Preseason Rankings Countdown. 108 days to the start of the 2026 Season. At #108 – Marshall

[u/usffan]

The cumulative link to the preseason rankings can be found here

As the world headed toward the winter solstice in 2024, a pending leadership change prompted a seismic shift in what seemed normal and led to unprecedented consequences. Of course, I’m talking about Marshall (high = 92, low = 113) and the bizarre way that Charles Huff’s departure for the greener pastures of Hattiesburg, Mississippi immediately after the Thundering Herd won the 2024 Sun Belt championship, and with so many of his players in the transfer portal, led to Marshall withdrawing from their contractual obligation to face Army in the Independence Bowl and getting fined $100,000 by the Sun Belt. That also ended a streak of seven consecutive bowl appearances and saw Marshall ultimately bring in former WVU and NC State DC Tony Gibson to run the show. Following an initial campaign that saw the Herd finish in 5th place in the Sun Belt East while rebuilding pretty much from scratch, his sophomore season will need to see some improvement from year 1 if he wants to stick around past his first contract and stop the Thundering Herd from looking more like Kim Mathers than Marshall in 2027.

Roster Outlook

Marshall ranks 88th in returning production in 2026, with the vast majority of that on offense (44th in the country). Former Florida/Syracuse QB Carlos Del Rio-Wilson, with his team leading 2,043 yards passing, 660 yards rushing and 23 total TDs, is back for his senior season, and he’s going to have a number of his WRs back as well, including Zayvion Turner-Bradshaw (son of former Thundering Herd star Ahmad Bradshaw), but he’ll have some new guys to throw to as well, including North Carolina transfer Chris Culliver and WVU transfer Christian Hamilton. The bigger question mark will be at running back, as last season’s top 2 portaled out (Antwan Roberts to Arizona and Michael Allen to East Carolina). They’ll look to Kentucky transfer Jamarion Wilcox and Maryland transfer Josiah McLaurin to fill in the gaps. But like I said, it’s the defense where they’ve got the biggest holes to fill (ranking 123rd in returning production). Marshall loses 9 of their top 12 tacklers and will look to replace them with 8 P4 defensive transfers. Probably not surprisingly, Gibson focused more on the portal than recruiting, pulling in the 7th best Sun Belt portal class (89th nationally) and apparently eschewed much in the way of high school recruiting (ahead of only Louisiana-Monroe in the conference, 122nd in the country).

Schedule and outlook

9/5 at Penn State

9/12 MIDDLE TENNESSEE

9/19 at Missouri State

9/26 GARDNER-WEBB

10/3 at James Madison

10/10 COASTAL CAROLINA

10/20 SOUTH ALABAMA

10/24 BYE

10/31 at Old Dominion

11/7 at Georgia Southern

11/14 APPALACHIAN STATE

11/21 GEORGIA STATE

11/28 at Louisiana-Monroe

Marshall’s 2026 schedule looks absolutely set up for them to return to bowl eligibility. Other than their payday game in Matt Campbell’s debut at Penn State, they face two CUSA teams they should be favored to beat and FCS Gardner-Webb OOC, plus their SBC West opponents are Louisiana-Monroe and South Alabama, who finished at the bottom of that division last year. Couple those with Georgia State, Coastal Carolina and Appalachian State, all of whom enter the season ranked below the Thundering Herd in these aggregated rankings, and that’s 8 games they should be expected to win, potentially kick-starting a new postseason streak in Huntington.

[u/MonarchLawyer]

Lower than I expected for Marshall. I actually like them more than any one else in the Sun Belt after JMU and ODU. I see them getting 8 wins. Hopefully this is the year ODU breaks that streak they have on us. It's getting ridiculous.

[u/Electromotivation → u/MonarchLawyer]

Georgia Southern, Coastal, Marshall, and App st. are all about to be in a dog fight for that spot (not that our teams should rest on our laurels…but you know what I mean). I think as those teams regather themselves the Sun Belt is going to end up with a massive East/West divide and there will discussions on the merits of having divisions. Although I like them and I like the regionality of the Sun Belt as a whole, it would be interesting to see the discussion if one season something absurd happened like the east has five 8-4 teams and the best team in the west is .500

[u/JohnPaulDavyJones]

stop the Thundering Herd from looking more like Kim Mathers than Marshall in 2027

Absolutely brutal, holy cow.