- Marshall vs. Virginia Tech: Saturday, Sept. 7, at 4:30 p.m. ET (CW) from Lane Stadium in Blacksburg, Va.
- Betting line: Virginia Tech -20.5
- Roster cards: Click here
- Game notes from HokieSports: Click here
- Blacksburg weather: Click here
- Gameday information: Click here
Virginia Tech hosts Marshall for the 2024 home opener on Saturday as the Hokies hope to put last week’s disappointing loss to Vanderbilt behind them.
The Thundering Herd are coming off a 45-3 season-opening win over Stony Brook. We don’t know a lot about the Thundering Herd because Stony Brook is so bad, going 0-10 last season and 2-9 in 2022.
Marshall head coach Charles Huff enters his fourth season in Huntington. After posting a 7-6 record in Year 1, he improved to 9-4 in Year 2, but that mark fell to 6-7 in Year 3. Last season, the Marshall defense didn’t live up to its preseason hype, while the offense struggled to consistently move the football despite having a dominant running back.
That back — Rasheen Ali — is gone to the Baltimore Ravens, and he torched the Hokies for 174 yards on 27 carries a year ago. The Thundering Herd don’t have anyone near his talent level this year. However, they did bring in two transfer portal quarterbacks, plus a new offensive coordinator in the hopes that improved quarterback play and better coaching will help compensate for the lack of a pure talent like Ali. With the Stony Brook game being hard to judge, Marshall fans will have a much better idea about their team this week.
For the Hokies, it’s about putting last week’s result behind them and playing 60 minutes of football. There should be plenty of motivation. They were embarrassed last week, they are playing their home opener and they know Marshall can beat them because the Thundering Herd did it last season.
Let’s talk about Huff’s team.
How Many Quarterbacks Will Marshall Play?
The Thundering Herd list three quarterbacks on the depth chart, with an “or” between all of them. In the end, they played all three guys against Stony Brook, though the snaps were slanted towards the two most mobile players. Doesn’t that make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside?
- Stone Earle (6-0, 211, r-Sr.): 42 snaps against Stony Brook.
- Braylon Braxton (6-1, 221, r-Jr.): 18 snaps against Stony Brook.
- Cole Pennington (6-3, 209, r-So.): 10 snaps against Stony Brook. He was the last quarterback to enter the game, thus I’d assume he’s the least likely to play against the Hokies.
Earle is a transfer from North Texas. For his career, he’s 37-of-64 (57.8%) for 416 yards (6.5 ypa) with seven touchdowns and four interceptions. He’s done his best work on the ground with 42 carries for 235 yards (5.6 ypc) and one touchdown.
Braxton is a transfer from Tulsa with more experience than Earle, but he’s still limited. He’s 121-of-224 (54%) for 1,486 yards (6.6 ypa) with 14 touchdowns and eight interceptions. On the ground, he has 108 carries for 375 yards (3.5 ypc) with six touchdowns.
The son of Marshall legend Chad Pennington, Cole got some experience last year, but he was pretty bad, throwing six interceptions and no touchdowns. Furthermore, he doesn’t appear to be very mobile. For his career, he is 68-of-117 (58.1%) for 747 yards (6.4 ypa) with one touchdown and six interceptions. He has -65 career rushing yards.
None of them have been a very effective passer — all have a career yards-per-attempt average of 6.6 yards or less. That would have ranked outside the top 80 in FBS college football in 2023.
None of those quarterbacks appear to be as good as the one Virginia Tech faced last week, and you know the old saying: “If you’ve got two quarterbacks, you’ve got none.” Well, Marshall has three, so what does that mean? The Thundering Herd have struggled at quarterback ever since Grant Wells left, with Cam Fancher throwing 17 interceptions to just 21 touchdowns and averaging just 6.8 yards per attempt in his two seasons in Huntington. I also think Huff has struggled to find the right offensive coordinator, as Marshall’s QB play has gotten worse year-by-year since he took the job in 2021.
