belt Conference championship game against Louisiana in dominant fashion. Marshall went 7-1 in conference play. Two of Marshall's three losses came to strong nonconference opponents in Ohio State and Virginia Tech.
Marshall's messy December, mass exodus
Marshall head coach Charles Huff, a former Alabama assistant under Nick Saban, left to take the Southern Mississippi job in Dec. 2024. The transfer portal opened and offseason chaos ensued. Fifty Marshall players left via the transfer portal including 21 that followed Huff to Southern Miss. Marshall lost so many players that they could not compete in the Independence Bowl. They return just three starters from last season.
Marshall was unwilling to pay coach Huff the sort of contract he was expecting (Marshall was paying him $755,000) and took a four-year, $950,000 contract at Southern Miss. To add to the chaos, Marshall athletic director Christian Spears did not have his contract renewed.
Marshall's recent major wins
- 2022: Marshall 26, Notre Dame 21
- 2023: Marshall 24, Virginia Tech 17
Who is Marshall's best player?
Marshall tight end Toby Payne earned all-Sun Belt Conference first-team honors. The redshirt junior has good size and returns to the Thundering Herd after hauling in 17 receptions for 168 yards and six touchdowns last season. Over one-third of his catches went for a touchdown last season.
We'll call him Marshall's best player even though offensive lineman Jalen Slappy has an excellent name and is a second-team all-Sun Belt Conference pick.
Marshall University information
Marshall was founded in 1837 and is named after Founding Father John Marshall, who was the fourth chief justice of the United States. A total of 12,318 undergraduate and graduate students are enrolled at Marshall. Marshall is located in Huntington, West Virginia, which just across the Ohio border. The Ohio River goes along Marshall's campus and downtown Huntington.
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This article originally appeared on UGA Wire: 5 things Georgia football fans should know about Marshall
Category: General Sports
