Herd Survives Would-Be Disaster

Well, Homecoming wasn’t supposed to look like this.

Gardner-Webb came into Huntington sitting at 1–3, with three incredibly close losses—including a one-point loss to Liberty.

Despite the chaos surrounding their program, the Runnin’ Bulldogs have continued to fight, and tonight was no different.

They came into The Joan and nearly walked out with one of the biggest upsets in recent Marshall history.

Instead, Marshall survived.

And I use the word survived very intentionally.

Herd fans collectively are not happy. I’m not happy.

And honestly, I don’t know how anyone could be happy with the type of performance Marshall put on Saturday.

The Herd won 36–35, but it took a missed field goal and a last-minute drive to get there.

Here is how Trace and I saw things this week on Herd’s Headset.

QUARTERBACK

Trace: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Headset: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Statistically speaking, this was Carlos Del Rio-Wilson’s best game in the Kelly green and white.

And yet, watching it live, it was incredibly difficult to evaluate it that way.

Carlos finished 26-of-38 for 413 yards and three touchdowns through the air, while adding 48 yards rushing.

Those numbers are fantastic.

But the eye test told a different story.

There were multiple underthrown and overthrown passes throughout the evening. There was another ugly interception. There were drives that stalled in the red zone. And Carlos once again led the team in rushing attempts, which is something every Herd fan has to be wondering: When is this going to stop?

There were certainly some great plays. But there were also some baffling ones.

That’s what makes this such a strange performance.

On paper, it looks fantastic.

Watching it live?

It didn’t feel that way.

COLE PENNINGTON

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This is a special occasion.

Former Marshall quarterback and son of Herd legend Chad Pennington, Cole Pennington came back to Huntington and put together a performance worthy of mentioning.

And honestly?

The young man looked fearless.

Pennington finished 22-of-33 for 298 yards, four touchdowns and zero interceptions.

It was a performance that was reminiscent of his father’s days at Marshall.

He came into The Joan looking to make a statement.

He did exactly that.

We don’t normally give ratings to opposing quarterbacks, but this was a special circumstance.

Fantastic performance.

And one that, for long stretches, nearly embarrassed the Herd.

OFFENSE

Trace: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Headset: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Marshall put up 36 points.

If you had asked me before the game if Marshall would score 36 against Gardner-Webb, I would have told you the Herd probably wins by two or three touchdowns.

That obviously didn’t happen.

Still, as a unit, the offense played pretty well.

Gardner-Webb didn’t have much of an answer for what Marshall was doing offensively. The Herd finished with 569 total yards, including 413 through the air.

We already talked about Carlos, but Xayvion Turner-Bradshaw once again showed why he is far and away the most dangerous weapon Marshall has on the offensive side of the ball.

Seven catches.

131 yards.

Two touchdowns.

The guy is phenomenal.

Joshon Barbie had a solid day as well, scoring both through the air and on the ground.

TJ Lester also made some important plays in the running game.

And then there’s Khalil Wilkins.

He had limited snaps, but every time he was on the field, something happened.

They put him in the slot. They used him as a runner. They gave him opportunities to catch the ball. He was even an option to throw.

And as always, when Khalil Wilkins is on the field, he looks like the fastest man out there.

I really like what I’m seeing from him, and I can’t wait to see what he continues to show in the future.

But the offensive line?

Shaky.

Pass protection collapsed multiple times, and penalties continued to create problems for the Herd.

So yes, the offense looked good.

But not spectacular.

And let’s remember who we were playing.

This was an FCS opponent.

At times, Marshall made Gardner-Webb look a whole lot better than they actually are.

DEFENSE

Trace: ⭐️

Headset: 0 ⭐️’s

Awful.

Terrible.

Abysmal.

There are not enough negative adjectives I could use to describe what I saw Saturday night.

A week ago, we were talking about some slight improvement defensively.

Throw that out the window.

This was the second-worst defensive performance of the season, behind only Penn State.

An FCS team came into Huntington and absolutely shredded the Marshall secondary.

They threw the ball.

They ran the ball.

They did basically whatever they wanted.

Gardner-Webb finished with 458 total yards, including 298 through the air and 160 on the ground.

There are very few positives that can be taken from that performance.

It was one of the poorest defensive performances I’ve seen from Marshall in a long time.

And it simply wasn’t worthy of being called Marshall football.

The Herd needed a miracle missed field goal from Gardner-Webb and then had to put together a 70-plus-yard drive in the final minutes to steal this game.

The defense did absolutely nothing of note to help win this football game.

Some might consider that judgment harsh.

Maybe it is.

But coming out of this game having complete confidence in this defense would be foolish.

The facts are the facts.

SPECIAL TEAMS

Trace: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Headset: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Once again, the special teams unit was spectacular.

Cooper Hembach continued to do his thing punting.

Three punts.

127 total yards.

42.3-yard average.

49-yard long.

One inside the 20.

It truly is like watching an artist paint when you watch that man kick a football.

But the hero of the game was Jorge Diaz Nicolas.

He went 3-for-4 on field goal attempts, including a 54-yarder, which tied for the fourth-longest field goal in Marshall history.

And then, when everything was on the line, he calmly knocked through the 32-yard game-winner with three seconds remaining.

He was also perfect on extra points.

Between these two guys, we might be watching one of the best kicker/punter duos Marshall has ever had.

Truly amazing.

COACHING

Trace: ⭐️⭐️

Headset: ⭐️⭐️

We won.

But my goodness…

What happened this week in practice?

The defense looked worse.

The offense continued to struggle in the red zone.

And because of a lack of adjustments, the coaching staff nearly lost this football game.

But they didn’t.

They found a way to win.

There are plenty of people calling for Tony Gibson’s staff to be fired.

I’m not going to do that as long as the coach is winning games.

I am hopeful we see better days ahead from this coaching staff.

But I’m also not necessarily expecting it.

Tonight, they were just good enough to win.

And sometimes that’s all that matters.

ATMOSPHERE

Trace: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Headset: ⭐️⭐️

We’ve got some issues here.

The stripe-the-stadium gimmick needs to die.

Unless there’s a big program coming into Huntington that makes it worthwhile, I just don’t see the point.

The crowd didn’t show up in the numbers I was hoping for, and because of that, the stripe-the-stadium look just wasn’t good.

Honestly?

It was kind of sad.

The fans seemed out of it from the beginning.

And I understand why.

There wasn’t much to get excited about.

The play on the field was poor.

The crowd couldn’t get going.

And then you add the pitiful-looking stripe-the-stadium effect on top of it, and it just wasn’t a great look at The Joan.

Then, as Marshall was driving down the field late in the fourth quarter, fans were leaving.

That’s disheartening.

We as fans could do better.

And we should do better.

OVERALL RATING

⭐️⭐️

Marshall won.

But there is a massive difference between winning and playing winning football.

The Herd did enough to survive.

They did not do enough to inspire confidence.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Marshall survives.

That’s what matters tonight.

But now the Herd turns its attention to the biggest challenge of the season.

James Madison.

The Battle for the Gavel.

Billy Napier has James Madison playing fantastic football.

Marshall?

Marshall has not played even good football consistently up to this point in the season.

If the Herd stands a chance next weekend, this coaching staff is going to have to put together an immaculate week of practice.

The defense has to improve.

The red-zone offense has to improve.

The offensive line has to improve.

The coaching has to improve.

But here’s the thing about Marshall.

You never know.

This program has surprised the nation before.

It has pulled off the games nobody thought it could win.

And maybe…

Just maybe…

It can do it again.

Marshall survives.

Now let’s see if the Herd can shock the country next weekend.

Go Herd.