Former Texas Tech quarterback Seth Doege is the new quarterbacks coach/offensive coordinator at Marshall after serving as Purdue’s tight ends coach last season. This is his first year as a coordinator and — believe it or not — his first time as a quarterbacks coach. He’s very young (35) and inexperienced. Things went well last week, but as noted earlier, Stony Brook is so bad that it is impossible to take anything out of that game.
This doesn’t seem to be a group that can hurt Virginia Tech through the air very much, but it’s important that Mansoor Delane tighten up after his performance against Vanderbilt last week. I think a smart gameplan for the Thundering Herd would be to play their mobile quarterbacks, run the heck out of the football and wind the clock down each play before snapping it in an attempt to shorten the game. That’s what Vanderbilt did last week, and it worked very well.
How Many Running Backs Will Marshall Play?
Marshall employs the same strategy at running back; it lists three guys on their depth chart with an “or” between all of them. All three got between 20 and 29 snaps against Stony Brook. You might recognize a couple of these names:
Ethan Payne (6-0, 211, Sr.): He’s been a backup his entire career for Marshall. He has 156 carries for 702 yards (4.5 ypc) and five touchdowns during his career. He also has 31 receptions.
Jordan Houston (5-7, 193, r-Sr.): The NC State transfer and former Hokie recruiting target has 1,430 (4.3 ypc) and six touchdowns on the ground, and he also has 60 career catches. He’s always been a decent option, but nothing special. Tech held him to 3.4 yards per carry two years ago when he was in Raleigh.
AJ Turner (6-0, 195, r-So.): Turner is originally from Hampton, Va., so the recruitniks among you probably remember him. He has 31 career carries for 239 yards (7.7 ypc) and one touchdown. However, it’s worth nothing that 119 of those 239 yards came against a very bad Stony Brook team.
We know enough about Payne and Houston to know that they aren’t great players. If there’s a gamebreaker in this group, it’s Turner. It’s hard to know exactly how the Marshall coaches view these players because all three got roughly equal playing time last week.
Marshall Receiver Options
The Thundering Herd played a whopping eight wide receivers last week, though I suspect that was because it was a blowout against an overmatched team. I wouldn’t expect the reps to be as spread out this week against the Hokies.
Here are the guys who played the most snaps (by far) against Stony Brook:
Christian Fitzpatrick (6-4, 217, r-Sr.): 26 career catches, 369 yards, 14.2 avg, 2 TDs. Fitzpatrick previously played for Louisville and Michigan State, and he’s never been very productive, with 18 catches being his career high for a season.
Bryan Robinson (6-1, 200, r-Jr.): 10 career catches, 78 yards, 7.8 avg, 0 TDs. Robinson began his career at Florida State where he didn’t catch a pass in two seasons. He has 10 career catches in 2-plus seasons at Marshall.
Elijah Metcalf (5-6, 168, r-Jr.): 87 career catches, 1,045 yards, 12.0 avg, 9 TDs. Metcalf is a former teammate of Jaylin Lane at Middle Tennessee, where they were apparently quite proficient at recruiting slot receivers. He only played in one game for Marshall last year due to injury, but he had 54 catches in 2022, including a 69-yard TD against Miami.
Metcalf is a very dangerous player, but the other two starters have done very little in their college careers despite playing multiple seasons.
Chuck Montgomery (5-10, 179, Jr.) has 60 career catches for 715 yards and four touchdowns, while Tulsa transfer Carl Chester (6-1, 201, Sr.) caught two passes a year ago. DeMarcus Harris (6-1, 178, Sr.) is a Kentucky transfer who caught 24 passes for Marshall last season.
Though there are a lot of bodies, this doesn’t appear to be a dynamic group, especially on the outside. Metcalf in the slot seems to be the best player, but can Marshall’s trio of quarterbacks, who have had limited career success throwing the football, get them the ball consistently?
