By Brandon Chapman | Top Tier Marshall
It’s late August in Huntington, West Virginia. The campus of
Marshall University starts to buzz again: students hauling boxes into dorms,
parents circling for parking and the start of classes bringing life back to
familiar sidewalks.
Evenings begin to feel just slightly cooler, a hint that
fall is right around the corner. Marshall green never really disappears, but
this time of year it seems to multiply—in storefront windows, on T-shirts, on
yard flags and on car decals. Conversations at lunch counters, offices and gas
stations slowly turn back toward football.
The Tri-State is on the brink of football season, its energy
gathering in small ways before kickoff ever arrives.
Once the season begins, Huntington and the Tri-State
organize themselves around the Herd. Monday rehashes the last game; by midweek,
attention has turned to the next opponent; and by Friday, plans are set. When
Saturday arrives, tailgates fill, radios carry the pregame shows, restaurants
crowd before kickoff and porches settle in for the afternoon. From Huntington
to Ashland, Ironton and the surrounding communities, Marshall’s schedule
becomes a second calendar shared across generations.
This opening weekend, that pull will extend far beyond the
Tri-State. Herd fans will arrive in State College from every corner of Herd
Nation—some traveling north from Huntington, others coming from wherever life
has carried them. By kickoff, those separate journeys will have converged in
Happy Valley, turning a road game into a reunion.
The bond between Marshall football and Huntington was formed
long before November 14, 1970, but the crash that claimed 75 lives changed it
forever. From that day forward, the program has carried their names and a
responsibility larger than any season. Football became one of the ways the
community remembered together and found its way forward. Every team since has
inherited that history, no matter how often the names inside the uniforms
change.
For me, that inheritance is tangible. I still have my
grandfather’s chairback from the 1970 season. This weekend, my daughter and I
will be among those traveling fans, flying in from South Carolina. That
chairback connects the Marshall my grandfather knew to the one I grew up with
and now to the one I am sharing with her.
Alongside that history is a growing belief that this
Marshall team is no longer starting from scratch.
One year ago, Tony Gibson opened his first season with 76
new players, only 29 returnees and just eight who had previously started a game
for Marshall. The Herd entered 2025 with the lowest returning production in
FBS. Nearly everyone was adjusting to a new system, a new locker room and one
another at the same time.
Just a year later, unfamiliarity no longer defines the
roster. Gibson has experience throughout the lineup, led by the Sun Belt’s
preseason Offensive Player of the Year and a league-high nine preseason
all-conference selections. These players are no longer projections. They have
played together, won together and endured losses together. Expectations have
risen with them, and a fan base hungry for another championship is ready to see
Marshall contend again.
At the center of that experience is Carlos Del Rio-Wilson,
who accounted for 2,704 yards and 23 touchdowns last season. Jo’Shon Barbie
returns as a veteran presence in the backfield, while Adrian Norton and Toby
Payne give the offense two proven targets. Up front, fifth-year linemen Jalen
Slappy and Tariq Montgomery provide continuity after starting every game in
which they played last fall. Defensively, Daytione Smith returns to lead the
secondary after recording 50 tackles and three interceptions. Together, they
give Gibson something he rarely possessed a year ago: a proven core around
which to build.
Now No. 18 Penn State waits—another giant to slay and
another chance to expand what this season could become. A win in Happy Valley
would not secure a championship or a playoff berth, but it would immediately
change the scale of the season and place Marshall in the national conversation.
For a storied program chasing another Sun Belt title and a place in the College
Football Playoff picture, few season openers have carried greater stakes—or
more potential to set something magical in motion.
By Saturday afternoon, Kelly green will begin appearing
throughout State College. Some will have driven north from Huntington; others
will have flown in from places they now call home. Across the Tri-State and far
beyond it, attention will narrow toward the same field.
Inside Beaver Stadium, that scattered fan base will gather
behind one team, carrying memories of what Marshall has been and belief in what
it may yet become. The opponent is formidable, but the opportunity is
unmistakable. Marshall has every reason to believe it can seize it.
The Herd will arrive in Happy Valley with something to
prove—and it will not arrive alone.
We Are... Marshall.