The Marshall Offensive Line
Despite the blowout last week, Marshall elected to play just six offensive linemen, which shows that they don’t feel very good about their depth up front. It’s a transfer-heavy group with a couple of veterans, but also some very inexperienced guys.
LT Elijah Ellis (6-4, 336, r-Sr.): Transfer from Baylor, 133 career snaps. Over half of his career snaps came last week against Stony Brook.
LG Bryce Ramsey (6-1, 324, r-Sr.): Transfer from Southern Miss, 1,534 career snaps. He’s got a lot of experience, and Ramsey has always been a mid-level player.
C Logan Osburn (6-3, 306, r-Sr.): 2,347 snaps. Osburn is in his fourth year as a starter for the Thundering Herd. He struggled against Virginia Tech’s quickness at defensive tackle last season.
RG Jalen Slappy (6-4, 302, r-So.): 330 career snaps. After playing in a backup role last season, Slappy has taken over at the right guard position.
RT Jeremy Jones (6-4, 312, Jr.): 200 career snaps. Jones was a backup at Tulsa where he saw very limited snaps.
Shunmarkus Adams (6-3, 348, Jr.) is a transfer from Grambling who got into the game for 10 snaps at offensive guard.
This group paved the way for a good offensive performance against Stony Brook, but that’s an 0-10 FCS team. It’s impossible to know how good this group is based on that one game. On paper, the Herd are better on the interior than at tackle, but we don’t know for sure. We can only assume that the coaching staff doesn’t believe it has much depth up front because it only played six guys against an overmatched team in a blowout.
What To Expect From The Marshall Offense?
The Thundering Herd have two new quarterbacks, a couple of new running backs, some transfer offensive linemen and some transfer wide receivers. Mix that in with a brand new offensive coordinator and what do you get? A lot of unknown.
Sound familiar? Haha, yeah, it does. The good news is that none of these Marshall quarterbacks appear to be as good as Diego Pavia, and offensive coordinator Seth Doege doesn’t have anywhere near the experience of the New Mexico State staff that made the move to Vanderbilt. In fact, he’s never even been a coordinator before.
I expect the Virginia Tech defense to play better this week.
The Marshall Defense At A Glance
Defensive coordinator Jason Semore has a group that doesn’t feature a single senior in the starting lineup, and only two on the entire two-deep, though there are plenty of juniors for him to fall back on.
Here’s where the Marshall defense finished in the rankings last season:
- Rushing: No. 80*
- Passing: No. 62
- Total: No. 62
- DFEI: No. 54
- DF+: No. 83
- Available Yards: No. 51
*That No. 80 ranking makes it all the more depressing that the Hokies abandoned the run early in last year’s game.
This Marshall defense was pretty mediocre across the board last season, though in fairness, it didn’t have the help of a consistent offense. Has the unit improved? It’s too early to say because it hasn’t played anyone yet, though there’s no question the Hokies have the talent advantage in this matchup.
The Thundering Herd played a whopping 35 different players against Stony Brook. They won’t play that many against the Hokies, but this should be a pretty fresh group that rolls into Lane Stadium.
The Marshall Defensive Line
Marshall played six defensive ends and seven defensive tackles last week. I wouldn’t expect quite as big of a rotation against Tech, but it seems like defensive line coach Ralph Street feels pretty good about his depth.
- DE Jabari Ishmael (6-5, 259, r-Jr.)
- DT Jason Shuford (6-3, 323, Sr.)
- DT Chris Thomas (6-6, 327, r-Jr.)
- DE Mike Green (6-4, 241, r-Fr.)
Despite his age, Ishmael is pretty inexperienced with under 200 career snaps. Green was the best of the defensive ends last week, though he’s a very young player. At tackle, Shuford and Thomas are transfers from East Carolina and Florida, respectively.
Deeve Harris (6-2, 225, r-Sr.) and JJ Hawkins (6-2, 249, r-So.) are in the two-deep at defensive end. Harris previously played for Minnesota, Old Dominion and Colorado. He’s a guy who can be had. He’s undersize, the Hokies blocked him effectively two years ago and he played for one of the worst defenses in the country last season. Hawkins is on his third team (Ole Miss, Colorado) in as many seasons.
This looks like it will be a solid group for the Sun Belt, but again, with just one game under its belt against a bad team, there’s a lot we don’t know.
The Marshall Linebackers
The starting linebackers are brand new, and you’ve may have heard of one of them.
LB Landyn Watson (6-1, 239, r-Jr.): Virginia Tech recruited Watson as an undersized defensive end but never gave him a committable offer. He signed with TCU out of high school, then ended up at Marshall. He started his first career game last week and has played just 58 career defensive snaps.
LB Jaden Yates (6-1, 224, So.): The true sophomore made his first start last week and has only 84 career snaps under his belt.
J’Coryan Anderson (6-2, 237, r-Jr.) should also see snaps. He’s Marshall’s most experienced linebacker with 467 career snaps, but he’s never been good enough to be more than a rotational option. He had a run defense grade of 37.4 in 34 snaps against Virginia Tech last season so he is someone that the Hokies can certainly go after.
The starters at linebacker are very inexperienced, and the one backup with extensive experience seems to have limited ability. There is no reason that the Hokies shouldn’t be able to exploit Marshall’s linebackers.
The Marshall Secondary
The Thundering Herd have several cornerbacks with experience who have played pretty well for them in the past:
Josh Moten (6-1, 164, Jr.): The Texas A&M transfer is skinny, but he had a good season in 2023. Against the Hokies last year, he allowed four completions for 22 just yards, which illustrates Tech’s inability to throw the football down the field at that point in the season.
Jacobie Henderson (5-10, 191, r-So.): Henderson played pretty well as a redshirt freshman a season ago. Opponents completed only 48.3% of their passes against him. Virginia Tech targeted him once in 53 snaps and the pass fell incomplete.
Daytione Smith (6-0, 182, r-Jr.): Smith has 437 career snaps in a backup role and has generally held up well in coverage.
Marshall also boasts two returning starters at safety:
JJ Roberts (5-11, 190, r-Jr.): 1,249 career snaps. Roberts played about 600 snaps at Wake Forest before transferring to Marshall before the 2023 season. He was pretty solid last year, though he struggled somewhat against the more talented teams that he faced (Virginia Tech and NC State).
AG McGhee (5-10, 187, Jr.): McGhee took over the starting role about midway through last season. He’s got experience, but he didn’t stand out either positively or negatively.
There might be a weakness at the nickel spot. Jadarius Green-McKnight (5-11, 198, Jr.) only played 50 snaps total the last two years after struggling in 265 snaps as a true freshman in 2022. The interior of the Marshall defense — the linebackers and Green-McKnight — seems like a good place for Virginia Tech to attack.
Marshall Special Teams
Marshall’s special teams are coordinated by former Virginia Tech player and grad assistant Johnathan Galante. After leaving Tech, he spent time on Nick Saban’s staff at Alabama before heading to Huntington with Huff.
Rece Verhoff has served as Marshall’s starting kicker for the last two seasons. He was 13-of-20 as a freshman and 11-of-18 last year. He went 1-for-2 last week, and his 25-of-40 (62.5%) rate isn’t good for the modern era of college football. Punter Alec Clark and kickoff specialist Nathan Totten are a pair of redshirt freshmen who will play big roles in the kicking game.
UNC transfer Tychaun Chapman (5-8, 178, r-So.) and Ethan Payne are the kickoff returners, but they barely have experience in that role at the college level. Punt returner Elijah Metcalf had never returned punts until last week, though he seems like he would be a capable guy in that role.
Special teams should be an advantage for Virginia Tech, but as last week showed, that’s up to the Hokies to do what they are supposed to do.
Virginia Tech-Marshall Prediction Poll
Before our staff makes their picks, tell us what you think will happen Saturday.
What's Your Prediction for the 2024 Virginia Tech-Marshall game?
- Hokies Win by 11+ (50%, 687 Votes)
- Hokies Win by 1-10 (35%, 479 Votes)
- Herd Wins by 1-10 (12%, 160 Votes)
- Herd Wins by 11+ (3%, 43 Votes)
Total Voters: 1,369
Loading ...Virginia Tech-Marshall Final Thoughts
Virginia Tech played well for about 25 minutes last weekend. That was nearly enough to win the game, but not quite. Whenever this team can play 60 minutes, I think they can be good. Will that happen, and if so, how quickly? Of course, there’s another way to look at it. If a team doesn’t play 60 minutes, maybe there’s a reason for that. Maybe it’s because it’s not good.
Marshall is obviously a winnable game. It was a winnable game last year, despite the fact that it pre-dated Tech’s scheme change, which came the next week. The Hokies took a 7-0 lead early and had a lot of success on the ground, but they got away from the run too early, with Bhayshul Tuten running for 88 yards on just nine carries and Kyron Drones throwing for just 160 yards on 35 attempts.
Like last year, the strength of the Marshall defense seems to be cornerback. The linebackers are inexperienced and they seem as if they can be exploited. The defensive tackles are solid and veterans, but this is a Virginia Tech team that finished No. 23 nationally in rushing offense last season and brought everyone back. The Hokies need to establish the run in this one.
Marshall’s offense doesn’t seem as advanced as Vanderbilt’s. Their quarterbacks have never had much success in the passing game, and they don’t seem to have a running back anywhere near the level of Ali. Despite the offensive coordinator change, this group of offensive coaches doesn’t concern me like Vanderbilt’s coaching changes.
This is a game Virginia Tech should win at home.
Chris’s Prediction: Virginia Tech 34, Marshall 17
Will Stewart (Founder and GM): There are a ton of unknowns here regarding Marshall. Their game against Stony Brook doesn’t tell us anything about the Herd, so we don’t really know what the Hokies are going to be facing Saturday.
We do know some things about Virginia Tech, though: they’ve got some good talent, but the coaching is inconsistent, so we can’t really say for sure what we’re going to get when we open that box of chocolates Saturday.
I actually don’t have much of an appetite for predicting the specifics of what’s going to happen, but I will continue to take an optimistic viewpoint on the overall result. That box of Kool-Aid jammers that I had on Monday’s podcast set was an 8-pack; there’s still plenty left.
I think the Virginia Tech offense will be much better Saturday, good enough to compensate for any issues that the defense will have, and for the Hokies to cover the 20.5-point spread. Just barely.
Will’s Prediction: Virginia Tech 34, Marshall 13
David Cunningham (Managing Editor): The Hokies have an opportunity to bounce back against a beatable foe in their first home game of the year. I’m interested to see where they’re at mentally. If Benji Gosnell’s comments to the media on Tuesday were any indication, the players are in the right headspace. Does that translate to Saturday?
This is a game Virginia Tech should win. If it doesn’t, there are some real questions that need to be asked. There are a few floating around regardless, but these next two weeks against Marshall and Old Dominion are huge. There’s an obvious talent gap, but this is their Super Bowl of sorts. You have to want to win these games — especially next week in Norfolk.
It’s a pass-first offense for the Thundering Herd against what is, on paper, one of the better cornerback duos in the ACC for the Hokies. We’ll see if Mansoor Delane plays better, but this should be the first true glance we get of Dorian Strong in action this season. That’s an obvious advantage for Tech, and I expect the offense to come out with an aggressive mindset. I wouldn’t touch VT -20.5 with a 20-foot pole, though.
David’s Prediction: Virginia Tech 30, Marshall 16
Andy Bitter (Senior Staff Writer): Do I think the Hokies are better than the Thundering Herd? Yes. One week’s not going to change my opinion of the outcome of this one, even if Tech obviously left a lot to be desired in the opener against Vanderbilt. Do I like Virginia Tech by the betting line total of 20.5 like it is now? Ehh … I’m not quite that confident. I’m going to have to see a proven concept of this year’s Hokies before I get behind a three-touchdown number like that.
Marshall has a ton of turnover from last year, so it’s a tough team to peg, and I’m certainly not reading too much into last week’s Stony Brook victory, when three different quarterbacks played and threw touchdowns. That was almost like an exhibition. I do know that the Herd don’t have a running back quite like Rasheen Ali, who gave the Hokies so much trouble last year. And if Tech moves the ball like it did last year at Marshall on the ground (and keeps handing it off, unlike last season) this game probably shouldn’t be close.
There’s that word: “probably.” You have to put it in there after last week’s showing and until the Hokies can do something on the field to wipe that memory from all of our minds.
Andy’s Prediction: Virginia Tech 34, Marshall 20
Nick Brown (Director of Media): The Hokies were out coached by Charles Huff’s squad last year (shocking), and the loss ended up being the rude awakening that the Tech coaching staff needed. Despite rolling out the much-maligned offense that had been installed throughout the previous 14 games, Tech was still able to muster nearly 350 yards and a chance to tie the ball game at the end.
Once again, Tech has been “rudely awakened” with another jarring loss to Vanderbilt last week. With the mixture of last year’s loss to Marshall in Huntington, combined with the dud in Nashville last week, both players and coaches will be highly motivated heading into the weekend.
To quote head coach Brent Pry, I expect the Hokies to come out “guns blazing” in a resounding way that will help medicate the aching pain from last Saturday.
Side note: I have never seen a THREE quarterback system until this week. Crazy stuff out of Huntington, WV.
Nick’s Prediction: Virginia Tech 45, Marshall 13
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| Fan Poll | Score | ||
| Hokies Win by 11+ (73%) |  | Vanderbilt 34, Hokies 27 | |
| Hokies Win by 11+ (50%) |  | Hokies 31, Marshall 14 | |
| Hokies Win by 11+ (63%) | | Hokies 37, ODU 17 | |
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While standing in the blistering heat last Saturday wishing there was more Gatorade on tap (so I preface this with the fact I may have been just seeing things!!)
I kept saying to my husband, at they running a version of GT’s triple option?
The triple option even threw good teams for a loop. And if a team wasn’t prepared properly for it, they really struggled. I kept feeling like I was watching a team that was improperly prepared to play GT years ago????
I know just enough about football to be very dangerous in thinking I know what I’m talking about. And I’ve not had a chance to read every article this past week (most but not all) and I’ve definitely not read every message on the boards, but I’m beginning to think that if Vandy perfects this option, with also having a decent choice of a receiver or two, they really aren’t going to be a whipping boy of the SEC. Will they lose games to the power houses…most likely. But could they beat a struggling Florida (haven’t looked to see if they play them), very possible…
While VT looked horrible against them, is it possible the coaches were caught off guard by the quasi-option plan that we don’t often see in college football without a plan to combat it?? So maybe, maybe as fans (not writers, bc y’all seemed in your podcast to be able to put the past in the past kinda) we shouldn’t think that things are as horrifically, disastrous, run for the hills and throw the blankets over our heads just yet?
I think folks are still failing to give ultra-mobile Vandy QB Pavia and the Vandy coaching staff enough credit for what they accomplished last week.
Chris, true to form we will turn one of their so-so QBs into an NFL prospect. Their running back will have a career making game. VT will find a way to make Marshall’s weaknesses into strengths. I’m hoping for a win of any kind, but not real confident we can get it done.
VT 27-24.
VT 42-6
The line opened at -14 (if I recall correctly) and is up to -20.5 now. In my opinion, that’s bizarre. Some really big money has come in on Tech to move the line that much. I just want a win at this point.
If you removed the coaches from both sides, we win going away just based on talent.
But since we are coached by Pry and his weekly clown show, who knows.
Anything less than a 4 touchdown win will be further proof we are in trouble.
Get ready for another big steamy pile of proof.
💯. It is so difficult to predict our games because of its remotely close the coaches are bound to do something to screw it up.
The problem for VT is the players know that they were let down by the coaching staff – I doubt that is going to age well. I am looking forward to the response on Saturday.
This is absolutely a “show me” game. Tech lost lots of goodwill from the fan base with that performance in Nashville. I, and I’m sure many of you, bought into the offseason bluster and drank the proverbial Kool-Aid. The product on the field at Vanderbilt looked nothing like the offseason chatter, talk, and BS. We looked confused, timid, lost, and unsure of ourselves until the 2nd half. Nice comeback, but we still managed to choke away the game at the end.
This week, everyone’s saying we “should” beat Marshall, we “probably” will beat Marshall, and we’re heavily favored to beat Marshall. I’m not so sure. What I do know is these guys beat us last year and it’s been a while since we’ve beaten Marshall. Tech needs to do one thing: shut up, stop talking, and go freaking get it done. I need action and results, not word salad and presser comments.
Product on the field looked like last year’s product on the field. Still don’t know why everyone bought into the hype.
This sounds like another “rinse and repeat” from last week’s game predictions. I have decided to remove Kool-Aid from my diet and predict a Marshall win by 1-10 points. I hope that the Hokies prove me wrong.
Tech lays another egg and loses. This program is a mess. Hope I’m wrong
I’m going on what little faith I have in this team, and predict a +1 point victory over Marshall.
I’m not letting off the gas just yet. In fact, a loss versus the Herd or in Norfolk next week and the heat will be dialed up on this staff and an AD that won’t be around to make another hire. Pry and Co. continue to flame out under pressure, “sunshine soldiers”.
That said, this shouldn’t even be close. Somewhere in 42-17 range.
If we come out flat (Like @ Vandy) just send all the moving vans to the coaching staff’s homes and demand a “return” of all the NIL $$$ that the players have. Yes, I’m really PO’ed at myself for believing we will be an improved football team & program this year.
Our DL was worthless against 300lb+ OL at Vandy. Marshall has some pretty big dudes too on their OL. Can we contain a mobile QB? Will our DC “marve” it up again by not having a spy, the DLs not staying in their gaps, and not making any adjustments if Delane gets used again? On paper, the 6’4″ WR could be a problem.
If we throw a pass under 5 yards in the first 3 plays, I’m turning off the TV…..
I’m gonna say the talent of the those 300+ guys on Marshall have nowhere the talent of those 300+ guys on an SEC team, even what could be the worst team in that conference! I suspect the QB is not near as athletic as the Vandy QB playing for an OC that he played for previously. I doubt 1 WR is going to sink VT. Delane, well I have no comment on that one.
I would keep that remote in hand on Saturday.
I wasn’t getting very positive vibes out of the Marshall athletic department leading up to this season. Things improved after plastering Stony Brook last week, but even that comes with the caveat that 21 of those 45 points came in the 4th quarter when the game was decided. Huff isn’t too popular in the Marshall fanbase’s eyes right now because of his performance in conference play since taking over, but one thing he has shown he’s capable of is giving P4 schools and Notre Dame trouble. With that being said, I don’t see this one being close. VT has the revenge factor, the get-things-right-after-last-week factor, and it’s the home opener.
So CC, based on your highlighted weaknesses on this Marshal team I anticipate their QB1 having the game of his life, a new running back torch us for 150 yards, a linebacker group that shuts us down and keeps us below 100 yards rushing and a special teams unit that outgains and outscores VT. Tongue in cheek obviously but how far off could I really be?
not TIC at all. thats what happens to VT, we play down to our competition no matter how bad they are.
So, Marshall’s QB will be on Heisman Watch after this game? LOL
“I expect the Virginia Tech defense to play better this week.” Quote to watch. 🤞AND 🙏